About Me, and Other Interests

About Me: I graduated in May 2025 with a thesis titled The Algorithmic Cookbook of Quantum Science: Quantum and Classical Recipes for Computation. During my studies, I had the pleasure of interning at IBM Quantum and at (Google) X, the Moonshot Factory. In the beforetimes, I received my BS in physics from the University of Maryland, College Park, and also worked as a student researcher at Caltech.

Science Policy: Outside of research, I’m a strong advocate for policy that fosters a healthy scientific enterprise. For several years, I helped lead the political advocacy branch of the MIT Graduate Student Council, where we worked to implement policies that benefit graduate students, education, and research.

My primary focus was federal policy for immigration reform. In collaboration with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, I led a successful effort to modernize the O-1A visa to better recognize junior scientists. Our recommended changes were adopted into the USCIS guidance in early January 2025. For details on this effort, see our letter to USCIS, the agency’s subsequent statement on policy guidance updates, and the updated guidance in the USCIS policy manual.

Alas, I’m not too optimistic about progress at the federal level for a while, so I’m more focused on state and local governance for now.

Science Videography: If a picture speaks a thousand words, then a video paints a thousand pictures! This is especially true in science communication, where video is a remarkably effective medium for teaching a wide audience. With this in mind, I’ve started making animated research talk videos, aimed at presenting research in an intuitive and engaging format; see my channel here: youtube.com/@JohnMMartyn. I hope to keep developing this passion going forward!

And Beyond: When I’m not doing something science-adjacent, you can often find me skateboarding.