Dr Matthew McDonnell
BSc(hons) BE(hons) DPhil

                             Employment History

July 2007-Present  The MathWorks UK

Project Engineer in the Consulting Services group

September 2006-April 2007 Griffith University, Queensland

Research Fellow in the Hydrogen Cooling group.

   1. Responsible for setting up an experiment to investigate use  of  mode-
      locked lasers in atomic physics.

   2. Wrote Labview automation software for real-time control of the  atomic
      physics experiment with microsecond resolution using an FPGA card.

July 2003-August 2006 University of Oxford

Postdoctoral  Research  Assistant  in  the  Ion  Trap  Quantum   Information
Processor group.

   1. Responsible for investigating quantum computation using  an  ion  trap
      atomic physics experiment as part of a five person research group.

   2. First UK demonstration  of  two-qubit  entanglement  in  an  ion  trap
      system.

   3. Design and construction of electro-optical systems.

   4.  Software  development  of  a  numerical  simulation  of  the  quantum
      mechanical trapped-ion system.

   5. Assistance in the supervision of graduate students.

   6. Demonstrating the  Second  Year  Physics  Computing  Course,  covering
      programming in C, Python and Pascal.

October 2002-May 2003 Keble College, University of Oxford

Tutor in First Year Classical Mechanics at Keble College.

   1. Conducting classes and tutorials for  a  class  of  seven  first  year
      undergraduate students.

                            Education

October 1999-June 2003 University of Oxford

DPhil in Atomic and Laser Physics

Thesis  title  "Two-Photon  Readout  Methods  for  an   Ion   Trap   Quantum
Information Processor"

   1. Theoretical and experimental development of a  method  to  detect  the
      spin state of a single ion.

   2. Development of numerical simulation tools  in  Matlab  to  investigate
      proposed detection schemes.

   3. Design, construction, characterization and control of a wide range  of
      electro-optical hardware.

The project was completed successfully when  I  invented  a  readout  method
using a novel combination of several  existing  atomic  physics  techniques,
investigated  theoretically  the  expected  behaviour  and  implemented  the
experiment. This technique then served as  an  enabling  technology  for  my
research group to begin experimental investigation  of  quantum  information
processing.


February 1993-November 1998 University of Western Australia

BSc (Chemical Physics) (hons. 1st Class)

BE (Materials) (hons. 1st Class)

   1. 1996: Faculty of Science Medal for best Honours Science Student

   2. 1996:  J.A.Wood  Memorial  Prize  for  best  Honours  Student  in  the
      Faculties of Science, Engineering, Medicine, Agriculture and Dentistry


   3. 1999: Awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship to study for a DPhil  at  the
      University of Oxford

August 1988-November 1992 Duncraig Senior High School, Western Australia

Certificate of Secondary Education  TEE score 459.8 (of a possible 510)

   1. TEE subjects: Applicable Mathematics (A, 93.01), Calculus (A,  99.21),
      Chemistry (A, 90.82), Computing (A,  94.93),  English  Literature  (A,
      72.21), Physics (A, 90.41)



                         Positions of Responsibility

Numerous positions of responsibility  within  Keble  College  Middle  Common
Room during the course of my DPhil studies:

   1. February 2001 - July 2001: President :  representing the views of  the
      Keble College graduate community to the College Fellows.

   2. February 2000 -  December  2001:  Social  Secretary  :  organisational
      responsibility for social activities  for  the  roughly  200  graduate
      students making up the MCR community. 

   3. July 2000 - November 2003: Internet Officer : webmaster of  the  Keble
      MCR website and mailing list administrator. I was able to  use  my  IT
      skills to simplify organisation of MCR social events by writing a Perl
      program to provide online sign-up to formal dinners on the  Keble  MCR
      website.


                                  Interests

   1. Drawing and website development, see www.matt-mcdonnell.com

   2. Functional programming languages particularly Ocaml and Erlang.

   3. Martial arts.  I have achieved the grade of 1st kyu in Aikido.


                               Career Ambition

   1. I am seeking goal oriented  situations  requiring  innovative  problem
      solving abilities and the opportunity to further develop my  technical
      skills, particularly those relating to software development.

   2. I want my career to fulfill a socially useful function  by  developing
      tools that enable others to work more efficiently or open new areas of
      enterprise.

   3. I expect my job to offer a range of interesting  technical  challenges
      together with the  resources  and  training  required  to  meet  these
      challenges successfully.


                          Personal Characteristics

My strengths are an analytical approach to problem solving tasks,  attention
to detail and an ability  to  quickly  learn  new  devices,  techniques  and
technologies. 


                                 References


Available on request