About

High impact leadership in quantum information science, artificial intelligence, and advanced computing for national security.

Experience

IonQ

SVP, Federal Technical Lead 2025-Present
VP, Quantum Computing Systems 2025

Developing IonQ's next generation quantum systems to address the world's hardest problems.

Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA)

Director 2024-2025

Directed IARPA's 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

Publications

74 total publications; h-index 36

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)