[{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/cv/publications/compressed-sensing-ghz-fidelity-estimation/","section":"Curriculum Vitae","summary":"","title":"Compressed Sensing for Efficient Fidelity Estimation of GHZ States","type":"cv"},{"content":" Consulting # Acting as a Fractional CTO for clients Building customer solutions leveraging cloud deployments and agentic AI Student Journey Platform # Creating better paths for prospective students on their education journeys by matching them with schools driven by data and intelligence Education Sanctum # Dreaming of an education renaissance with quantum theory, computational philosophy, and artificial intelligence as a new education technology pedagogy ","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/cv/experience/daletn/","section":"Curriculum Vitae","summary":"","title":"DaletN","type":"cv"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/cv/publications/quantum-darwinism-quantinuum/","section":"Curriculum Vitae","summary":"","title":"Observation of quantum Darwinism and the origin of classicality with trapped ions (Quantinuum)","type":"cv"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/cv/publications/identifying-quantum-coherence-annealers/","section":"Curriculum Vitae","summary":"","title":"Identifying quantum coherence in quantum annealers","type":"cv"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/cv/publications/q2b24-silicon-valley/","section":"Curriculum Vitae","summary":"","title":"Q2B24 Silicon Valley | David Nicholaeff, Systems Research Scientist, New Mexico Consortium","type":"cv"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/cv/publications/commit-sf-2020-zero-trust-ci/","section":"Curriculum Vitae","summary":"","title":"Commit San Francisco 2020: Federation and Zero Trust CI in GitLab","type":"cv"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/cv/publications/satellite-imagery-food-security/","section":"Curriculum Vitae","summary":"","title":"Satellite imagery analysis for automated global food security forecasting","type":"cv"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/cv/publications/predicting-performance-sph/","section":"Curriculum Vitae","summary":"","title":"Predicting Performance of Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics Codes at Large Scales","type":"cv"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/cv/publications/modernizing-legacy-physics/","section":"Curriculum Vitae","summary":"","title":"Modernizing a Legacy Physics Code","type":"cv"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/cv/publications/fast-mesh-operations/","section":"Curriculum Vitae","summary":"","title":"Fast Mesh Operations using Hierarchical and Templated Spatial Hashing: Remaps and Neighbor Finding","type":"cv"},{"content":" Quantum Cloud Access Project # Acting as the quantum computing lead on a subcontract for Los Alamos National Laboratory Managing quantum cloud access for researchers across New Mexico Democratizing user workflows through education and community outreach Researching new protocols for scalable quantum advantage via quantum Darwinism and quantum contextuality GitOps Development # Hosting on-prem GitLab ","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/cv/experience/nmc-quantum/","section":"Curriculum Vitae","summary":"","title":"New Mexico Consortium","type":"cv"},{"content":" High Risk Quantum Computing Research # Researched models, derived theory, and conducted experiments to emulate quantum circuits on D-Wave quantum annealers via the Feyman-Kitaev equivalence between adiabatic quantum computing and the quantum circuit model ","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/cv/experience/savantx/","section":"Curriculum Vitae","summary":"","title":"SavantX","type":"cv"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/cv/publications/hashing-discrete-exterior/","section":"Curriculum Vitae","summary":"","title":"Hashing in the Discrete Exterior Calculus","type":"cv"},{"content":" NASA Mission Telemetry Data Services # Prototyped a provable zero trust architecture and Kubeflow AI platform to share telemetry data from mission control with external partners Helped win the Mission Enabling Services Contract (MESC, C22-012) ","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/cv/experience/mri-technologies/","section":"Curriculum Vitae","summary":"","title":"MRI Technologies","type":"cv"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/cv/publications/algorithms-eulerian-architectures/","section":"Curriculum Vitae","summary":"","title":"Algorithms for Optimizing the Eulerian Applications Code Base for Future Computational Architectures","type":"cv"},{"content":" U.S. DOE Exascale Computing Project # Managed the ECP DevSecOps research team across all national laboratories Developed a zero trust infrastructure to enable secure continuous integration in a multi-cloud environment ","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/cv/experience/nmc-ecp/","section":"Curriculum Vitae","summary":"","title":"New Mexico Consortium","type":"cv"},{"content":" Geospatial satellite data refinery # Enriched petabytes of hyperspectral data: visible (RGB), near infrared (NIR), shortwave infrared (SWIR), and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) Asynchronous, event-driven scalable distributed compute # Constructed a task manager using Google Cloud Platform’s Pub/Sub: pipelines on 64k+ cores across managed instance groups ","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/cv/experience/descartes/","section":"Curriculum Vitae","summary":"","title":"Descartes Labs, Inc.","type":"cv"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/cv/publications/hash-based-algorithms/","section":"Curriculum Vitae","summary":"","title":"Hash-Based Algorithms for Discretized Data","type":"cv"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/cv/publications/paradigmatic-shifts/","section":"Curriculum Vitae","summary":"","title":"Paradigmatic shifts for exascale supercomputing","type":"cv"},{"content":" D-Wave quantum annealer exploration # Explored the D-Wave quantum annealer by bridging discrete and continuous optimization: sphere packing with local topological constraints and unequal volumes using a quadratic non-convex optimization specification Multiphysics Eulerian code modernization # Developed higher order function mappings over physics kernels in order to replace core mesh iteration patterns in multiphysics Eulerian codes Accelerated asynchronous message passing interface (MPI) facility # Unified cell-based adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) and $N$-body particle models and simulations using projective geometry and hashing: prototyped an accelerated asynchronous MPI facility Radiation-Hydrodynamics codes at exascale # Researched, designed, and implemented hash-based algorithms to discretize continuous spaces into computational meshes across scalable heterogeneous architectures with primary application in radiation/hydrodynamics codes for exascale machines Shallow water equations model simulation using cell-based AMR on GPUs # ","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/cv/experience/lanl/","section":"Curriculum Vitae","summary":"","title":"Los Alamos National Laboratory","type":"cv"},{"content":" Developed a face recognition API, an Elm-compiled web frontend UI, and implemented machine learning algorithms including deep learning convolutional neural networks. ","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/cv/experience/lambda/","section":"Curriculum Vitae","summary":"","title":"Lambda Labs","type":"cv"},{"content":"","date":"31 January 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/projects/hilbert_hole/","section":"Projects","summary":"","title":"Hilbert Hole","type":"projects"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/authors/adam-mclaughlin/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Adam McLaughlin","type":"authors"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/authors/akram-touil/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Akram Touil","type":"authors"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/authors/alejandro-lopez-bezanilla/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Alejandro Lopez-Bezanilla","type":"authors"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/authors/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Authors","type":"authors"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/categories/","section":"Categories","summary":"","title":"Categories","type":"categories"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/authors/charles-r.-ferenbaugh/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Charles R. Ferenbaugh","type":"authors"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/authors/charles-roger-ferenbaugh/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Charles Roger Ferenbaugh","type":"authors"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/authors/connor-aronoff/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Connor Aronoff","type":"authors"},{"content":" Send a message using the form below. × Name Email Message Company Send ","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/contact/","section":"Contact","summary":"","title":"Contact","type":"contact"},{"content":" Download (PDF) About # Ἀδικεῖ πολλάκις ὁ μὴ ποιῶν τι, οὐ μόνον ὁ ποιῶν τι.\nHe often acts unjustly who does not do a certain thing; not only he who does a certain thing.\n— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.5\nIf the ultimate hubris is to strive to change the world, then it is the ultimate nobility to make a difference for good in the world. This underscores my passions and endeavours, in seeking justice, finding truth, and ultimately understanding purpose. My technical passions and abilities therefore leverage the elegance of mathematics to build computational models to simulate complex physical systems, so that I may solve problems that remain out of reach.\nExperience # DaletN Founder \u0026amp; CEO\n2018–Present\nAlbuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A.\nConsulting # Acting as a Fractional CTO for clients Building customer solutions leveraging cloud deployments and agentic AI Student Journey Platform # Creating better paths for prospective students on their education journeys by matching them with schools driven by data and intelligence Education Sanctum # Dreaming of an education renaissance with quantum theory, computational philosophy, and artificial intelligence as a new education technology pedagogy New Mexico Consortium Quantum Computing Lead\n2023–Present\nLos Alamos, New Mexico, U.S.A.\nQuantum Cloud Access Project # Acting as the quantum computing lead on a subcontract for Los Alamos National Laboratory Managing quantum cloud access for researchers across New Mexico Democratizing user workflows through education and community outreach Researching new protocols for scalable quantum advantage via quantum Darwinism and quantum contextuality GitOps Development # Hosting on-prem GitLab SavantX Mathematician\n2022–2023\nSanta Fe, New Mexico, U.S.A.\nHigh Risk Quantum Computing Research # Researched models, derived theory, and conducted experiments to emulate quantum circuits on D-Wave quantum annealers via the Feyman-Kitaev equivalence between adiabatic quantum computing and the quantum circuit model MRI Technologies Senior DevOps Engineer\n2020–2022\nHouston, Texas, U.S.A.\nNASA Mission Telemetry Data Services # Prototyped a provable zero trust architecture and Kubeflow AI platform to share telemetry data from mission control with external partners Helped win the Mission Enabling Services Contract (MESC, C22-012) New Mexico Consortium Research Scientist\n2018–2020\nLos Alamos, New Mexico, U.S.A.\nU.S. DOE Exascale Computing Project # Managed the ECP DevSecOps research team across all national laboratories Developed a zero trust infrastructure to enable secure continuous integration in a multi-cloud environment Descartes Labs, Inc. Computer Scientist / Data Scientist\n2016–2018\nSanta Fe, New Mexico, U.S.A.\nGeospatial satellite data refinery # Enriched petabytes of hyperspectral data: visible (RGB), near infrared (NIR), shortwave infrared (SWIR), and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) Asynchronous, event-driven scalable distributed compute # Constructed a task manager using Google Cloud Platform’s Pub/Sub: pipelines on 64k+ cores across managed instance groups Los Alamos National Laboratory Computational Physicist\n2011–2016\nLos Alamos, New Mexico, U.S.A.\nD-Wave quantum annealer exploration # Explored the D-Wave quantum annealer by bridging discrete and continuous optimization: sphere packing with local topological constraints and unequal volumes using a quadratic non-convex optimization specification Multiphysics Eulerian code modernization # Developed higher order function mappings over physics kernels in order to replace core mesh iteration patterns in multiphysics Eulerian codes Accelerated asynchronous message passing interface (MPI) facility # Unified cell-based adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) and $N$-body particle models and simulations using projective geometry and hashing: prototyped an accelerated asynchronous MPI facility Radiation-Hydrodynamics codes at exascale # Researched, designed, and implemented hash-based algorithms to discretize continuous spaces into computational meshes across scalable heterogeneous architectures with primary application in radiation/hydrodynamics codes for exascale machines Shallow water equations model simulation using cell-based AMR on GPUs # Lambda Labs Early Engineer (Employee #3)\n2014\nDeveloped a face recognition API, an Elm-compiled web frontend UI, and implemented machine learning algorithms including deep learning convolutional neural networks. Education # University of Oxford, U.K. MSc. in Mathematics and the Foundations of Computer Science\n2014\nDissertation: On the topology of measurement contexts for asymmetric multipartite spin systems # Computed degrees of non-locality of entangled qubits using algebraic topology Adviser: Samson Abramsky # University of California, Los Angeles, U.S.A. BSc. in Physics \u0026amp; Mathematics\n2012\nDepartmental Honors; Dean\u0026rsquo;s List # Publications # Compressed Sensing for Efficient Fidelity Estimation of GHZ States Farrokh Labib, David Nicholaeff, Vincent Russo, \u0026amp; William J. Zeng (2026). Compressed Sensing for Efficient Fidelity Estimation of GHZ States. arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.27824. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2604.27824\nObservation of quantum Darwinism and the origin of classicality with trapped ions (Quantinuum) David Nicholaeff \u0026amp; Akram Touil (2026). Observation of quantum Darwinism and the origin of classicality with trapped ions (Quantinuum). Manuscript in preparation.\nIdentifying quantum coherence in quantum annealers Connor Aronoff, Travis Howard, David Nicholaeff, Alejandro Lopez-Bezanilla, \u0026amp; Wade DeGottardi (2026). Identifying quantum coherence in quantum annealers. arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.21355. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2602.21355\nQ2B24 Silicon Valley | David Nicholaeff, Systems Research Scientist, New Mexico Consortium QC Ware (2025, February 4). Q2B24 Silicon Valley | David Nicholaeff, Systems Research Scientist, New Mexico Consortium. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLSCHSTQFCc\nCommit San Francisco 2020: Federation and Zero Trust CI in GitLab GitLab (2020, January 15). Commit San Francisco 2020: Federation and Zero Trust CI in GitLab. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mOnp26Ingo\nSatellite imagery analysis for automated global food security forecasting Daniela I. Moody, Steven P. Brumby, David Nicholaeff, Rick Chartrand, Mark Mathis, Justin Poehnelt, Samuel W. Skillman, \u0026amp; Michael S. Warren (2018). Satellite imagery analysis for automated global food security forecasting. SPIE Defense \u0026#43; Commercial Sensing 2018 (Proc. SPIE 10644). https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2315960\nPredicting Performance of Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics Codes at Large Scales Guillaume Julien Chapuis, David Nicholaeff, \u0026amp; Stephan Eidenbenz (2016). Predicting Performance of Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics Codes at Large Scales. WSC ’16: Simulating Complex Service Systems. https://doi.org/10.1109/WSC.2016.7822229\nModernizing a Legacy Physics Code Charles Roger Ferenbaugh \u0026amp; et al. (2016). Modernizing a Legacy Physics Code. Supercomputing ’16.\nFast Mesh Operations using Hierarchical and Templated Spatial Hashing: Remaps and Neighbor Finding David Nicholaeff \u0026amp; Robert W. Robey (2016). Fast Mesh Operations using Hierarchical and Templated Spatial Hashing: Remaps and Neighbor Finding. Internal Joint LANL-LLNL Conference.\nHashing in the Discrete Exterior Calculus David Nicholaeff (2015). Hashing in the Discrete Exterior Calculus. New Trends in Compatible Discretizations CEA-EDF-INRIA School.\nAlgorithms for Optimizing the Eulerian Applications Code Base for Future Computational Architectures Robert W. Robey, David Nicholaeff, Rachel N. Robey, Patrick S. McCormick, Marion K. Davis, Adam McLaughlin, David R. Montoya, \u0026amp; Scott D. Pakin (2013). Algorithms for Optimizing the Eulerian Applications Code Base for Future Computational Architectures. LA-UR Report LA-UR 13-20169.\nHash-Based Algorithms for Discretized Data Rachel N. Robey, David Nicholaeff, \u0026amp; Robert W. Robey (2013). Hash-Based Algorithms for Discretized Data. SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing , 35(4), C346–C368. https://doi.org/10.1137/120873686\nParadigmatic shifts for exascale supercomputing Neal E. Davis, Robert W. Robey, Charles R. Ferenbaugh, David Nicholaeff, \u0026amp; Dennis P. Trujillo (2012). Paradigmatic shifts for exascale supercomputing. The Journal of Supercomputing , 62(2), 1023–1044. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11227-012-0789-3\n","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/cv/","section":"Curriculum Vitae","summary":"","title":"Curriculum Vitae","type":"cv"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/authors/daniela-i.-moody/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Daniela I. Moody","type":"authors"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/","section":"David Nicholaeff","summary":"","title":"David Nicholaeff","type":"page"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/authors/david-nicholaeff/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"David Nicholaeff","type":"authors"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/authors/david-r.-montoya/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"David R. Montoya","type":"authors"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/authors/dennis-p.-trujillo/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Dennis P. Trujillo","type":"authors"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/authors/et-al./","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Et Al.","type":"authors"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/authors/farrokh-labib/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Farrokh Labib","type":"authors"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/authors/gitlab/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"GitLab","type":"authors"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/authors/guillaume-julien-chapuis/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Guillaume Julien Chapuis","type":"authors"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/authors/justin-poehnelt/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Justin Poehnelt","type":"authors"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/authors/marion-k.-davis/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Marion K. Davis","type":"authors"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/authors/mark-mathis/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Mark Mathis","type":"authors"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/authors/michael-s.-warren/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Michael S. Warren","type":"authors"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/authors/neal-e.-davis/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Neal E. Davis","type":"authors"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/authors/patrick-s.-mccormick/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Patrick S. McCormick","type":"authors"},{"content":" In fieri\u0026hellip; # Many-body coherent oscillations (MBCOs) on quantum simulators Observation of quantum Darwinism and the origin of classicality With trapped ions With neutral atoms Wigner\u0026rsquo;s friend experiments Feynman-Kitaev clock Hamiltonians and quaternions Bisimulation games and game comonads ","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/projects/","section":"Projects","summary":"","title":"Projects","type":"projects"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/authors/qc-ware/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"QC Ware","type":"authors"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/authors/rachel-n.-robey/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Rachel N. Robey","type":"authors"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/authors/rick-chartrand/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Rick Chartrand","type":"authors"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/authors/robert-w.-robey/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Robert W. Robey","type":"authors"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/authors/samuel-w.-skillman/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Samuel W. Skillman","type":"authors"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/authors/scott-d.-pakin/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Scott D. Pakin","type":"authors"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/series/","section":"Series","summary":"","title":"Series","type":"series"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/authors/stephan-eidenbenz/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Stephan Eidenbenz","type":"authors"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/authors/steven-p.-brumby/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Steven P. Brumby","type":"authors"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Tags","type":"tags"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/authors/travis-howard/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Travis Howard","type":"authors"},{"content":" Departmental Honors; Dean\u0026rsquo;s List # ","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/cv/education/ucla/","section":"Curriculum Vitae","summary":"","title":"University of California, Los Angeles, U.S.A.","type":"cv"},{"content":" Dissertation: On the topology of measurement contexts for asymmetric multipartite spin systems # Computed degrees of non-locality of entangled qubits using algebraic topology Adviser: Samson Abramsky # ","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/cv/education/oxford/","section":"Curriculum Vitae","summary":"","title":"University of Oxford, U.K.","type":"cv"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/authors/vincent-russo/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Vincent Russo","type":"authors"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/authors/wade-degottardi/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Wade DeGottardi","type":"authors"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/authors/william-j.-zeng/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"William J. Zeng","type":"authors"}]