Ali Rezaei (Dr. rer. nat.)

Professional Summary

Experienced in high-performance classical simulation of quantum computing and TCAD-based nanoelectronic device modelling, with a strong track record of developing, maintaining, and optimizing scalable simulation software across quantum, semiconductor, and superconducting domains – from quantum circuit emulators to NEGF-based solvers for nanoscale transistors.

Education

• University of Urmia, Urmia, Iran
  B.Sc. in Solid State Physics — Sep 2007 – Aug 2011
• Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences (IASBS), Zanjan, Iran
  M.Sc. in Condensed Matter Physics — Sep 2012 – Apr 2015
  Thesis: Thermoelectric properties of 3D topological insulators: effects of the gap and hexagonal warping
  Many-body Theory Group (supervised by Dr. Saeed H. Abedinpour & Dr. Jahan Abouie)
• University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany
  Ph.D. (Dr. rer. nat.) in Condensed Matter Physics — Jan 2016 – Dec 2019
  Thesis: Non-equilibrium and spin transport in hybrids of superconductors and magnets (magna cum laude)
  Quantum Transport Group (supervised by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Belzig)

Skills

• Programming Languages: C, C++, Python, Fortran, Bash
• HPC & Quantum Toolchains: MPI, OpenMP, CUDA, SIMD intrinsics, Slurm, QuEST (co-dev.), QuESTlink, cuQuantum, Qiskit, Pennylane
• Performance & Profiling: Intel VTune, Memory Latency Checker, PCM, Valgrind, Linux perf, likwid
• DevOps & Build: Git (+CI/CD), CMake, Make, Catch2/CTest, Spack, Conda, Docker, Kubernetes
• Development Environments & Editors: VS Code, Vim, gdb
• Scientific Tools: MATLAB, GNU Octave, Wolfram Mathematica, Gnuplot, JupyterLab, ParaView
• EDA / TCAD: NESS (co-dev.), Synopsys Sentaurus, Silvaco Atlas, QuantumATK/QTX, OMEN/NEMO
• Project Management: Agile/Waterfall, Gantt, Scrum/Kanban, WBS, stakeholder management, budgeting, RACI, and critical path.
• Personal: Quick learner, strong communicator, collaborative, problem-solver, detail-oriented, adaptable

Experience

• Research Associate, University of Edinburgh, UK — Feb 2024 – Present
  ICSA, EPCC & RoaRQ – Quantum Computing HPC (QuEST, C)
  • Co-developing QuEST v4 with a focus on optimisation prototyping and debunking performance bottlenecks through optimised algorithms that achieve several-fold speed-ups. Code available here; upstream merge pending completion of integration testing.
  • Low-level tuning: redesigned state-vector data layout, intrinsic SIMD (SSE2/AVX2/AVX-512) kernels, cache blocking, FMA, loop unrolling, and software prefetching.
  • NUMA-aware execution: locality-sensitive task scheduler, thread pinning, and novel memory placement strategy that nearly eliminates remote-access penalties and improves effective bandwidth.
  • Micro-architectural profiling: located hotspots and memory-bandwidth limits with Intel VTune, Memory Latency Checker, Intel PCM, and Linux perf; insights fed back into the kernel design.
  • Under implementation: advanced memory tiering with fast NVMe SSD + CXL. MPI optimization and accelerator orchestration across multi-GPU (and FPGA) back-ends for scalable simulation on heterogeneous (CPU-GPU) clusters. Compression, and Circuit-knitting techniques to push classical simulations.
• Research Associate, University of Glasgow, UK — Aug 2020 – Dec 2023
  Device Modelling Group – TCAD Software Developer (NESS, C++)
  • Co-developed, optimized, and extended a Non-Equilibrium Green’s Function (NEGF) quantum transport solver for both effective-mass and k·p Hamiltonians.
  • Developed high-performance numerical solvers for coupled PDE systems, including Poisson–Schrödinger and quantum transport equations, using finite-difference and finite-volume methods; implemented workflows for quantum tunnelling, statistical variability, and first-principles effective-mass extraction; integrated ML-accelerated NEGF for device-scale simulation of Josephson junctions and silicon spin qubits.
  • Designed next-generation Si and III–V devices including 3 nm GAA NSFETs, FinFET/planar MOSFETs, and resonant-tunnelling diodes for PUFs with Synopsys Sentaurus (SDEVICE), QuantumATK/QTX, Silvaco Atlas, and OMEN/NEMO – validating performance against industry roadmaps.
  • Led CI/CD and HPC-scaling initiatives: migrated codebase to Git, containerized workflows, implemented unit testing, and tuned hybrid MPI + OpenMP parallelism.
  • Produced comprehensive documentation, tutorials and demos. Provided technical software support to academic and industrial partners, and onboarded/mentored junior developers.
• Ph.D. Researcher, University of Konstanz, Germany — Jan 2016 – Dec 2019
  • Analytical & numerical investigation of quantum transport properties (non-equilibrium and spin) in superconductor–ferromagnet (and –antiferromagnet) proximity-coupled heterostructures.
  • Developed numerical packages utilizing the Eilenberger/Usadel quasiclassical Green’s function methods and (Nazarov's) quantum circuit theory – involved solving integro-differential and elliptic PDEs under self-consistent boundary conditions to capture mesoscopic transport behavior.
  • Studied multiple phenomena in superconducting hybrids, including:
  • Generation, control, and detection of equal-spin triplet Cooper pairs in a spin-valve (S/FM) setup.
  • Spin-flip–enhanced thermoelectricity in S/FM devices.
  • Induced spin-splitting in S/AFM hybrids.
  • TA:
  • Quantum Field Theory of Nonequilibrium States (SS 2019)
  • Advanced Quantum Theory & Electrodynamics (WS 2017/18)
  • Advanced Condensed Matter Physics (WS 2016/17)

Research Interests

Quantum Computing & Algorithms, Quantum Simulation, Nano-/Quantum Device Modelling, TCAD Engineering, Quantum Transport, High-Performance Computing, ML for Physical Modelling, Condensed-Matter Theory

Awards & Honors

• Certificate of training in the IRTG Nano (SFB 767), University of Konstanz (Dec 2019)
• Best Scientific Poster Prize, 697th WE-Heraeus-Seminar “Superconductivity in Low-Dimensional and Interacting Systems”, Bad Honnef, Germany (Jun 2019)
• Ranked 120/30,000+ (top 0.4%) in M.Sc. National Entrance Exam (Condensed Matter Physics), Iran (Sep 2012)

Certifications

• Google Project Management: Professional Certificate — Google
• Proficiency in the basics of PennyLane — pennylane.ai
• Amazon Braket Quantum Application Development — aws Skill Builder
• IBM Qunatum (Qiskit)
  • Variational Algorithm Design
  • Quantum Algorithms
  • Quantum Information
• Advanced Data Science with IBM Specialization
  • Fundamentals of Scalable Data Science
  • Advanced Machine Learning and Signal Processing
  • Applied AI with Deep Learning
• IBM Data Science Professional Certificate — Data Science Orientation
• Machine Learning — Stanford University
• SQL for Data Science — UC Davis
• Object-Oriented Data Structures in C++ — University of Illinois
• Workshop on Scientific Presenting for Physicists (University of Konstanz)

References

Available upon request.