IIITH Prof. Uttam Singh’s expedition into quantum thermodynamics, energy landscapes and mountain trails Gen next researcher Dr. Uttam Singh, an Assistant Professor at IIITH’s Center for Quantum Science and Technology (CQST) gives us BTS insights into tough life challenges and mountains climbed, that guided the man of Physics into quantum thermodynamics and the study of the structural, computational and energetic cost of quantum mechanics. “I’m not your regular computer science person. I have a strong background in mathematics and physics but my current lifework is in quantum information theory and quantum computation now”, laughs Dr. Uttam Singh who believes that grueling challenges cast his way, moulded his career path and life philosophy. He followed up an interesting Ph.D tenure in Theoretical Physics from Harish-Chandra Research Institute, with two postdoctoral fellowship stints at Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, and the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, that informed his current research interests at IIITH’s CQST.

How I stumbled into the field  “Before my Masters I had no clue about what I wanted to do”, reminisces Uttam. His M.Sc. in theoretical physics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi (JNU) would be the game changer for the scholar. “I had wonderful faculty and one particular course on quantum mechanics that opened out the esoteric joys of research for me”.  It was an HRI conference poster in JNU on putting quantum to work, that piqued his curiosity because “physics and quantum mechanics was an abstract theory till then and this held out the promise of useful applications, which a student like me could not see”. His Ph.D at Harish-Chandra Research Institute (HRI) showed him that physics can be very intuitive. The small campus of roughly sixty faculty and students then, was buzzing with erudite discussion across fields; string theory, high-energy and condensed matter physics and a lot of cross-pollination of ideas. An exciting continental drift “My best student life was definitely at my post-doc tenure at Belgium and Warsaw, working with Nicolas Cerf and Jarek Korbicz”, muses Uttam. Between 2017 and 2021, he worked on a ULB Individual Fellowship with Nicolas Cerf from Information and Communication (QuIC), Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium “looking into the complexity theoretic aspect, because of the disruption around quantum computation and the scope it had to break algorithms safeguarding bank security and the internet. I had the opportunity to travel and meet with experts in their fields. It was a great ecosystem because they gave me the liberty to explore quantum computation foundations the way I liked it”, he adds. He moved to Warsaw during the pandemic, on a second postdoc fellowship to the Polish Academy of Sciences (2021-23), where he worked with Jarek Korbicz at the Center for Theoretical Physics.

One unique research experience that stands out for Uttam, was a quantum information conference in Spain.  This was an event where participants were not required to come up with a presentation. “When we reached the conference, you chose the cohort of your interest and spent the entire duration of seven days, locked in discussions with the chosen group.   The group that I liked, was interested in mountaineering.  We scaled the Pyrenees range on the border of France and Spain, discussed along the way and wrapped up the unusual week by converting research ideas into tangible manuscripts.  This was a great experience in the sense that, for the first time we felt that the conference was about what you wanted to do. You felt liberated and at peace and did not have to sit through lengthy talks”, grins the researcher who has twenty-three published papers to his name. Homeward bound and IIITH campus life It was his ULB colleague Dr. Siddhartha Das’s encouragement that brought the researcher to join IIIT Hyderabad in January 2023.  The Institute was building a new quantum center and required researchers with a physics background, to work in computer science. “My role here is the application of complex theoretical aspects of quantum thermodynamics, quantum physics and quantum computation to physics-oriented problems”, explains Uttam who continues to collaborate with his postdoc supervisor in Brussels. “Our CQST team is working on a MeitY-funded project, employing our expertise in algorithms and complexity theory, to talk about guarantees in quantum machine learning and its energetic cost.” “The best thing I like about CQST is the friendly and helpful ecosystem where we back each other up and work together. It still doesn’t feel like I have transitioned from being a student to a faculty here because life on campus is so simple. The switch was smooth, thanks to helpful inputs from colleagues at CQST and Prof. Raman Saxena.  This is my first time in Hyderabad and I love it here. The weather is neither too hot or cold, it is a green and clean campus, and there is a welcoming city outside the campus, where I get to enjoy a game of tennis or badminton”. “In the future, I would like to work on energy-efficient quantum technologies” observes Uttam who teaches courses on CV Quantum Information Theory, Probability, Statistics, Linear Algebra, and Real Analysis at the Institute. Currently working on unifying information, thermodynamics, and computation within quantum theory, his study focuses on three interconnected areas – the energetic cost of quantum computation and its potential for sustainable quantum technologies; developing a computational theory of quantum thermodynamics, where tasks like work extraction and entropy production are analyzed in terms of their efficient (polynomial-time) computability; and uncovering a symmetry-based explanation of thermalization in closed quantum systems, potentially leading to verifiable criteria for thermalization. You grow through what you go through “I grew up in the small village of Barauna near Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh where every parent aspired for their child to either become a IIT graduate or an IAS officer”, recounts the researcher who studied till Class 12 in the local village school.  Coming from humble beginnings, with his father running a small family business of grinding flour, Uttam worked fulltime in the mill and in the spare time, he would study. “My sole motivation was not my interest in books but to escape the intense back-breaking work at the grinding mill. Since electricity supply was erratic and restricted to 8 hours daily, I sometimes would work from 2am to 8am in the mill and then sleep through the day and miss school. But I was determined to improve myself. In my board exams, I was one of the few in my village to score high marks” says Uttam who credits the appreciation received from family and his community, that made him believe that he could achieve anything that he set his sights on. His father had promised to fund his IIT-JEE preparation, with the rider that he would go back to work with him, if he didn’t make it. “At that time, given our resources and exposure, it was really tough for people from villages to make the grade for IIT-JEE. I calculated that if I failed, I might be done for life!” It was a conscious decision for Uttam to join the B.Sc. Program (2005-08) at Chhatrapati Shahu Ji Maharaj University, since his uncle worked and lived in Kanpur. “While I was not interested in science, it was cheaper. After under graduation, I joined JNU for my M.Sc. since it was the only place with a merit scholarship that covered food and rent”. In JNU, he would meet a student from the Northeast “who was supporting himself and sending money back home. He washed and wore one t-shirt for the entire two years”. That was the point when Uttam realized that there are students in much worse condition and that he should be happy with his lot. He became conscious of the fact that he should work harder without complaints, and support his father who was still working very hard. “But just when I got my first good break, my father passed away suddenly from a workplace accident.  That was very disheartening”, he rues. Making that quantum leap to embrace life “Music, books and television never featured in my growing years since I was too busy juggling life”, philosophizes the scholar who has more than made up for it in later academic life. “I am happy that I got the opportunity to indulge my passion in low-level mountaineering in Europe and to be in Nature and feel the peace. I started listening to English music during my Masters’ because it seemed like the cool thing to do; but mostly to be able to participate in conversations”, grins the researcher who today enjoys opera, pop music and artistes like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

“The only books I had read were science books”, notes Uttam who had decided multiple times to read “War and Peace” and “Mein Kampf” but could not do it. Now he plans to tick this activity off his wish list with “Das Kapital”, recommended by Prof. Shantanav Chakra

December 2025