Nai-Hui Chia

Nai-Hui Chia is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Rice University. His academic journey includes postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Maryland's Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science (QuICS) and UT Austin, following a Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering at Penn State University under Dr. Sean Hallgren and undergraduate studies at National Taiwan University.

• Ph.D.: Computer Science and Engineering, Penn State University, 2018
• Bachelor's: National Taiwan University

Chia's research focuses on quantum algorithms, quantum complexity theory, and quantum cryptography. He investigates quantum computing's capabilities, limits, and its transformative potential for computer science, particularly in computational tasks with quantum advantages, quantum depth verification, and circuit complexity. His work bridges theoretical exploration with practical applications in quantum machine learning and cryptographic security.

Recent publications highlight advancements in adversarially robust quantum state learning (FOCS 2025), quantum depth verification (COLT 2025, TQC 2024), and quantum-inspired classical algorithms for low-rank matrix problems. His research also addresses fundamental questions in quantum complexity theory, including black-box simulation barriers and impossibility results for quantum zero-knowledge protocols.

Honors include the NSF CAREER Award (2024), DOE Quantum Testbed Pathfinder (2023), Google Research Scholar (2023), and an NSF grant (2022). He serves on program committees for TQC 2024, CCC'23, and Crypto 2022, and organizes quantum computing sessions at IOS 2024 and QuantIPS 2023.

Chia advises students like Yu-Ching Shen and Chia-Ying Lin, and has mentored postdocs including Jianqiang Li and Daniel Liang. His teaching includes courses on cryptography and quantum computing at Rice and Indiana University, and guest lectures at UT Austin. Outside academia, he enjoys sports and history.