Dominik Janzing studied physics and mathematics in Tübingen (Germany) and Cork (Ireland). His main interests were the foundations of quantum theory and thermodynamics. In 1998, he completed his Ph.D. thesis under the supervision of Manfred Wolff on the relation between quantum and classical dynamics in infinite quantum spin chains. When he joined the quantum computing group of Thomas Beth in the Faculty of Computer Science at the Universität Karlsruhe he did not expect that he would ever write a paper on complexity classes since his goal was “only” to understand the limits of quantum control. But while he was biking in the forests around Karlsruhe he realized that Pawel's and his results on the complexity of certain quantum measurements allow us to define a PromiseBQP-complete problem. When he was visiting Pawel at Caltech, the California sun gave both of them the strength to improve this idea.

Dominik enjoys hiking, especially when his girlfriend Steffi joins him. He also likes fancy furniture.

Pawel Wocjan obtained his Ph.D. in CS from the University of Karlsruhe in 2003 under the supervision of Thomas Beth. In his Ph.D. thesis, entitled “Computational Power of Hamiltonians in Quantum Computing”, he focused mainly on problems in quantum control theory such as designing efficient decoupling, time-inversion schemes, and Hamiltonian simulation schemes. As a postdoctoral scholar in CS at the Institute for Quantum Information at the California Institute of Technology from August 2004 till August 2006, he became more and more interested in classical and quantum complexity theory and the design of efficient quantum algorithms. He joined the School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Central Florida as an Assistant Professor in August 2006, where he continues his work on the computer-science challenges in quantum information science.

He enjoys discussions with Dominik (not only about work!), spending time with his wife Ania, traveling to Europe to see his family and his friends, and many other things which make life so great.