Kirsten D. Morris

Welcome! I am a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Mathematics at Virginia Tech, working with Dr. Gretchen Matthews. My research is in algebraic and combinatorial coding theory, with quantum error correction as its unifying theme.

Sparse codes are decoded by local message passing on a graph, and at realistic lengths their performance is governed by finite structures like short cycles, expansion, and small configurations such as absorbing sets. I study which of these structures cause decoders to fail, how to mathematically characterize when a decoder will converge, and how to build quantum LDPC codes whose good structure can be read off a compact algebraic description. The tools I use are graph theory, linear algebra over finite fields, group algebras and matroids. Applications for my work include fault-tolerant quantum computing, wireless communication and post-quantum cryptography.

I received my PhD in mathematics, with a graduate minor in electrical engineering, from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in 2025, advised by Dr. Christine Kelley. I am an MAA Project NExT Fellow. Together with Andrea Di Giusto and Julia Shapiro, I co-organize the Postgraduate International Coding theory Seminar (PICS). Come join us!