Which physicist proposed a quantum computer simulation of physics in a 1982 paper?

Richard Feynman proposed a quantum computer simulation of physics in a 1982 paper.

Feynman argued that simulating quantum systems on conventional computers becomes inefficient because the mathematical description of a many-particle quantum state grows extremely rapidly. He suggested using machines based on quantum mechanics to model other quantum systems more naturally.

His proposal was not a complete modern quantum-computing architecture, but it established a foundational idea: quantum computers could exploit superposition and entanglement to represent and process information in ways classical machines cannot efficiently imitate in general. Later researchers developed formal models, quantum gates, algorithms, and error-correction methods.

Feynman’s idea is sometimes confused with the first quantum-computing algorithm or the first physical quantum computer. Those milestones came later. Peter Shor proposed his factoring algorithm in 1994, while experimental quantum processors were developed by several research groups from the 1990s onward. Feynman’s 1982 contribution was primarily a conceptual argument for quantum simulation.