Uma Girish
Postdoctoral Research Scientist
Computer Science, Columbia University
ug2150 (at) columbia (dot) edu

About Me
I am a postdoctoral research scientist at Columbia University hosted by Henry Yuen. I obtained a PhD at Princeton University in 2024, where I was extremely fortunate to be advised by Ran Raz. I received my BSc and MSc from Chennai Mathematical Institute. Starting in Fall 2026, I will be an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Toronto. My research focuses on the interplay between quantum computing, complexity theory and the analysis of Boolean functions.
Publications
Private Proofs of When and Where
with Greg Gluch, Shafi Goldwasser, Tal Malkin, Leo Orshansky, Henry Yuen.
In Submission. Arxiv.
Magic and communication complexity
with Alex May, Natalie Parham, and Henry Yuen.
In STOC 2026, TQC 2026. Arxiv.
Fourier Spectrum of Noisy Quantum Algorithms
In QIP 2026, STOC 2026. Arxiv.
Comparing Classical and Quantum Conditional Disclosure of Secrets
with Alex May, Leo Orshansky and Chris Waddell.
In Quantum. Arxiv
The Power of Adaptivity in Quantum Query Algorithms
with Makrand Sinha, Avishay Tal and Kewen Wu.
In STOC 2024, QIP 2024. Arxiv
Trade-offs between Entanglement and Communication
with Srinivasan Arunachalam.
In CCC 2023, QIP 2024. Arxiv
One Clean Qubit Suffices for Quantum Communication Advantage
with Srinivasan Arunachalam and Noam Lifshitz.
In TQC 2024. Arxiv
Fourier Growth of Communication Protocols for XOR Functions
with Makrand Sinha, Avishay Tal and Kewen Wu.
In FOCS 2023. Arxiv
Quantum versus Randomized Communication Complexity, with Efficient Players
with Ran Raz and Avishay Tal.
Eliminating Intermediate Measurements using Pseudorandom Generators
with Ran Raz.
Quantum Logspace Algorithm for Powering Matrices with Bounded Norm
with Ran Raz and Wei Zhan.
Polynomial Bounds On Parallel Repetition For All 3-Player Games With Binary Inputs
with Kunal Mittal, Ran Raz and Wei Zhan.
APPROX/RANDOM 2022. ECCC
Parallel Repetition For All 3-Player Games Over Binary Alphabet
with Justin Holmgren, Kunal Mittal, Ran Raz and Wei Zhan.
Parallel Repetition for the GHZ Game: A Simpler Proof
with Justin Holmgren, Kunal Mittal, Ran Raz and Wei Zhan.
Teaching
- TA in COS340: Reasoning about Computation, Fall 2020.
- TA in COS585: Information Theory and Applications, Fall 2019.
Service
I have served on the program committees for TQC 2024, QIP 2025, RANDOM 2025, ICALP 2026 and will serve on the PC for FOCS 2026.