Vladimir Vargas Calderón

Vladimir Vargas Calderón

Quantum Application Consultant

Vladimir is a physicist from the National University of Colombia, professionally raised in a theoretical quantum optics group. He became interested in machine learning during his undergraduate years, where he started to contribute to sociology research projects. Soon after, he started leading various research projects in social sciences that used machine learning as a powerful research tool. Some of these projects include gender equality in education, analysis of the Colombian armed conflict, customer service in tourism, and even real estate pricing models, among others. His curiosity and expertise in machine learning has permeated his graduate research at the National University of Colombia, where he is currently a PhD candidate in physics, studying quantum phase transitions in open quantum many-body systems as well as proposing quantum-inspired machine learning frameworks.

Question & Answer

What’s your superpower?

My superpower is to somehow extract happiness from climbing up a mountain in a bicycle.

If you could meet anyone, who would it be and why?

Probably Jean Paul Sartre. I think he was such a great genius that thrived to understand human nature. It would be amazing to sit with him and be able to listen to his thoughts and doubts, beyond his books, on existentialism.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

It is a very unpopular opinion, but the best advice I’ve gotten is: “study physics! It’s fun!”