Experience

Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA)

Director, 2024-Present

Directs a large research portfolio in artificial intelligence, quantum information science, biometrics, image, text, and video recognition and processing, and related technologies to give the US Intelligence Community an overwhelming information advantage.

Quantum Systems Accelerator (QSA)

Director, 2022-2024

Deputy Director, 2020-2022

Led the Quantum Systems Accelerator, one of five DOE National Quantum Initiative Science Research Centers, to catalyze national leadership in quantum information science to co-design the algorithms, quantum devices, and engineering solutions needed to deliver certified quantum advantage in Department of Energy scientific applications.

Sandia National Laboratories

Senior Manager, Quantum and Advanced Microsystems Group, 2019-2024

Program Manager, Quantum Information Sciences, 2018

Manager, Computational Materials Science, 2017-2018

Led the Quantum Information Science program at Sandia to develop quantum technologies, testbeds, and centers for national security.

National Strategic Computing Initiative

Senior Staff, Joint Program Office, 2016-2017

Led the NSCI Joint Program Office and coordinated USG work with DOD, DOE, NSF, OSTP, OMB, NIST, IARPA. Led workshops exploring impact of foreign HPC on national and economic security, and initiated programs developing novel hardware and software paradigms for heterogeneous computing.

Sandia National Laboratories

Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff, 2016-2017

Principal Member of the Technical Staff, 2007-2015

Senior Member of the Technical Staff, 2003-2007

Deputy director of Sandia Science and Engineering of Quantum Information Sciences Research Challenge. Deputy Project Lead and Modeling Lead, Quantum Information Science and Technology, developing silicon donor and dot qubits. PI for development of QCAD simulation tool for nano- and quantum electronic devices.

California Institute of Technology

Director, Quantum Simulations Technology, 1997-2003

Directed the Quantum Simulations Technology group at the Caltech Materials and Process Simulation Center, focusing on developing new methods for quantum simulations and multiscale modeling.

University of Southern California

Postdoctoral Research Associate, 1994-1997

Postdoctoral research on computational modeling of enzyme catalysis with Nobel Laureate Prof. Arieh Warshel

Education

California Institute of Technology

PhD, Chemistry, 1994 Thesis: Development and implementation of ab initio methods for application to large molecules.

Rice University

BA, cum Laude, Chemistry, 1988

Oriel College, University of Oxford

Visiting Scholar, Chemistry, 1984-1985

Selected Publications

74 total publications; h-index 34.

Quantum Information Science

• Impact of Incorporation Kinetics on Device Fabrication with Atomic Precision. Jeffrey A. Ivie, Quinn Campbell, Justin C. Koepke, Mitchell I. Brickson, Peter A. Schultz, Richard P. Muller, Andrew M. Mounce, Daniel R. Ward, Malcom S. Carroll, Ezra Bussmann, Andrew D. Baczewski, Shashank Misra. Phys. Rev. Applied 16, 054037 (2021). arXiv:2105.12074
• Advanced Electronic Structure Calculations for Nanoelectronics. John K. Gamble, Erik Nielsen, Andrew Baczewski, Jonathan E. Moussa, Xujiao Gao, Andrew G. Salinger, and Richard P. Muller. Springer Series in Materials Science series Computational Materials, Chemistry, and Biochemistry: From Bold Initiatives to the Last Mile (2020).
• The Promise of Quantum Simulation. Richard P. Muller and Robin Blume-Kohout. ACS Nano 9, 7738 (2015). arXiv:1507.06035
• ASCR Report on Quantum Computing for Science (2015). Alan Aspuru-Guzik, Wim van Dam, Edward Farhi, Frank Gaitan, Travis Humble, Stephen Jordan, Andrew Landahl, Peter Love, Robert Lucas, Richard Muller, John Preskill, Krysta Svore, Nathan Wiebe, and Carl Williams. .
• QCAD Simulation and Optimization of Semiconductor Quantum Dots. X. Gao, E. Nielsen, R. P. Muller, R. W. Young, A. G. Salinger, N. C. Bishop, M. Lilly, M. S. Carroll. Journal of Applied Physics, 114, 164302 (2013). arXiv:1403.7561
• Coherent Electron Transport by Adiabatic Passage in an Imperfect Donor Chain. Rajib Rahman, Richard P. Muller, James E. Levy, Malcolm S. Carroll, Gerhard Klimeck, Andrew D. Greentree, Lloyd C. L. Hollenberg. Physical Review B, 82, 155315 (2010). arXiv:1008.1494

Computing and Theory

• SymPy: Symbolic Computing in Python. Aaron Meurer et al.. PeerJ Computer Science 3:e103 (2017}. arXiv:1502.05589
• U.S. Leadership in High Performance Computing. Richard P. Muller and David Mountain. A Report from the NSA-DOE Technical Meeting on High Performance Computing.
• Optimized Effective Potential from a Correlated Wave Function: OEP-GVB. Richard P. Muller and Michael P. Desjarlais. Journal of Chemical Physics. 125, 54101 (2006).
• Computing Approximate Eigenpairs of Symmetric Block Tridiagonal Matrices. Wilfried Gansterer, Robert C. Ward, Richard P. Muller and William A. Goddard, III. SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing, 25, 65 (2003).
• Ab Initio Calculations of Free Energy Barriers for Chemical Reactions in Solution. Richard P. Muller and Arieh Warshel. Journal of Physical Chemistry, 99 (49), 17516 (1995).

Materials, Chemistry, Energy

• Influence of overcharge and over-discharge on the impedance response of LiCoO2|C batteries. Salim Erol, Mark E. Orazem and Richard P. Muller. Journal of Power Sources, 270, 92 (2014).
• Simulation of Abuse Behavior of Lithium-Ion Batteries. Robert Spotnitz and Richard P. Muller. The Electrochemical Society Interface, 21, 54 (2012).
• Meccano on the Nanoscale: A Blueprint for Making the World's Smallest Devices. Amar H. Flood, Robert J. A. Ramirez, Wei-Qiao Deng, Richard P. Muller, William A. Goddard, III and J. Frasier Stoddard. Australian Journal of Chemistry, 57, 301 (2004).
• Quantum Mechanical-Rapid Prototyping Applied to Methane Activation. Richard P. Muller, Dean M. Philipp and William A. Goddard, III. Topics in Catalysis, 23, 81 (2003).