Dear members of the SIG,
It is with great sadness that we share the news that our friend and colleague Dr. Peter Wittek went missing on September 29, 2019 while climbing in the Himalayas. Peter, a world-renowned expert in quantum computing and the author of the seminal book on quantum machine learning, served as the Chair of the SIG in 2019. A skilled mountaineer, Peter has climbed the world's most famous peaks including Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa and Aconcagua in South America. In late September he was swept away in an avalanche while climbing Mount Trishul in the Indian Himalayas.
While this is not the best time to discuss any organizational details, according to Section V of the Interest Group Charter, "If the office of Chair or Program Chair becomes vacant, the Chair-elect and Program Chair-elect shall become the Chair and Program Chair respectively, the terms extending through the following year." For 2019, Peter was the Chair, Sergei Leonov was Program Chair and Chair-elect and Mark Fingerhuth was Secretary and Program Chair-elect. Apparently, given the tragic accident with Peter, Sergei and Mark will accept roles of Chair and Program Chair, respectively, with terms for both extending through 2020.
Mark can still be in the role of Secretary, but we will need to find someone who will take the role of Secretary for 2020. Also we will need to find candidates for roles of Chair-elect and Program Chair-elect for 2021. If you have suggestions or would like to take one of these roles, please let us know.
Members of the SIG will likely not object if we honor Peter by organizing a session at JSM 2020 in Philadelphia and dedicating this session to Peter. In early September, Peter submitted a proposal for an invited session at JSM which unfortunately has not been accepted. I contacted the JSM organizers, informed them of the tragic accident with Peter: they shared Peter's proposal which now can be re-submitted as a topic-contributed session proposal. Valerii Fedorov, Mark and Sergei are currently discussing the format of the session and potential speakers. If you have suggestions for a talk, please let us know.
Sergei, Mark, Valerii
Sergei.Leonov@cslbehring.com
Valerii.Fedorov@iconplc.com
Mark@proteinqure.com