About Eric

I am a theoretical physicist exploring the fundamental nature of the quantum world.

My research expertise includes foundations of quantum mechanics, quantum information theory, probability and decision theory, philosophy of physics, quantum atom-optics, among other areas and topics. See my research page for more details of my current and past projects and interests.

I am currently an ARC Future Fellow and an Associate Professor at the Centre for Quantum Dynamics at Griffith University, in sunny Queensland, Australia. I am based on Griffith’s largest campus, in the beachside city of Gold Coast.

An up-to-date list of my publications and citation statistics is available in my Google Scholar profile page.

Most of my articles are available free-access on my arXiv.org profile page.

Griffith University profile page.

Bio:

After my PhD at the University of Queensland in 2008 I was a postdoctoral researcher at Griffith University, funded by a GU Postdoctoral Fellowship, and a single-CI ARC Discovery grant. In 2012 I was awarded a Discovery Early-Career Researcher Award, undertaken at The University of Sydney, during which I spent a year as a Visiting Scholar at Oxford University. I returned to Griffith in 2015 as a Senior Lecturer, partly funded by a Large Grant from the Foundational Questions Institute (FQXi). In 2018 I was awarded an ARC Future Fellowship and a continuing Associate Professor position.

I have over 51 peer-reviewed publications including prestigious journals such as Nature Physics, Nature Communications, Physical Review X, Physical Review Letters and the British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. My scientific publications have gathered over 4800 citations, with an h-index of 30 (Google Scholar, May 2024).

One of the popular media articles I’ve written about my work on the Wigner’s friend paradox for The Conversation has achieved over 1 million readers. You can read it via this link.

My work has been widely featured in international media, including The New York Times, Forbes, Science, Nature News, Scientific American, Quanta Magazine, and New Scientist.

I have organised three international conferences on the foundations of quantum mechanics, and have been invited to present my work in conferences on all continents.

I am a Founding Editor and Coordinating Editor of Quantum, a free and open-access journal for quantum science, providing a new model for scientific publication. I am a member of the Foundational Questions Institute, the Australian Institute of Physics, and the Optical Society of America.

In a previous life (during my undergraduate and Master degrees) I have also worked in experimental biophysics and atomic collisions, leading to several publications, and been an exchange student at the University of California, Berkeley. I’ve also been a technologist for the Institute of Radioprotection and Dosimetry at the National Nuclear Energy Commission in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Contact

Eric Cavalcanti
Centre for Quantum Dynamics, Griffith University
Gold Coast, QLD 4222
Australia
e.cavalcanti@griffith.edu.au