Runzhou Tao

Runzhou Tao is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Maryland, College Park, and a Fellow at the Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science (QuICS). He earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Columbia University in 2024 and a Bachelor's degree from the Yao Class at Tsinghua University in 2019. His research focuses on quantum computing, programming languages, operating systems, and formal verification, with notable contributions to quantum compiler verification, distributed protocol analysis, and algorithm design.

Education:

• Ph.D., Computer Science, Columbia University, 2024
• B.Eng., Yao Class, Tsinghua University, 2019

Research Interests: At the intersection of quantum computing and software engineering, Tao develops tools for formal verification of quantum compilers and distributed systems. His work emphasizes practical error analysis, automated invariant synthesis, and optimizing quantum algorithms. Current projects include synthesizing recursive quantum unitary programs and verifying multiprocessor hypervisors on Arm hardware.

Awards:

• Jay Lepreau Best Paper Award (DistAI, 2021)
• Best Paper Award (Edge-Weighted Online Bipartite Matching, 2020)

Labs/Teams: Active contributor to the Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science (QuICS). Collaborates with industry partners like IBM (Qiskit compiler verification) and academic teams on formal methods in distributed systems. Leads research initiatives in quantum software engineering and algorithmic optimization.