Lorenza Viola obtained a master's degree in physics from the University of Trento, Italy, in 1991, and a PhD in theoretical physics from the University of Padova, Italy, in 1996. After being a postdoc in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT from 1997 to 2000, and a J.R. Oppenheimer Fellow in the Computer and Computational Sciences Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory, in 2004 she joined the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Dartmouth College as an Associate Professor. She is a board member of the International Physics and Control Society and has served as the Chair of the Topical Group on Quantum Information of the American Physical Society.  Dr. Viola's research addresses a broad range of issues within quantum information physics, with emphasis on modeling and control of open quantum systems, and problems at the interface between quantum information theory, many-body quantum systems, and quantum statistical mechanics.

Pointer states have both a long history in fundamental quantum theory and

a practical relevance as long-lasting high-fidelity states in open quantum

systems.  For generic dissipative dynamics, however, pointer states need

not exist or, when they do, need not coincide with states of interest. I

will show how open-loop control procedures may be used to engineer

dissipation in such a way that any desired initial pure state can be

guaranteed to survive with high minimum fidelity over time and retrieved

on demand. Quantitative fidelity bounds and constructive control

protocols will be presented, and validated through simulation in

paradigmatic single- and two- qubit dissipative scenarios. I will also

argue how the state selectivity observed in recent dynamical decoupling

experiments can be naturally understood within the pointer state

engineering framework.