Your host, Sebastian Hassinger, is joined on this episode by Garnet Chan, the Bren Professor of Chemistry at Caltech, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and among the most cited computational chemists in the world (34,000+ Google Scholar citations). Garnet is neither a quantum computing booster nor a dismissive skeptic. He's a theorist who works at the exact boundary between what classical algorithms can and cannot do ? and who keeps finding that boundary further out than the quantum computing community has claimed. The FeMo-cofactor has been a flagship quantum computing use case for nearly a decade: a catalytic core of the enzyme that fixes atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia, and a molecule widely described as "beyond classical reach." Chan's January 2026 paper challenges that framing directly. This conversation explains what was actually solved, what wasn't, and what it would genuinely take for quantum computers to contribute to the chemistry of nitrogen fixation. This episode is for researchers, engineers, and informed observers who want an honest, technically grounded view of where quantum computers genuinely help in chemistry ? and where classical methods are more capable than the field has admitted. 

What You'll Learn

Why the FeMo-cofactor became one of the quantum computing community's favorite benchmark ? and why the framing around energy savings from nitrogen fixation is less accurate than it soundsWhat "chemical accuracy" (~1 kcal/mol) actually means as a precision target, and why hitting it classically undermines a decade of quantum resource estimatesWhy real chemical systems are only "slightly entangled" ? and what that means for the general argument that quantum computers are the natural tool for quantum chemistryThe difference between a problem being hard and a problem being exponentially hard ? and why that distinction matters enormously for quantum advantage claimsWhere the genuine classical wall might be: bridging 15 orders of magnitude in timescale to simulate an enzyme's full catalytic mechanism ? and whether quantum computers have anything to say about thatWhy Chan wrote a public blog post explaining his own paper ? and what that reveals about the state of discourse in quantum chemistry and the quantum computing industryThe broader impact of quantum information science on chemistry ? beyond hardware, the conceptual tools of quantum information have genuinely reshaped how chemists think about many-body statesWhat Chan is actually working toward: a full computational understanding of the nitrogenase reaction mechanism, using machine learning to bridge timescales classically ? a decade-long journey he finds genuinely exciting

Resources & Links

The Central Paper & Commentary

Zhai et al. (2026) ? "Classical Solution of the FeMo-Cofactor Model to Chemical Accuracy and Its Implications" arXiv:2601.04621 ? The January 2026 preprint at the heart of this episode; the classical solution of the standard 76-orbital/152-qubit FeMo-co benchmark.Chan ? Quantum Frontiers Blog Post (March 2026) The FeMo-Cofactor and Classical and Quantum Computing ? Chan's own accessible commentary on the paper, written in response to widespread misinterpretation; essential reading alongside the paper.

Key Papers for Context

Chan (2024) ? "Spiers Memorial Lecture: Quantum Chemistry, Classical Heuristics, and Quantum Advantage" Faraday Discussions, 254, 11?52 ? The formal theoretical framework behind Chan's thinking, including the "classical heuristic cost conjecture"; the deep-dive companion to this episode.Lee et al. (2023) ? "Evaluating the Evidence for Exponential Quantum Advantage in Ground-State Quantum Chemistry" Nature Communications ? Chan group's landmark 2023 paper concluding that evidence for exponential quantum advantage across chemical space has yet to be found.Begu?i? & Chan (2023/2024) ? "Fast Classical Simulation of Evidence for the Utility of Quantum Computing Before Fault Tolerance" Science Advances ? The paper showing classical simulation on a single laptop core could reproduce and exceed IBM's 127-qubit "utility" experiment.Bauer, Bravyi, Motta & Chan (2020) ? "Quantum Algorithms for Quantum Chemistry and Quantum Materials Science" arXiv:2001.03685 ? A balanced review by Chan and colleagues showing he takes quantum algorithms seriously; useful counterpoint to the skeptical framing.Babbush et al. (2025) ? "The Grand Challenge of Quantum Applications" arXiv:2511.09124 ? Google Quantum AI's direct engagement with Chan's skeptical position; argues polynomial speedups may still be practically decisive.Computational Chemistry Highlights ? Review of FeMo-co Paper compchemhighlights.org ? Third-party commentary from Jan Jensen (University of Copenhagen).

Tools & Software

PySCF ? Python-based Simulations of Chemistry Framework https://pyscf.org ? The open-source quantum chemistry package co-stewarded by Chan's group; widely used for electronic structure calculations.BLOCK ? DMRG and Matrix Product State Algorithms https://github.com/sanshar/Block ? Chan group's open-source implementation of density matrix renormalization group methods; the tensor network engine underlying much of this work.

Guest Links

Chan Lab at Caltech chan-lab.caltech.edu ? Research group homepage with publications, software, and group members.Garnet Chan ? Caltech Faculty Profile cce.caltech.edu/people/garnet-k-chan ? Official Caltech Division of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering page.Google Scholar Profile scholar.google.com ? 34,000+ citations across theoretical chemistry and condensed matter physics.Caltech Science Exchange ? Ask a Caltech Expert: Quantum Chemistry scienceexchange.caltech.edu ? Accessible overview of Chan's perspective for a general science audience.

Key Quotes

"To a good approximation, you and I are not entangled. That's essentially how people think about molecules ? atoms are distinct entities, and you can define each as a local entity because its properties are not intrinsically tied up with some other thing." ? Garnet Chan, explaining why most chemical systems are cla...

Quantum Open Source with Will Zeng and Ziyaad Bhorat

In this special live-streamed discussion, Will Zeng, co-founder of the Unitary Foundation, and Ziyaad Bhorat, VP at the Mozilla Foundation, join host Sebastian Hassinger to unpack their co-authored white paper, The Open Foundation Quantum Technology Needs. The paper argues that open source quantum software is structurally underfunded ? too applied for academic grants, too public-good for venture capital ? and that philanthropic organizations need to step in before the window closes.

This conversation arrives at a pivotal moment. Google recently published a paper showing Shor's algorithm could break ECDLP-256 with roughly 500,000 physical qubits ? a 20x improvement over prior estimates ? while Oratomic launched claiming 10,000 reconfigurable atomic qubits may be sufficient for cryptographically relevant computation. The timelines are compressing. The question is whether the software ecosystem can keep pace with the hardware.
The video of our conversation can be viewed on YouTube.

What you'll learn

Why open source quantum software falls into a structural funding gap between academic grants and venture capital ? and what that means for the field's trajectoryHow Mozilla Foundation evaluates emerging technology fields for philanthropic intervention, and what specifically convinced them quantum was ripe for engagementWhat Google's 20x efficiency gain for Shor's algorithm and the Oratomic launch mean for Q-Day timelines and post-quantum migration urgencyWhy the "quantum Linux" analogy is useful but incomplete ? and what the real risk is (fragmentation, not monopoly)How Unitary Foundation's microgrant program ($4,000, six months) has become a faster on-ramp to quantum careers than traditional academic pathwaysWhat PyMatching, PyZX, and other microgrant-funded projects reveal about the scalability of small open source investmentsWhy open source benchmarking through Metriq Gym matters ? and why vendor-driven benchmarks can't fill this roleHow the Qiskit team reductions at IBM illustrate the fragility of corporate-backed open source in quantumWhat specific policy asks the quantum open source community has for the NQI reauthorizationThe von Neumann vs. ENIAC lesson: why openness wins over secrecy in building transformative computing platforms

Resources & links

The Open Foundation Quantum Technology Needs ? The white paper by Zeng, Castanon, and Bhorat (March 2026) that anchors this conversationUnitary Foundation ? 501(c)(3) non-profit building, governing, and sustaining open source quantum software since 2018 Mozilla Foundation ? Non-profit championing open source and internet health, supporting Unitary Foundation's quantum workMitiq ? Open source toolkit for quantum error mitigationMetriq ? Community-driven quantum benchmarking platform Metriq Gym ? Open source benchmarking suite for quantum computers Unitary Compiler Collection (UCC) ? Quantum circuit compilation toolsQuTiP ? Quantum Toolbox in Python, stewarded by Unitary FoundationPyMatching ? Open source decoder for quantum error correction, originally funded by a UF microgrant PyZX ? ZX-calculus library for quantum circuit optimization, also originating from UF support Unitary Hack ? Annual bug bounty hackathon connecting open source quantum projects with global contributors CSIS Commission on U.S. Quantum Leadership ? Warning on quantum decryption surprise referenced in the white paperWill Zeng ? President and co-founder of Unitary Foundation; Partner at Quantonation; DPhil in Quantum Information, University of OxfordZiyaad Bhorat ? VP of Imagination and Strategic Growth, Mozilla Foundation; PhD in Political Science, UCLA

Key quotes

"Do we want a future where quantum computers are developed by secret government contractors with specialized PhDs who have top secret security clearances? Or do we want a future where quantum computers are built in the private sector, competing to provide economic value to everyone around the world?" ? Will Zeng"Do not be afraid to experiment. We're doing ourselves a disservice to be slow, especially in a space that really warrants experimentation." ? Ziyaad Bhorat, on his message to philanthropic colleagues"There's billions of people on the planet who want to do exciting and interesting things. Building quantum technology is one of those. If you have enough motivation, you just need to provide some on-ramps." ? Will Zeng"We should put forward an affirmative vision of what that future should look like and drive towards it ? because otherwise it will be built in secret." ? Ziyaad Bhorat"The US spends 30, 35 billion on potato chips every year. There's a lot of room to grow." ? Will Zeng, on the scale of quantum investment relative to what's needed

Related episodes

Ep 19: Quantum Error Mitigation using Mitiq with Misty Wahl ? Deep dive into Mitiq, one of Unitary Foundation's flagship open source projects discussed in this episode.Ep 35: Quantum Benchmarking with Jens Eisert ? Explores the challenges of quantum benchmarking that Will Zeng addresses with the Metriq platform.Ep 29: Quantum Education and Community Building with Olivia Lanes ? Parallels to the community-first approach to workforce development that both guests advocate.Ep 53: Fostering Quantum Education with Emily Edwards ? The Q12 initiative's approach to quantum education, complementing UF's open source on-ramps.Ep 79: Building a Quantum Ecosystem from Scratch with Martin Laforest ? How Quebec built a quantum ecosystem ? relevant context for the white paper's argument about building open infrastructure early.

Subscribe & connect

Listen: Apple Podcasts | Spotify |

Summary

This episode is for anyone following the quantum utility debate or curious about how quantum computers will actually contribute to scientific discovery. Arnab Banerjee ? assistant professor at Purdue, guest scientist at Oak Ridge's Quantum Science Center, and one of the most-cited experimentalists working at the intersection of quantum materials and quantum computing ? walks us through his career-spanning journey from growing magnetic crystals to programming qubits.

You'll hear how Banerjee's frustration with classical tools that couldn't explain his own experimental data drove him to quantum computing, why a quantum spin liquid is like the vortex that forms when you throw a stone into water, and how his team used 50 qubits on IBM's Heron chip to reproduce the spectroscopic fingerprint of a real material ? KCuF3 ? matching data collected at Oak Ridge and the UK's ISIS neutron source. He also offers a nuanced assessment of where different quantum computing platforms excel, drawing on hands-on experience with IBM, QuEra, and D-Wave.

What you'll learn

What a quantum spin liquid actually is and why its collective behavior ? like vortices on water ? could enable naturally error-protected qubitsHow neutron scattering works as a quantum probe ? using the neutron's own spin and de Broglie wavelength to reveal both atomic positions and energy levels simultaneouslyWhy Banerjee's team chose to benchmark quantum simulation against known experimental data first before tackling classically intractable problemsWhat the IBM Heron benchmarking paper actually showed ? reproducing spinon excitations in KCuF3, a one-dimensional Heisenberg chain, with quantitative agreement to neutron dataHow different quantum computing modalities serve different materials science problems ? IBM for fast, cheap operations on 2D lattices; trapped ions for all-to-all connectivity; D-Wave and QuEra for Ising-like HamiltoniansHow close we are to quantum advantage in materials simulation ? Banerjee estimates 70-90 "good enough" qubits in 2D geometry could reach classically inaccessible regimesWhy Kitaev quantum spin liquids could provide a fundamentally different path to fault tolerance ? topological protection from decoherence built into the material itself, not imposed through software

Resources & links

Papers & research

Benchmarking quantum simulation with neutron-scattering experiments (March 2026) ? The news hook: IBM Heron processor reproduces real neutron scattering data from KCuF3. First direct validation of quantum simulation against experimental measurements of a real material. Proximate Kitaev quantum spin liquid behaviour in a honeycomb magnet (2016) ? Banerjee et al., Nature Materials. The career-defining paper providing first experimental evidence for Kitaev spin liquid behavior in alpha-RuCl3. Discover Magazine Top 100 Stories (#18). Neutron scattering in the proximate quantum spin liquid alpha-RuCl3 (2017) ? Banerjee et al., Science. Comprehensive neutron scattering study revealing fractional spinon excitations. Materials for quantum technologies roadmap (2025) ? Applied Physics Reviews. Banerjee's roadmap paper on the pipeline from material discovery to quantum devices.Lessons from alpha-RuCl3 for atomically thin materials (Nov 2025) ? What the decade-long study of alpha-RuCl3 teaches about 2D quantum materials.

Guest & lab links 

Quantum Spins Laboratory, Purdue University ? Banerjee's research groupORNL Profile: Traversing the Unknown, Befriending Uncertainty ? Oak Ridge profile on Banerjee's research philosophy Purdue News: Keck Foundation Grant for Quantum Spin Liquids ? $1.2M grant to probe Majorana bound states with optical techniquesCoverage of the IBM benchmarking work - IBM Newsroom: Quantum Computer Simulates Real Magnetic Materials ? IBM's announcement of the benchmarking resultNature News: Quantum simulations verified by experiments for the first time ? Nature's coverage of the milestoneOrganizations & facilities - DOE Quantum Science Center at Oak Ridge ? $115M National Quantum Initiative center where Banerjee is a guest scientistSpallation Neutron Source, Oak Ridge ? The neutron scattering facility central to Banerjee's experimental workISIS Neutron and Muon Source, Rutherford Appleton Lab ? UK facility where part of the KCuF3 data was collected

Key quotes & insights

"The entire electronic industry is built around trying to avoid quantum effects as much as possible. This is the time when we need to make quantum our friend instead of our enemy."

"In a quantum spin liquid, the spin directions move collectively in dancing patterns that look extremely ordered ? but if you take a snapshot, the individual spins feel completely random." ? On why spin liquids are like vortices in water

"A spin is a qubit is a spin." ? On why quantum magnets and quantum processors are fundamentally the same physics

"We need to know whether what we are doing really makes sense. That's what this experiment is about." ? On why benchmarking against known results must come before tackling unsolved problems

"I would like to simulate the entire standard model using a quantum computer." ? When asked what problem he'd throw at an unlimited quantum computer

 

Related episodes

Ep 6: Better Qubits Through Material Science with Nathalie DeLeon ? The materials science perspective on improving qubit quality, from diamond color centers to surface physicsEp 13: The Mysterious Majorana with Leo Kouwenhoven ? The topological quantum computing vision that Kitaev materials could enable through a different routeEp 74: Majorana Qubits with Chetan Nayak ? Microsoft's engineered approach to topological protection ? contrast with Banerjee's materials-first pathEp 25: Material Science with Houlong Zhuang at Q2B Paris ? Using quan...

Has quantum advantage actually been achieved ? or is the field still arguing over its own milestones? Dominik Hangleiter, one of the leading theorists working on quantum computational advantage, joins the podcast to make the case that it has, explain why so many physicists remain unconvinced, and map the path toward fault-tolerant, verifiable quantum advantage.

Why This Episode Matters

If you follow quantum computing and want to cut through the noise around quantum advantage claims, this episode is for you. Dominik Hangleiter ? an Ambizione Fellow at ETH Zürich and postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley's Simons Institute ? has spent over a decade studying the boundary between what quantum and classical computers can do. His March 2026 paper "Has quantum advantage been achieved?" synthesizes years of experiments, classical simulation attacks, and complexity theory into a clear-eyed assessment. Whether you're an experimentalist, a theorist, or simply quantum-curious, you'll come away with a sharper understanding of what's been demonstrated, what hasn't, and what comes next.

What You'll Learn

Why random circuit sampling became the primary arena for proving quantum advantage ? and why the task's "uselessness" is a feature, not a bugHow the linear cross-entropy benchmark (XEB) works as a statistical proxy for verifying classically intractable quantum computationWhy audiences of physicists are still split on whether quantum advantage has been demonstrated, despite multiple experiments since 2019What "peaked circuits" are and how they interpolate between random sampling and structured computationHow post-quantum cryptography (learning with errors) exploits problems that quantum computers can't solve ? and what that reveals about quantum computation's limitsWhy basic arithmetic is surprisingly hard for fault-tolerant quantum computers, and how that bottlenecks algorithms like Shor'sHow fault-tolerant compilation co-designs quantum circuits with error-correcting codes to make advantage experiments scalableThe difference between "native" quantum operations and the overhead required for universal fault-tolerant computationWhy the interplay between quantum and classical computing strengths ? not quantum dominance ? may define the field's future

Resources & Links

Papers & Articles

Has quantum advantage been achieved? ? Hangleiter's March 2026 paper synthesizing the quantum advantage debateComputational Advantage of Quantum Random Sampling ? Hangleiter & Eisert's comprehensive review in Reviews of Modern Physics (2023)Fault-Tolerant Compiling of Classically Hard IQP Circuits on Hypercubes ? The Harvard/ETH collaboration on fault-tolerant IQP circuits (PRX Quantum 2025)Secret-Extraction Attacks against Obfuscated IQP Circuits ? Hangleiter & Gross's attack paper breaking proposed verification protocols (PRX Quantum 2025)Verifiable Measurement-Based Quantum Random Sampling with Trapped Ions ? Experimental realization with the Innsbruck trapped-ion group (Nature Communications 2025)

Blog Series & Commentary

Has quantum advantage been achieved? (Quantum Frontiers blog series) ? The three-part mini-series on the Caltech IQIM blog that grew into the paperScott Aaronson's reaction ? Endorsement on Shtetl-Optimized: "quantum supremacy on contrived benchmark problems has almost certainly been achieved by now"

Guest Links

Dominik Hangleiter ? personal website & publicationsGoogle Scholar profile (4,372 citations)QuICS profile (University of Maryland)

Key Quotes & Insights

"Really what sets random circuit sampling apart is that it's really programmable. I give an input to the device, I design a circuit ? I draw it randomly, yes ? but then I give the circuit to the device, and whoever controls the device runs the circuit and gives me back the samples." ? On why RCS qualifies as genuine computation"We typically do in physics experiments a lot of extrapolation, a lot of circumstantial experiments that validate that the experiment you really care about is actually what you want to probe. And that's the sense in which I think these random circuit sampling experiments have been verified." ? On the physics-style epistemology of quantum advantage"Classical computers are really good at doing basic arithmetic, but quantum computers ? it's really hard to do basic arithmetic. And that's for the reason that fault tolerance is very restrictive in terms of the operations that you can do on encoded information." ? On the surprising asymmetry between quantum and classical capabilities"I can't just tell the quantum computer to give me the outcome I want. There's rules to it. And how those rules apply to computational problems that we face in the real world beyond quantum simulation is, I think, a really intriguing challenge." ? On the structured nature of quantum interference"Maybe there's a world where we can stitch together different hardware systems and won't have a single platform that wins the race." ? On heterogeneous quantum architectures

Related Episodes

Ep 35: Quantum Benchmarking with Jens Eisert ? Hangleiter's PhD advisor discusses benchmarking quantum devices ? essential context for understanding how we measure quantum performance.Ep 12: Quantum Supremacy to Generative AI and Back with Scott Aaronson ? Aaronson's perspective on quantum supremacy and computational complexity ? directly relevant to the advantage debate.Ep 73: Peaked quantum circuits with Hrant Gharibyan ? The peaked circuits approach discussed in this episode, explained in depth.Ep 47: Megaquop with John Preskill and Rob Schoelkopf ? The road to a million quantum operations ? the scale needed for the fault-tolerant advantage Hangleiter envisions.Ep 74: Majorana qubits with Chetan Nayak ? Another approach to fault tolerance with different native capabilities ? relevant to Hangleiter's point about modality-specific strengths.

Calls to Action

Dominik's Quantum Frontiers blog series is one of the most accessible deep dives on quantum advantage available anywhere ? start there if you want to explore beyond this conversation. Links in the show notes.

Subscribe: ...

Scaling Quantum Hardware Like Semiconductors with Matthijs Rijlaarsdam

The quantum computing industry has been stuck at roughly 100 qubits for years ? not because of physics, but because of wiring. Matthijs Rijlaarsdam, co-founder and CEO of QuantWare, explains how his company's 3D vertical chip architecture (VIO) could break through that ceiling to 10,000 qubits by 2028, and why the quantum industry needs to start thinking like the semiconductor industry if it wants to actually deliver on its promises.

Episode Summary

This conversation is for anyone trying to understand why quantum computers haven't scaled as fast as promised ? and what it would take to change that. Matthijs brings an unusual perspective as a computer scientist (not a physicist) who co-founded QuantWare out of TU Delft's QuTech to become the world's first commercial supplier of superconducting quantum processors.

Rather than building a full quantum computer, QuantWare sells QPUs as components ? the "TSMC of quantum." In this episode, Matthijs walks through the VIO architecture that routes signals vertically through stacked chiplets instead of along chip edges, why specialization and volume economics are the only realistic path to useful quantum computing, and how the Dutch quantum ecosystem punches far above its weight thanks to consistent long-term investment.

What You'll Learn

Why the quantum industry is stuck at ~100 qubits ? and how 90% of current chip area is consumed by signal routing, not qubits, creating a fundamental scaling wallHow VIO's 3D chiplet architecture breaks the wiring bottleneck by routing signals vertically through stacked silicon modules, enabling 10,000-qubit processors that are physically smaller than today's 100-qubit chipsWhy quantum computing will be heterogeneous ? different platforms (superconducting, trapped ions, neutral atoms) have different trade-offs analogous to CPUs vs. memory vs. storage in classical computingThe economics that make specialization inevitable ? why cable costs need to drop from EUR 1,500 per line to cents, and why volume manufacturing is the only way to get thereHow QuantWare's three business models mirror the semiconductor industry ? selling packaged QPUs (Intel model), foundry services (TSMC model), and packaging services for third-party chipsWhy the Dutch quantum ecosystem succeeds ? consistent decade-plus government investment in QuTech, EUR 600M+ to Quantum Delta NL, and the WENEC report recommending EUR 9.4 billion for quantum infrastructureWhat "Quantum Open Architecture" means in practice ? how making QPUs commercially available lowers barriers for the entire industry, similar to how standardized PC components enabled the computing revolutionQuantWare's roadmap: VIO-40K shipping in 2028 with up to 10,000 qubits, and a path to 1 million qubits using arrays of chiplet modules

Resources & Links

Company

QuantWare ? world's first and largest commercial supplier of superconducting quantum processorsVIO Technology ? QuantWare's 3D vertical integration and optimization architectureVIO-40K announcement ? press release on the 10,000-qubit scaling breakthrough

Coverage & Analysis

PostQuantum: QuantWare's 10,000-qubit chip ? a real scaling bet ? the most balanced independent analysis of VIO-40K's claims and limitationsTechCrunch: Dutch startup QuantWare seeks to fast-track quantum computing ? Series A coverageNextBigFuture: QuantWare 10K qubits in 2028 and 1 million in 2029 ? Q2B keynote reporting

Partnerships Mentioned

Quantum Utility Block (QUB) with Q-CTRL and Qblox ? turnkey quantum computer kitElevate Quantum Q-PAC in Colorado ? first US Quantum Open Architecture system

Ecosystem & Policy

QuantWare 2026 industry predictions ? QuantWare's view on entering the kiloqubit eraQuTech ? TU Delft quantum research institute where both QuantWare co-founders did their graduate workQuantum Delta NL ? Dutch national quantum technology program (EUR 600M+)DARPA HARK program ? Heterogeneous Accelerated Roadmap using Quantum Solutions; referenced by Matthijs as validation of the heterogeneous quantum computing thesis

Key Insights

"There is no path towards useful quantum computing without specialization. That is a total fantasy." ? Matthijs Rijlaarsdam on why volume economics and the semiconductor model are inevitable for quantum

"The difference between EUR 1,500 and 10 cents per cable line ? that's all volumes and yields." ? on how manufacturing scale, not physics breakthroughs, will drive the next phase of quantum cost reduction

"If you look at it on a cost-per-qubit basis, VIO-40K at EUR 50 million is actually a 10x reduction from where we are today. Anyone claiming they'll do it for less is just not telling something realistic." ? on the real economics of scaling quantum hardware

"Imagine if you were a company today and you wanted to do interesting stuff in AI, but you first had to develop a three nanometer process to make the chips. It would be completely ridiculous. And in quantum, that's what everyone is doing." ? on why vertical integration won't survive at scale

"Good companies will get funded. We have in general not been restricted by access to capital ourselves." ? on navigating European deep-tech venture capital

 

Related Episodes

Ep 41: Dual-rail superconducting qubits with Rob Schoelkopf ? deep dive into superconducting qubit architectures and scaling approachesEp 48: Qolab Emerges from Stealth Mode with John Martinis ? another vision for scaling superconducting qubits to millions, from a different architectural angleEp 59: Silicon Spin Qubits with Andrew Dzurak from D...

Ever wonder why quantum computing still feels like a "cool science experiment" instead of a deployable technology? After two decades building wireless standards and quantum systems at IBM, Brian Gaucher argues that engineering?not physics?has become the critical bottleneck holding back quantum technologies from real-world impact.

Why this episode matters

This conversation is essential for anyone trying to understand why quantum technologies haven't yet transitioned from laboratory demonstrations to scalable industrial applications. Brian co-authored the recent ERVA report that identifies the specific engineering challenges blocking quantum progress across computing, sensing, and biological applications. If you're a researcher, engineer, or technology leader wondering how quantum moves from promising science to transformational technology, this episode provides the roadmap.

The discussion reveals why materials engineering, not theoretical breakthroughs, will determine which nations lead the quantum economy?and why coordinated investment in nanoscale manufacturing infrastructure needs to happen now, before manufacturing ecosystems become geographically concentrated like semiconductors.

What you'll learnHow engineering precision has replaced theoretical understanding as the primary quantum bottleneck across computing, sensing, and biological applicationsWhy superconducting qubit fabrication still resembles lab experiments despite being labeled an "engineering problem" since 2016?and what's needed to achieve semiconductor-level reproducibilityThe specific materials challenges blocking quantum scaling: surface and interface noise control, defect management, cryogenic packaging, and atomic-layer precision manufacturingWhy quantum computing will require hundreds of interconnected dilution refrigerators rather than single large systems, and the engineering implications of distributed quantum architecturesHow AI and quantum computing create bidirectional acceleration opportunities: AI enabling quantum calibration and error mitigation, while quantum enhances optimization and molecular simulation workloadsWhy quantum standards development faces a chicken-and-egg problem that won't resolve until reproducible quantum advantage is demonstrated?but must be ready immediately afterwardHow regional quantum initiatives like Illinois Quantum Network and Elevate Quantum balance necessary specialization against harmful fragmentation in the pre-standards eraWhy the semiconductor industry's offshore manufacturing migration offers critical lessons for maintaining quantum manufacturing leadership in the United Statesqubitsok ? Cut Noise. Work Quantum.
 The quantum computing job board and arXiv research digest built for the community. Job seekers & researchers: Subscribe free at qubitsok.com ? weekly job alerts + daily paper digest filtered by 400+ quantum tags. Hiring managers: Post your quantum role and reach 500+ targeted subscribers. Use code NEWQUANTUMERA-50 for 50% off your first listing at qubitsok.com/post-job.

Resources & links

Papers & reports

ERVA Report: Engineering Research to Advance Quantum Technologies - The comprehensive analysis Brian co-authored on translating quantum science into engineering frameworksNational Quantum Initiative Act - Current federal quantum research coordination legislation awaiting reauthorization

Organizations & initiatives

Chicago Quantum Exchange - Regional quantum research consortium Brian mentions as a model for coordinated developmentIBM Quantum Network - Brian's former organization advancing quantum computing applicationsIEEE Quantum Engineering - Standards organization Brian suggests should lead quantum standardization efforts

Standards & technology platforms

IEEE 802.11 Standards - The Wi-Fi standardization work Brian contributed to, demonstrating how standards unlock technology ecosystemsQiskit - IBM's quantum software development platformOpenQASM - Quantum assembly language specification for quantum instruction sets

Guest links

Brian Gaucher's Design News Interview - Recent discussion of quantum engineering workforce development

Key insights

"Quantum advantages is going to come not just from better qubits alone, but really from better engineering. The physics is truly exciting in the discovery aspects, but that in itself is not going to go anywhere without a bigger picture wrapped around it."

"We understand the fundamental physics. What we need to do is get to reproducible, scalable fabrication and interface control remains one of the limiting things."

"Scientific leadership alone doesn't guarantee you long-term manufacturing leadership. We know this from semiconductors?the US remains strong in research and design, but manufacturing ecosystems went offshore."

"Once manufacturing ecosystems become geographically concentrated, you can't rebuild this stuff. So you need to address this earlier on and not wait."

"If we break encryption, every old email and text and bank statement that you've ever had becomes open. The enormity of such a risk should be driving someone crazy."

Related episodes

Ep 47: Megaquop with John Preskill and Rob Schoelkopf - Deep dive into superconducting quantum computing architectures and scaling challengesEp 52: Quantum Error Correction Codes with Kenneth Brown - Essential background on the error mitigation Brian discusses as an AI-quantum intersectionEp 61: The Quantum Internet with Stephanie Wehner - Quantum communications standards and infrastructure development

Revolutionary Quantum Engineering with David Reilly and Tom Ohki

Have you ever wondered what it takes to build computing systems that work at temperatures colder than outer space? David Reilly and Tom Ohki are tackling this exact challenge, leading a "special ops" team of engineers from their unique position at Emergence Quantum?the startup born from Microsoft's Station Q program. They're not just building quantum computers; they're creating the entire infrastructure ecosystem that will make scalable quantum computing possible.

Episode Summary

This episode explores how quantum computing's most challenging engineering problems are being solved from the ground up. David Reilly (former Station Q lead) and Tom Ohki (ex-Raytheon BBN Technologies) share their journey from academic research to building Emergence Quantum?a company focused on the systems-level challenges of quantum computing and beyond.

Unlike typical quantum startups racing to build better qubits, Emergence takes a "qubit-agnostic" approach, focusing on the critical control systems, cryogenic electronics, and infrastructure needed to scale any quantum platform. Their work spans from cryo-CMOS control systems that operate at millikelvin temperatures to revolutionary applications of cryogenic cooling in classical data centers.

What You'll Learn

How cryo-CMOS technology solves the fundamental wiring bottleneck that prevents quantum computers from scaling beyond hundreds of qubitsWhy the "special ops" team model enables breakthrough engineering when tackling unprecedented technical challenges across quantum and classical computingHow cryogenic cooling could transform classical data centers by dramatically reducing power consumption and improving processor performanceThe systems-level thinking required to build quantum computers that actually work at scale, beyond just improving individual qubit performanceWhy Australia offers unique advantages for deep tech R&D companies focused on long-term hardware development rather than venture-driven growthHow quantum computing infrastructure development creates spillover benefits for classical computing, sensing, and other cryogenic applicationsThe historical parallels between today's quantum engineering challenges and the foundational R&D that built the internet and early computing systemsWhy "qubit-agnostic" approaches to control systems provide more flexibility as quantum hardware continues evolving

Company & Guest Links

Emergence QuantumDavid ReillyTom Ohki

Research & Papers

Nature paper on cryo-CMOS coexistence with spin qubits Historical cryo-CMOS research

Organizations Mentioned

Microsoft Station Q (former quantum research division)Raytheon BBN Technologies (internet pioneer, quantum research)University of Sydneyqubitsok ? Cut Noise. Work Quantum.
 The quantum computing job board and arXiv research digest built for the community. Job seekers & researchers: Subscribe free at qubitsok.com ? weekly job alerts + daily paper digest filtered by 400+ quantum tags. Hiring managers: Post your quantum role and reach 500+ targeted subscribers. Use code NEWQUANTUMERA-50 for 50% off your first listing at qubitsok.com/post-job.

Technologies & Concepts

Cryo-CMOS: CMOS electronics operating at cryogenic temperaturesDilution refrigerators: Ultra-low temperature cooling systemsSuperconducting quantum devices and control systems

Key Insights

"We recognize that although quantum is very much moving into more traditional engineering domains, there's still so much fundamental research?you have to walk both paths. It will be both fundamental science and applied engineering, all at the same time." ? David Reilly on the dual nature of quantum development"Every member had this deep expertise, and we were able to progress in a flexible agile way. That was exactly the secret." ? Tom Ohki on building high-performing technical teams"You could ask the question: what are the attributes of scalable qubits, given the constraints of what you can build at the control layer?" ? David Reilly on systems-level thinking"If you don't believe in [scaling classical cryogenic computing], but you believe in quantum computing, there's some mismatch here?because the fundamental aspects are completely identical." ? Tom Ohki on infrastructure requirements"We're not trying to disrupt the incumbent technology. We're trying to improve it. But along the way, we're building the foundation for a world beyond that." ? David Reilly on their strategic approach

Community & Next Steps

Ready to dive deeper into quantum systems engineering? Subscribe to New Quantum Era to catch every episode exploring the engineering breakthroughs that will define quantum computing's future.

Share this episode with colleagues working on complex technical systems?the insights on team dynamics and long-term R&D strategy apply far beyond quantum computing.

Join our community of quantum computing professionals, researchers, and technically curious minds who are shaping this field's development.

From Steel Mills to Quantum Scale-Up: Inside Illinois's Bold Bet on the Future of Computing

What does it take to build the world's largest dedicated quantum technology park ? on the site of a former steel mill? Harley Johnson is leading that effort, and the answer involves equal parts materials science, economic development, and a 30-year bet on quantum that's finally paying off.

Why This Episode Matters

If you're following the quantum computing industry's path from lab prototypes to commercial-scale systems, this episode maps the terrain. Harley Johnson ? a computational materials scientist turned CEO of the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park (IQMP) ? explains how Illinois assembled a unique combination of federal research funding, state economic investment, national labs, and top-tier universities into a 128-acre technology park designed to solve the quantum industry's hardest problem: scaling up.

Whether you're a researcher, a founder, a policymaker, or someone trying to understand where quantum jobs and applications are actually headed, this conversation lays out how one state is building the infrastructure ? physical, institutional, and human ? to make large-scale quantum computing real.

What You'll Learn

How a 1994 bet on quantum mechanics in a mechanical engineering lab led to directing the largest dedicated quantum tech park in the worldWhy Illinois chose a "beyond silicon" strategy for the CHIPS and Science Act ? and how landing 4 of the first 10 federal quantum centers positioned the state for what came nextHow IQMP's public-private governance model works: a university-governed LLC partnering with private developers, accountable to the public while incentivizing industryWhy the park deliberately hosts a diverse portfolio of hardware modalities ? including PsiQuantum, IBM, Inflection, Dirac, and Pascal ? and how that mirrors venture portfolio thinkingHow IQMP's algorithm center connects quantum hardware companies with Fortune 500 end users in finance, insurance, energy, logistics, and pharmaWhat the DARPA Quantum Benchmarking Initiative means for tenant selection and validationWhy roughly two-thirds of future quantum industry jobs may require a bachelor's degree or less ? and what that means for workforce development on a former industrial siteHow the Duality Accelerator, Chicago Quantum Exchange, and Polsky Center create a pipeline from early-stage startups to scale-up tenantsWhy the convergence of physics, engineering, and computer science ? all housed in one college at UIUC ? is accelerating quantum's transition from science to engineering

Sponsor

qubitsok ? Cut Noise. Work Quantum. The quantum computing job board and arXiv research digest built for the community. - Job seekers & researchers: Subscribe free at qubitsok.com ? weekly job alerts + daily paper digest filtered by 400+ quantum tags. - Hiring managers: Post your quantum role and reach 500+ targeted subscribers. Use code NEWQUANTUMERA-50 for 50% off your first listing at qubitsok.com/post-job.

Resources & Links

Guest Links

Harley Johnson ? Professor, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering and Materials Science Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park (IQMP)

Organizations & Programs

Chicago Quantum Exchange (CQE) ? regional hub coordinating quantum research, workforce studies, and industry engagement Duality Accelerator ? quantum startup accelerator run through the Polsky Center at the University of Chicago Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, University of ChicagoDARPA Quantum Benchmarking Initiative ? federal program validating progress toward useful quantum computing NSF MRSEC at UIUC ? Materials Research Science and Engineering Center focused on electronic and quantum materials 

Policy & Funding

CHIPS and Science Act ? federal legislation driving investment in semiconductor and quantum technology manufacturing in the US 

Companies Mentioned

PsiQuantum ? photonic quantum computing company scaling up at IQMPIBM ? anchor tenant at IQMP with longstanding partnership with UIUC

Key Quotes & Insights

"Help me pick a problem, a topic that is not big now, but would be big in 10 years." ? Harley Johnson, on the question he asked his advisor in 1994 that launched his career in quantum materials

"When I heard my friends who are experimental physicists say, 'We know how to do it, now it's just an engineering problem,' I said great ? now you've thrown down the gauntlet. Let the engineers at it."

"Something like two-thirds of the jobs that this industry will eventually create will require a bachelor's degree or less." ? On workforce projections from Chicago Quantum Exchange research

"Our neighbors and community members are learning about quantum and thinking about how my grandson gets a job in quantum. Because my family, until now, we're steelworkers." ? On the community impact of building a quantum park on a former US Steel site

"We're seeing a convergence of the great productive academic minds from computer science, engineering, and physics working now on the same problems. I'm not sure we saw that even five years ago."

Related Episodes

Alejandra Y. Castillo ? Quantum as a Regional Economic Development Engine ? Castillo, former Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development, discusses how quantum technologies fit into federal and state economic strategy through the CHIPS and Science Act, EDA Tech Hubs, and inclusive workforce development. Essential context for understanding the policy and economic framework that IQMP operates within.Martin Laforest ? Building Quebec's Quantum Ecosystem ? Laforest, partner at Quantacet and advisor to Canada's National Quantum Strategy, traces how Quebec built one of the world's strongest quantum ecosystems through decades of strategic investment ? starting with a bet on condensed matter physics in the 1970s. A compelling parallel to the Illinois story and a window into how this pattern is playing out globally.Nadya Mason ? Quantum Leadership ? Mason, the dean of the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at University of Chicago, is a major force on the academic side of the Illinois quantum ecosystem, and has strong views on what's needed in terms of inclusion and education. <...

Breaking Down RSA: How QLDPC Codes Cut Quantum Computing Requirements by an Order of Magnitude

What if I told you that the number of qubits needed to break RSA encryption just dropped from over a million to around 100,000? That's exactly what researchers at Iceberg Quantum achieved by combining quantum low-density parity-check (QLDPC) error correction with algorithmic optimizations?potentially accelerating quantum cryptography timelines by years.

Why this episode matters

This episode dives into groundbreaking research that could reshape quantum computing's practical timeline. We explore how QLDPC codes overcome the physical constraints of surface codes, why hardware diversity is driving new error correction approaches, and what this means for the race toward cryptographically relevant quantum computers.

Perfect for quantum researchers, cryptography professionals, and anyone curious about the engineering challenges between today's quantum devices and tomorrow's code-breaking machines.

What you'll learn

Why QLDPC codes outperform surface codes ? How throwing out nearest-neighbor connectivity assumptions unlocks better physical-to-logical qubit ratios across multiple hardware platforms The algorithmic tricks that matter ? How shared register reads and parallelization techniques can dramatically reduce runtime on slower quantum hardware platforms like trapped ions and neutral atoms What "hardware agnostic" really means ? Why developing error correction methods that work across superconducting, trapped ion, photonic, and neutral atom platforms is crucial for the quantum ecosystemHow generalized ladder surgery enables logical operations ? The breakthrough that made QLDPC codes viable for full quantum computation, not just quantum memory storageWhy decoding remains the bottleneck ? The real-time classical computation challenges that still need solving to make fault-tolerant quantum computing practicalThe business model emerging around quantum architecture ? How companies like Iceberg are positioning themselves as the "ARM or Nvidia" of quantum computing through specialized fault-tolerant designsWhat cryptographers should know now ? Why the timeline for cryptographically relevant quantum computers may be compressing faster than expected, and why algorithmic improvements matter as much as hardware scaling

Resources & links

Iceberg Quantum's Pinnacle paper ? "Reducing the Overhead of Quantum Error Correction with QLDPC Codes"Craig Gidney's foundational Shor's algorithm optimization workScott Aaronson's blog analysis of the research implications

 Sponsor

qubitsok ? Cut Noise. Work Quantum. The quantum computing job board and arXiv research digest built for the community. - Job seekers & researchers: Subscribe free at qubitsok.com ? weekly job alerts + daily paper digest filtered by 400+ quantum tags. - Hiring managers: Post your quantum role and reach 500+ targeted subscribers. Use code NEWQUANTUMERA-50 for 50% off your first listing at qubitsok.com/post-job.

Key insights & quotes

"We think this is an immensely fundamentally valuable thing to do ? when hardware improvements and reduced resource requirements converge, we'll be able to do something useful." ? Larry, Iceberg Quantum CSO"It would probably be a big mistake to assume that the numbers are not going to keep going down" ? on future resource requirement reductions for RSA breaking"At every level of scaling, new challenges emerge ? it's not just a matter of taking a zero off your number" ? Paul Webster on why order-of-magnitude improvements translate to real timeline changes"There's no obvious reason why something like the Pinnacle architecture wouldn't have an obvious impact once hardware companies reach hundreds of thousands of qubits" ? on practical implementation timelines"This is why it's so important to have this broader perspective and not be too dependent on the assumptions of one hardware platform" ? on the value of hardware-agnostic approaches

How a Lawyer and a Listicle Launched One of Quantum's Most Influential Media Platforms

Evan Kubes had no physics degree, no engineering background, and no idea what a qubit was when he stumbled across a press release about AWS investing in quantum. What he did have was experience translating complex industries for mainstream audiences ? and within months, he and co-founder Alex Challans had turned a Wix website and a "Top 20 Most Influential People in Quantum" listicle into The Quantum Insider, now one of the industry's leading media and intelligence platforms. In this episode, Evan shares how that scrappy start grew into Resonance, a multi-vertical deep tech media company ? and why he spent the last year making Our Quantum Future, a feature-length documentary premiering at APS March Meeting that aims to bring quantum out of the echo chamber and onto your screen.

Why this episode matters

This episode marks a new chapter for The New Quantum Era. In the intro, Sebastian shares some big updates ? going fully independent, new media projects including the Helgoland 2025 documentary, a newsletter, and broader efforts to build a more accessible and equitable quantum technology ecosystem through open source and open standards. He also announces his new role as a Fellow at the Unitary Foundation. Read the full blog post: A New Chapter.

The conversation with Evan Kubes is a perfect fit for this moment. Evan sits at the intersection of quantum's technical community and the broader world trying to make sense of it ? a translator between physicists and the public. His story illuminates something the industry rarely discusses: how do you actually build awareness, trust, and market understanding for a technology most people can't explain?

The documentary Our Quantum Future, produced for the International Year of Quantum and featuring Nobel laureates, a former CIA officer, and the leaders of Google, Microsoft, and IonQ, is designed for exactly that audience ? the curious non-specialist who wants to understand what quantum means for the world. The ethics and national security themes it surfaces are relevant well beyond the quantum community.

What you'll learn

How The Quantum Insider went from zero readers to a leading quantum industry platform using a creative "vanity listicle" strategy that got CEOs to respond overnightWhy a lawyer from the esports world saw the same market opportunity in quantum that venture capitalists were pouring billions into ? and what that says about the accessibility gap in deep techHow the Resonance media model applies The Quantum Insider playbook to space, AI, and climate tech ? and what makes a deep tech vertical ripe for this approachWhat 39 interviews across 40 countries revealed about how the quantum community thinks about ethics ? including a striking divide between engineers ("I'm just solving a hard problem") and policymakers ("we need safeguards now")The Oppenheimer parallel: how the documentary draws a direct line between the atomic bomb's development and today's quantum technology, and why some builders don't think about consequences while others think about nothing elseA former CIA operative's reframing of quantum advantage as incremental compounding ? 1% better per year for five years ? and why that makes quantum feel much more real today than the "break all encryption" narrative suggestsWhy academics and corporate leaders consistently disagree on quantum's timeline, and where Evan lands after a year of filming both camps

Resources & links

Guest links

The Quantum Insider ? Quantum industry media, intelligence, and data platform co-founded by EvanResonance ? Parent company extending the deep tech media model to space, AI, climate tech [link to confirm]Our Quantum Future ? Documentary website with sign-up for distribution updates

People mentioned in the episode

Alex Challans ? Co-founder and CEO of The Quantum Insider; Evan's business partnerNicholas Ogler ? Former CIA operative featured in the documentary; redefines quantum advantage from a national security lensDr. Bill Phillips ? Nobel Prize-winning physicist; discusses his bet with Carl Williams on the quantum advantage timelineDr. John Doyle ? Professor of quantum at Harvard, president of APS; draws the Oppenheimer parallelIlyas Khan ? Former CEO of Quantinuum; argues for educational licensing frameworks around quantum technologyEric Cornell ? Nobel Prize winner featured in the documentary

Mentioned in the intro

A New Chapter ? NQE blog post ? Sebastian's full announcement on going independent, new projects, and the future of the podcastUnitary Foundation ? Open-source quantum technology ecosystem; Sebastian is now a Fellow

Key quotes & insights

"When Oppenheimer and the most brilliant minds in the world were developing the atom, you had a large group who didn't really understand what they were building ? they were just trying to solve a very difficult engineering and physics problem. We posed that same question to engineers at Google today: do you ever think about the potential consequences of what you're building? They said, absolutely not.""Quantum advantage to me is simply: if I can do a certain task 1% better every single year for five years, that compounds quite heavily. A country that uses quantum to improve radar detection by half a percent per year for five years has a massive advantage." ? Nicholas Agler, former CIA"We emailed 20 people in the quantum industry ? CEOs of Microsoft, Google, IonQ, Atom Computing ? and said: Congratulations, you made The Quantum Insider's list of the top 20 most influential people in quantum. Every single person responded and agreed to do an interview.""For any industry to succeed, you've gotta get the venture capitalists and the capital markets around it, and you've gotta get the end users excited. If it's only PhDs talking to each other, it's gonna be a very limited market.""This documentary was not made for the quantum industry. It was made for Joe Blow and Cindy Blow at home who've never heard of this industry ? to elevate and highlight all this fascinating work that we're doing."

Sponsor

qubitsok ? Cut Noise. Work Quantum. The quantum computing job board and arXiv research digest built for the community. - Job seekers & researchers: Subscribe free at qubitsok.com ? weekly job alerts + daily paper digest filtered by 400+ quantum tags. - Hiring managers: Post your quantum role and reach 500+ targeted subscribers. Use code NEWQUANTUMERA-50 for 50% off your first listing at qubitsok.com/post-job.

Join the conversation

See the film: Visit ourquantumfuture.com to sign up for distribution updates ? the premiere is at APS March Meeting in Boulder, with broader release to follow.Read the blog ...

What does it take to build a thriving quantum ecosystem from the ground up? Martin Laforest, physicist-turned-venture-capitalist at Quantacet, reveals how Quebec transformed a 1970s academic bet into a $400M quantum powerhouse?and why the industry's biggest misconception is thinking quantum computing is either a science problem or an engineering problem when it's clearly both.

Summary
In this conversation, Sebastian sits down with Martin Laforest, partner at Quantacet, Canada's quantum-only VC fund, to explore the messy realities of building quantum companies and ecosystems. Martin brings a rare perspective: PhD from Waterloo's Institute for Quantum Computing, eight years leading scientific outreach, a stint building a post-quantum cryptography startup with ex-BlackBerry executives, and now investing in the quantum future.

This episode is for anyone trying to understand how quantum technology actually gets built?not the hype, but the infrastructure, the collaboration models, the government investment strategies, and the patience required. Whether you're technical or just curious about how transformative technologies emerge, Martin offers a grounded view of what's working, what's not, and why the quantum revolution looks more like slow, deliberate ecosystem building than overnight breakthroughs.

What You'll Learn

Why quantum is both a science and engineering challenge and how the vacuum tube-to-transistor transition illuminates today's quantum journeyHow Quebec built a world-class quantum ecosystem starting from a 1970s university bet on condensed matter physics through to today's $400M provincial investmentThe infrastructure that matters: why Sherbrooke's six shared dilution fridges and quantum communication testbed represent a different collaboration modelWhat VCs actually look for in quantum startups beyond the technology?and why Martin believes early-stage investing is about building great companies, not just returnsThe three most dangerous misconceptions plaguing quantum technology (spoiler: it's not just about quantum computers)How regional quantum ecosystems should compete and collaborate with lessons from Netherlands, Chicago, and UK programsWhy fundamental research funding can't stop even as commercialization accelerates?and what happens when governments don't understand this balanceWhat "mutualized infrastructure" means in practice and why no single entity owning critical testbeds might be the secret sauceHow federal and provincial politics shape quantum strategy in Canada and what other countries can learn from it

Resources & Links

QuantacetInstitute for Quantum Computing (IQC)University of Sherbrooke Institute QuantiqueC2MI semiconductor fabrication facilityQuantumDELTA

Key Insights

On the science vs. engineering debate:
"People ask if quantum computing is still a science problem or just engineering. It's both. Look at the vacuum tube to transistor transition?we needed new physics and new engineering. That's exactly where we are now."

On ecosystem building:
"Sherbrooke made a bet on condensed matter physics in the 1970s. Fifty years later, they have six dilution fridges available for rent and a quantum communication testbed owned by no one. That infrastructure patience is what builds real ecosystems."

On VC philosophy:
"Early-stage venture capital is about building great companies. The money is a byproduct. If you focus on the returns first, you'll make the wrong decisions every time."

On common misconceptions:
"The biggest myth is that quantum technology equals quantum computing. We have quantum sensors, quantum communications, post-quantum crypto?this is a multi-faceted industry, not a single magic box."

On balancing research and commercialization:
"You can't stop funding fundamental research just because commercialization is happening. The vacuum tube didn't kill physics research. We need both engines running or the whole thing stalls."

Join the Conversation

Subscribe to The New Quantum Era wherever you get your podcasts to hear more conversations with the people building quantum technology's future.

What if consciousness isn?t generated by the brain, but emerges from its interaction with a ubiquitous quantum field? In this episode, Sebastian Hassinger and theoretical physicist Joachim Keppler explore a zero?point field model of consciousness that could reshape both neuroscience and quantum theory.

Summary
This conversation is for anyone curious about the ?hard problem? of consciousness, quantum brain theories, and the future of quantum biology and AI. Joachim shares his QED?based framework where the brain couples to the electromagnetic zero?point field via glutamate, producing macroscopic quantum effects that correlate with conscious states. You?ll hear how this model connects existing neurophysiology, testable predictions, and deep questions in philosophy of mind.

What You?ll Learn

 How a quantum field theorist ended up founding an institute for the scientific study of consciousness and building a rigorous, physics?grounded framework for it. Why consciousness may hinge on a universal principle: the brain?s resonant coupling to the electromagnetic zero?point field, not just classical neural firing. What macroscopic quantum phenomena in the brain look like, including coherence domains, self?organized criticality, and long?range synchronized activity patterns linked to conscious states. How glutamate, the brain?s most abundant neurotransmitter, could act as the molecular interface to the zero?point field inside cortical microcolumns. Which concrete experiments could confirm or falsify this theory, from detecting macroscopic quantum coherence in neurotransmitter molecules to measuring glutamate?driven biophoton emissions with a specific quantum ?fingerprint.? Why Joachim sees the zero?point field as a dual?aspect ?psychophysical? field and how that reframes classic philosophy?of?mind debates about qualia and the nature of awareness. What this perspective implies for artificial consciousness and whether future quantum computers or engineered systems might couple to the field and become genuinely conscious rather than merely simulating it. How quantum biology could offer an evolutionary path for consciousness, extending field?coupling ideas from the human brain down to simpler organisms and bacterial signaling.

Resources & Links

DIWISS Research Institute for the scientific study of consciousness ?Macroscopic quantum effects in the brain: new insights into the neural correlates of consciousness? ? Research article outlining the QED/zero?point field model and its neurophysiological connections. ?A New Way of Looking at the Neural Correlates of Consciousness? ? Paper introducing the idea that the full spectrum of qualia is encoded in the zero?point field. ?The Role of the Brain in Conscious Processes: A New Way of Understanding the Neural Correlates of Consciousness? ? Further develops the brain?as?interface, ZPF?based frameworkHuman high intelligence is involved in spectral redshift of biophotonic activities in the brain - studies on glutamate?linked emissions in brain tissue ? Experiments that inform potential tests of the theory.

Key Quotes or Insights

 ?The brain may not produce consciousness; it may tune into it by coupling to the zero?point field, like a resonant oscillator accessing a universal substrate of awareness.? ?Conscious states correspond to macroscopic quantum patterns in the brain?highly synchronized, near?critical dynamics that disappear when the field coupling breaks down in unconsciousness.? ?Glutamate?rich cortical microcolumns could be the molecular gateway to the zero?point field, forming coherence domains that orchestrate neuronal firing from the bottom up.? ?If we can engineer systems that replicate this field?coupling mechanism, we might not just simulate consciousness?we might be building genuinely conscious artificial systems.? ?Quantum biology could reveal an evolutionary continuum of field?coupling, from simple organisms to humans, reframing how we think about life, intelligence, and mind.?

What happens when a former elite gymnast with ?weak math and science? becomes dean of one of the world?s most influential quantum engineering schools? In this episode of *The New Quantum Era*, Sebastian Hassinger talks with Prof. Nadya Mason about quantum 2.0, building a regional quantum ecosystem, and why she sees leadership as a way to serve and build community rather than accumulate power.

Summary 
This conversation is for anyone curious about how quantum materials research, academic leadership, and large?scale public investment are shaping the next phase of quantum technology. You?ll hear how Nadya?s path from AT&T Bell Labs to dean of the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at UChicago informs her service?oriented approach to leadership and ecosystem building.  The discussion spans superconducting devices, Chicago?s quantum hub strategy, and what it will actually take to build a diverse, job?ready quantum workforce in time for the coming wave of applications.

What You?ll Learn

How a non?linear path (elite sports, catching up in math, early lab work) can lead to a career at the center of quantum science and engineering.Why condensed matter and quantum materials are the quiet ?bottleneck? for scalable quantum computing, networking, and transduction technologies.How superconducting junctions, Andreev bound states, and hybrid devices underpin today?s superconducting qubits and topological quantum efforts.The difference between ?quantum 1.0? (lasers, GPS, nuclear power, semiconductors) and ?quantum 2.0? focused on sensing, communication, and computation.How the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and the Chicago Quantum Exchange are deliberately knitting together universities, national labs, industry, and state funding into a cohesive quantum cluster.Why Nadya frames leadership as building communities around science and opportunity, and what that means in a faculty?driven environment where ?nobody works for the dean.?Concrete ways Illinois and UChicago are approaching quantum education and workforce development, from REUs and the Open Quantum Initiative to the South Side Science Fair.Why early math confidence plus hands?on research experience are the two most important ingredients for preparing the next generation of quantum problem?solvers.

Resources & Links  

Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago ? Nadya?s home institution, pioneering an interdisciplinary, theme?based approach to quantum, materials for sustainability, and immunoengineering.Chicago Quantum Exchange ? Regional hub connecting universities, national labs, and industry to build quantum networks, workforce, and commercialization pathways.South Side Science Fair (UChicago) ? Large?scale outreach effort bringing thousands of local students to campus to encounter science and quantum concepts early.

Key Quotes or Insights  

?A rainbow is more beautiful because I understand the fraction behind it??how physics deepened Nadya?s sense of wonder rather than reducing it.?In condensed matter, the devil is in the material?and the interfaces??why microscopic imperfections and humidity?induced ?schmutz? can make or break quantum devices.?Quantum 1.0 gave us lasers, GPS, and nuclear power; quantum 2.0 is about using quantum systems to *process* information through sensing, networking, and computing.??If you want to accumulate power, academia is not the place?faculty don?t work for me. Leadership here is about building community and creating opportunities.??If we want to lead in quantum as a country, we have to make math skills and real lab experiences accessible early, so kids even know this world exists as an option.?

Calls to Action  

Subscribe to The New Quantum Era and share this episode with a colleague or student who?s curious about quantum careers and leadership beyond the usual narratives.If you?re an educator or program lead, explore ways to bring hands?on research experiences and accessible math support into your classroom or community programs.If you?re in industry, academia, or policy, consider how you or your organization can plug into regional quantum ecosystems like Chicago?s to support training, internships, and inclusive hiring.

Your host, Sebastian Hassinger, talks with Alumni Ventures managing partner Chris Sklarin about how one of the most active US venture firms is building a quantum portfolio while ?democratizing? access to VC as an asset class for individual investors. They dig into Alumni Ventures? co?investor model, how the firm thinks about quantum hardware, software, and sensing, and why quantum should be viewed as a long?term platform with near?term pockets of commercial value. Chris also explains how accredited investors can start seeing quantum deal flow through Alumni Ventures? syndicate.

Chris? background and Alumni Ventures in a nutshell

Chris is an MIT?trained engineer who spent years in software startups before moving into venture more than 20 years ago.Alumni Ventures is a roughly decade?old firm focused on ?democratizing venture capital? for individual investors, with over 11,000 LPs, more than 1.5 billion dollars raised, and about 1,300 active portfolio companies.The firm has been repeatedly recognized as a highly active VC by CB Insights, PitchBook, Stanford GSB, and Time magazine.

How Alumni Ventures structures access for individuals

Most investors come in as individuals into LLC?structured funds rather than traditional GP/LP funds.Alumni Ventures always co?invests alongside a lead VC, using the lead?s conviction, sector expertise, and diligence as a key signal.The platform also offers a syndicate where accredited investors can opt in to see and back individual deals, including those tagged for quantum.

Quantum in the Alumni Ventures portfolio

Alumni Ventures has 5?6 quantum?related investments spanning hardware, software, and applications, including Rigetti, Atom Computing, Q?CTRL, Classiq, and quantum?error?mitigation startup Qedma/Cadmus.Rigetti was one of the firm?s earliest quantum investments; the team followed on across multiple rounds and was able to return capital to investors after Rigetti?s SPAC and a strong period in the public markets.Chris also highlights interest in Cycle Dre (a new company from Rigetti?s former CTO) and application?layer companies like InQ and quantum sensing players.

Barbell funding and the ?3?5 year? view

Chris responds to the now?familiar ?barbell? funding picture in quantum? a few heavily funded players and a long tail of small companies?by emphasizing near?term revenue over pure science experiments.He sees quantum entering an era where companies must show real products, customers, and revenue, not just qubit counts.Over the next 3?5 years, he expects meaningful commercial traction first in areas like quantum sensing, navigation, and point solutions in chemistry and materials, with full?blown fault?tolerant systems further out.

Hybrid compute and NVIDIA?s signal to the market

Chris points to Jensen Huang?s GTC 2025 keynote slide on NVIDIA?s hybrid quantum?GPU ecosystem, where Alumni Ventures portfolio companies such as Atom Computing, Classiq, and Rigetti appeared.He notes that NVIDIA will not put ?science projects? on that slide?those partnerships reflect a view that quantum processors will sit tightly coupled next to GPUs to handle specific workloads.He also mentions a large commercial deal between NVIDIA and Groq (a classical AI chip company in his portfolio) as another sign of a more heterogeneous compute future that quantum will plug into.

Where near?term quantum revenue shows up

Chris expects early commercial wins in sensing, GPS?denied navigation, and other narrow but valuable applications before broad ?quantum advantage? in general?purpose computing.Software and middleware players can generate revenue sooner by making today?s hardware more stable, more efficient, or easier to program, and by integrating into classical and AI workflows.He stresses that investors love clear revenue paths that fit into the 10?year life of a typical venture fund.

University spin?outs, clustering, and deal flow

Alumni Ventures certainly sees clustering around strong quantum schools like MIT, Harvard, and Yale, but Chris emphasizes that the ?alumni angle? is secondary to the quality of the venture deal.Mature tech?transfer offices and standard Delaware C?corps mean spinning out quantum IP from universities is now a well?trodden path.Chris leans heavily on network effects?Alumni Ventures? 800,000?person network and 1,300?company CEO base?as a key channel for discovering the most interesting quantum startups.

Managing risk in a 100?hardware?company world

With dozens of hardware approaches now in play, Chris uses Alumni Ventures? co?investor model and lead?investor diligence as a filter rather than picking purely on physics bets.He looks for teams with credible near?term commercial pathways and for mechanisms like sensing or middleware that can create value even if fault?tolerant systems arrive later than hoped.He compares quantum to past enabling waves like nanotech, where the biggest impact often shows up as incremental improvements rather than a single ?big bang? moment.

Democratizing access to quantum venture

Alumni Ventures allows accredited investors to join its free syndicate, self?attest accreditation, and then see deal materials?watermarked and under NDA?for individual investments, including quantum.Chris encourages people to think in terms of diversified funds (20?30 deals per fund year) rather than only picking single names in what is a power?law asset class.He frames quantum as a long?duration infrastructure play with near?term pockets of usefulness, where venture can help investors participate in the upside without getting ahead of reality.

Alejandra Y. Castillo, former Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development and now Chancellor Senior Fellow for Economic Development at Purdue University Northwest, joins your host, Sebastian Hassinger, to discuss how quantum technologies can drive inclusive regional economic growth and workforce development. She shares lessons from federal policy, Midwest tech hubs, and cross-state coalitions working to turn quantum from lab research into broad-based opportunity.

Themes and key insights

Quantum as near-term and multi-faceted: Castillo pushes back on the idea that quantum is distant, emphasizing that computing, sensing, and communications are already maturing and attracting serious investment from traditional industries like biopharma.From federal de-risking to regional ecosystems: She describes the federal role as de-risking early innovation through programs under the CHIPS and Science Act while stressing that long-term success depends on regional coalitions across states, universities, industry, philanthropy, and local government.Inclusive workforce and supply-chain planning: Castillo argues that ?quantum workforce? must go beyond PhDs to include a mapped ecosystem of jobs, skills, suppliers, housing, and infrastructure so that local communities see quantum as opportunity, not displacement.National security, urgency, and inclusion: She frames sustained quantum investment as both an economic and national security imperative, warning that inconsistent U.S. funding risks falling behind foreign competitors while also noting that private capital alone may ignore inclusion and regional equity.

Notable quotes

?We either focus on the urgency or we?re going to have to focus on the emergency.??No one state is going to do this? This is a regional play that we will be called to answer for the sake of a national security play as well.??We want to make sure that entire regions can actually reposition themselves from an economic perspective, so that people can stay in the places they call home?now we?re talking about quantum.??Are we going to make that same mistake again, or should we start to think about and plan how quantum is going to also impact us??

Articles, papers, and initiatives mentioned

America's quantum future depends on regional ecosystems like Chicago's ? Alejandra?s editorial in Crain?s Chicago Business calling for sustained, coordinated investment in quantum as a national security and economic priority, highlighting the role of the Midwest and tech hubs.CHIPS and Science Act (formerly ?Endless Frontier?) ? U.S. legislation that authorized large-scale funding for semiconductors and science, enabling EDA?s Tech Hubs and NSF?s Engines programs to back regional coalitions in emerging technologies like quantum.EDA Tech Hubs and NSF Engines programs ? Federal initiatives that fund multi-state consortiums combining universities, companies, and civic organizations to build durable regional innovation ecosystems, including quantum-focused hubs in the Midwest.National Quantum Algorithms Center ? This center explores quantum algorithms for real-world problems such as natural disasters and biopharma discovery, aiming to connect quantum advances directly to societal challenges.Roberts Impact Lab at Purdue Northwest (with Quantum Corridor) ? A testbed and workforce development center focused on quantum, AI, and post-quantum cryptography, designed to prepare local talent and companies for quantum-era applications.Chicago Quantum Exchange and regional partners (Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin) ? A multi-university and multi-state collaboration that pioneered a model for regional quantum ecosystems.

In this episode of The New Quantum Era, your host Sebastian Hassinger is joined by Chetan Nayak, Technical Fellow at Microsoft, professor of physics at the University of California Santa Barbara, and driving force behind Microsoft's quantum hardware R&D program. They discuss a modality of qubit that has not been covered on the podcast before, based on Majorana fermonic behaviors, which have the promise of providing topological protection against the errors which are such a challenge to quantum computing.

Guest Bio

 Chetan Nayak is a Technical Fellow at Microsoft and leads the company?s topological quantum hardware program, including the Majorana?1 processor based on Majorana?zero?mode qubits.  He is also a professor of physics at UCSB and a leading theorist in topological phases of matter, non?Abelian anyons, and topological quantum computation.  Chetan co?founded Microsoft?s Station Q  in 2005, building a bridge from theoretical proposals for topological qubits to engineered semiconductor?superconductor devices. 

What we talk about

 Chetan?s first exposure to quantum computing in Peter Shor?s lectures at the Institute for Advanced Study, and how that intersected with his PhD work with Frank Wilczek on non?Abelian topological phases and Majorana zero modes.  The early days of topological quantum computation: fractional quantum Hall states at , emergent quasiparticles, and the realization that braiding these excitations naturally implements Clifford gates.  How Alexei Kitaev?s toric?code and Majorana?chain ideas connected abstract topology to concrete condensed?matter systems, and led to Chetan?s collaboration with Michael Freedman and Sankar Das Sarma.  The 2005 proposal for a gallium?arsenide quantum Hall device realizing a topological qubit, and the founding of Station Q to turn such theoretical blueprints into experimental devices in partnership with academic labs.  Why Microsoft pivoted from quantum Hall platforms to semiconductor?superconductor nanowires: leveraging the Fu?Kane proximity effect, spin?orbit?coupled semiconductors, and a huge material design space?while wrestling with the challenges of interfaces and integration.  The evolution of the tetron architecture: two parallel topological nanowires with four Majorana zero modes, connected by a trivial superconducting wire and coupled to quantum dots that enable native Z? and X?parity loop measurements.  How topological superconductivity allows a superconducting island to host even or odd total electron parity without a local signature, and why that nonlocal encoding provides hardware?level protection for the qubit?s logical 0 and 1.  Microsoft?s roadmap in a 2D ?quality vs. complexity? space: improving topological gap, readout signal?to?noise, and measurement fidelity while scaling from single tetrons to error?corrected logical qubits and, ultimately, utility?scale systems.  Error correction on top of topological qubits: using surface codes and Hastings?Haah Floquet codes with native two?qubit parity measurements, and targeting hundreds of physical tetrons per logical qubit and thousands of logical qubits for applications like Shor?s algorithm and quantum chemistry.  Engineering for scale: digital, on?off control of quantum?dot couplings; cryogenic CMOS to fan out control lines inside the fridge; and why tetron size and microsecond?scale operations sit in a sweet spot for both physics and classical feedback.  Where things stand today: the Majorana?1 chiplet, recent tetron loop?measurement experiments, DARPA?s US2QC program, and how external users?starting with government and academic partners?will begin to access these devices before broader Azure Quantum integration. 

Papers and resources mentioned
These are representative papers and resources that align with topics and allusions in the conversation; they are good entry points if you want to go deeper.

Non?Abelian Anyons and Topological Quantum Computation ? S. Das Sarma, M. Freedman, C. Nayak, Rev. Mod. Phys. 80, 1083 (2008); 
Early device proposals

Sankar Das Sarma, Michael Freedman, and Chetan Nayak, ?Topological quantum computation,? Physics Today 59(7), 32?38 (July 2006).Roadmap to fault?tolerant quantum computation using topological qubits ? C. Nayak et al., arXiv:2502.12252. Distinct lifetimes for X and Z loop measurements in a Majorana tetron - C. Nayaak et al., arXiv:2507.08795.Majorana qubit codes that also correct odd-weight errors - S. Kundu and B. Reichardt, arXiv:2311.01779. Microsoft's Majorana 1 chip carves new path for quantum computing, Microsoft blog post 

In this episode of The New Quantum Era, Sebastian talks with Hrant Gharibyan, CEO and co?founder of BlueQubit, about ?peaked circuits? and the challenge of verifying quantum advantage. They unpack Scott Aaronson and Yuxuan Zhang?s original peaked?circuit proposal, BlueQubit?s scalable implementation on real hardware, and a new public challenge that invites the community to attack their construction using the best classical algorithms available. Along the way, they explore how this line of work connects to cryptography, hardness assumptions, and the near?term role of quantum devices as powerful scientific instruments.

Topics Covered

Why verifying quantum advantage is hard The core problem: if a quantum device claims to solve a task that is classi-cally intractable, how can anyone check that it did the right thing? Random circuit sampling (as in Google?s 2019 ?supremacy? experiment and follow?on work from Google and Quantinuum) is believed to be classically hard to simulate, but the verification metrics (like cross?entropy benchmarking) are themselves classically intractable at scale.What are peaked circuits? Aaronson and Zhang?s idea: construct circuits that look like random circuits in every respect, but whose output distribution secretly has one special bit string with an anomalously high probability (the ?peak?). The designer knows the secret bit string, so a quantum device can be verified by checking that measurement statistics visibly reveal the peak in a modest number of shots, while finding that same peak classically should be as hard as simulating a random circuit.BlueQubit?s scalable construction and hardware demo BlueQubit extended the original 24?qubit, simulator?based peaked?circuit construction to much larger sizes using new classical protocols. Hrant explains their protocol for building peaked circuits on Quantinuum?s H2 processor with around 56 qubits, thousands of gates, and effectively all?to?all connectivity, while still hiding a single secret bit string that appears as a clear peak when run on the device.Obfuscation tricks and ?quantum steganography? The team uses multiple obfuscation layers (including ?swap? and ?sweeping? tricks) to transform simple peaked circuits into ones that are statistically indistinguishable from generic random circuits, yet still preserve the hidden peak.The BlueQubit Quantum Advantage Challenge To stress?test their hardness assumptions, BlueQubit has published concrete circuits and launched a public bounty (currently a quarter of a bitcoin) for anyone who can recover the secret bit string classically. The aim is to catalyze work on better classical simulation and de?quantization techniques; either someone closes the gap (forcing the protocol to evolve) or the standing bounty helps establish public trust that the task really is classically infeasible.Potential cryptographic angles Although the main focus is verification of quantum advantage, Hrant outlines how the construction has a cryptographic flavor: a secret bit string effectively acts as a key, and only a sufficiently powerful quantum device can efficiently ?decrypt? it by revealing the peak. Variants of the protocol could, in principle, yield schemes that are classically secure but only decryptable by quantum hardware, and even quantum?plus?key secure, though this remains speculative and secondary to the verification use case. From verification protocol to startup roadmap Hrant positions BlueQubit as an algorithm and capability company: deeply hardware?aware, but focused on building and analyzing advantage?style algorithms tailored to specific devices. The peaked?circuit work is one pillar in a broader effort that includes near?term scientific applications in condensed?matter physics and materials (e.g., Fermi?Hubbard models and out?of?time?ordered correlators) where quantum devices can already probe regimes beyond leading classical methods.Scientific advantage today, commercial advantage tomorrow Sebastian and Hrant emphasize that the first durable quantum advantages are likely to appear in scientific computing?acting as exotic lab instruments for physicists, chemists, and materials scientists?well before mass?market ?killer apps? arrive. Once robust, verifiable scientific advantage is established, scaling to larger models and more complex systems becomes a question of engineering, with clear lines of sight to industrial impact in sectors like pharmaceuticals, advanced materials, and manufacturing.

The challenge: https://app.bluequbit.io/hackathons/

Episode overview
This episode of The New Quantum Era features a conversation with Quantum Brilliance co?founder and CEO Mark Luo and independent board chair Brian Wong about diamond nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers as a platform for both quantum computing and quantum sensing. The discussion covers how NV centers work, what makes diamond?based qubits attractive at room temperature, and how to turn a lab technology into a scalable product and business.

What are diamond NV qubits? 
Mark explains how nitrogen vacancy centers in synthetic diamond act as stable room?temperature qubits, with a nitrogen atom adjacent to a missing carbon atom creating a spin system that can be initialized and read out optically or electronically. The rigidity and thermal properties of diamond remove the need for cryogenics, complex laser setups, and vacuum systems, enabling compact, low?power quantum devices that can be deployed in standard environments.

Quantum sensing to quantum computing 
NV centers are already enabling ultra?sensitive sensing, from nanoscale MRI and quantum microscopy to magnetometry for GPS?free navigation and neurotech applications using diamond chips under growing brain cells. Mark and Brian frame sensing not as a hedge but as a volume driver that builds the diamond supply chain, pushes costs down, and lays the manufacturing groundwork for future quantum computing chips.

Fabrication, scalability, and the value chain 
A key theme is the shift from early ?shotgun? vacancy placement in diamond to a semiconductor?style, wafer?like process with high?purity material, lithography, characterization, and yield engineering. Brian characterizes Quantum Brilliance?s strategy as ?lab to fab?: deciding where to sit in the value chain, leveraging the existing semiconductor ecosystem, and building a partner network rather than owning everything from chips to compilers.

Devices, roadmaps, and hybrid nodes 
Quantum Brilliance has deployed room?temperature systems with a handful of physical qubits at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Fraunhofer IAF, and the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre. Their roadmap targets application?specific quantum computing with useful qubit counts toward the end of this decade, and lunchbox?scale, fault?tolerant systems with on the order of 50?60 logical qubits in the mid?2030s.

Modality tradeoffs and business discipline 
Mark positions diamond NV qubits as mid?range in both speed and coherence time compared with superconducting and trapped?ion systems, with their differentiator being compute density, energy efficiency, and ease of deployment rather than raw gate speed. Brian brings four decades of experience in semiconductors, batteries, lidar, and optical networking to emphasize milestones, early revenue from sensing, and usability?arguing that making quantum devices easy to integrate and operate is as important as the underlying physics for attracting partners, customers, and investors.

Partners and ecosystem 
The episode underscores how collaborations with institutions such as Oak Ridge, Fraunhofer, and Pawsey, along with industrial and defense partners, help refine real?world requirements and ensure the technology solves concrete problems rather than just hitting abstract benchmarks. By co?designing with end users and complementary hardware and software vendors, Quantum Brilliance aims to ?democratize? access to quantum devices, moving them from specialized cryogenic labs to desks, edge systems, and embedded platforms.

Episode overview
John Martinis, Nobel laureate and former head of Google?s quantum hardware effort, joins Sebastian Hassinger on The New Quantum Era to trace the arc of superconducting quantum circuits?from the first demonstrations of macroscopic quantum tunneling in the 1980s to today?s push for wafer-scale, manufacturable qubit processors. The episode weaves together the physics of ?synthetic atoms? built from Josephson junctions, the engineering mindset needed to turn them into reliable computers, and what it will take for fabrication to unlock true large-scale quantum systems.

Guest bio
John M. Martinis is a physicist whose experiments on superconducting circuits with John Clarke and Michel Devoret at UC Berkeley established that a macroscopic electrical circuit can exhibit quantum tunneling and discrete energy levels, work recognized by the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics ?for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit.? He went on to lead the superconducting quantum computing effort at Google, where his team demonstrated large-scale, programmable transmon-based processors, and now heads Qolab (also referred to in the episode as CoLab), a startup focused on advanced fabrication and wafer-scale integration of superconducting qubits.

Martinis?s career sits at the intersection of precision instrumentation and systems engineering, drawing on a scientific ?family tree? that runs from Cambridge through John Clarke?s group at Berkeley, with strong theoretical influence from Michel Devoret and deep exposure to ion-trap work by Dave Wineland and Chris Monroe at NIST. Today his work emphasizes solving the hardest fabrication and wiring challenges?pursuing high-yield, monolithic, wafer-scale quantum processors that can ultimately host tens of thousands of reproducible qubits on a single 300 mm wafer.

Key topics

Macroscopic quantum tunneling on a chip: How Clarke, Devoret, and Martinis used a current-biased Josephson junction to show that a macroscopic circuit variable obeys quantum mechanics, with microwave control revealing discrete energy levels and tunneling between states?laying the groundwork for superconducting qubits. The episode connects this early work directly to the Nobel committee?s citation and to today?s use of Josephson circuits as ?synthetic atoms? for quantum computing.From DC devices to microwave qubits: Why early Josephson devices were treated as low-frequency, DC elements, and how failed experiments pushed Martinis and collaborators to re-engineer their setups with careful microwave filtering, impedance control, and dilution refrigerators?turning noisy circuits into clean, quantized systems suitable for qubits. This shift to microwave control and readout becomes the through-line from macroscopic tunneling experiments to modern transmon qubits and multi-qubit gates.Synthetic atoms vs natural atoms: The contrast between macroscopic ?synthetic atoms? built from capacitors, inductors, and Josephson junctions and natural atomic systems used in ion-trap and neutral-atom experiments by groups such as Wineland and Monroe at NIST, where single-atom control made the quantum nature more obvious. The conversation highlights how both approaches converged on single-particle control, but with very different technological paths and community cultures.Ten-year learning curve for devices: How roughly a decade of experiments on quantum noise, energy levels, and escape rates in superconducting devices built confidence that these circuits were ?clean enough? to support serious qubit experiments, just as early demonstrations such as Yasunobu Nakamura?s single-Cooper-pair box showed clear two-level behavior. This foundational work set the stage for the modern era of superconducting quantum computing across academia and industry.Surface code and systems thinking: Why Martinis immersed himself in the surface code, co-authoring a widely cited tutorial-style paper ?Surface codes: Towards practical large-scale quantum computation? (Austin G. Fowler, Matteo Mariantoni, John M. Martinis, Andrew N. Cleland, Phys. Rev. A 86, 032324, 2012; arXiv:1208.0928), to translate error-correction theory into something experimentalists could build. He describes this as a turning point that reframed his work at UC Santa Barbara and Google around full-system design rather than isolated device physics.Fabrication as the new frontier: Martinis argues that the physics of decent transmon-style qubits is now well understood and that the real bottleneck is industrial-grade fabrication and wiring, not inventing ever more qubit variants. His company?s roadmap targets wafer-scale integration?e.g., ~100-qubit test chips scaling toward ~20,000 qubits on a 300 mm wafer?with a focus on yield, junction reproducibility, and integrated escape wiring rather than current approaches that tile many 100-qubit dies into larger systems.From lab racks of cables to true integrated circuits: The episode contrasts today?s dilution-refrigerator setups?dominated by bulky wiring and discrete microwave components?with the vision of a highly integrated superconducting ?IC? where most of that wiring is brought on-chip. Martinis likens the current state to pre-IC TTL logic full of hand-wired boards and sees monolithic quantum chips as the necessary analog of CMOS integration for classical computing.Venture timelines vs physics timelines: A candid discussion of the mismatch between typical three-to-five-year venture capital expectations and the multi-decade arc of foundational technologies like CMOS and, now, quantum computing. Martinis suggests that the most transformative work?such as radically improved junction fabrication?looks slow and uncompetitive in the short term but can yield step-change advantages once it matures.Physics vs systems-engineering mindsets: How Martinis?s ?instrumentation family tree? and exposure to both American ?build first, then understand? and French ?analyze first, then build? traditions shaped his approach, and how system engineering often pushes him to challenge ideas that don?t scale. He frames this dual mindset as both a superpower and a source of tension when working in large organizations used to more incremental science-driven projects.Collaboration, competition, and pre-competitive science: Reflections on the early years when groups at Berkeley, Saclay, UCSB, NIST, and elsewhere shared results openly, pushing the field forward without cut-throat scooping, before activity moved into more corporate settings around 2010. Martinis emphasizes that many of the hardest scaling problems?especially in materials and fabrication?would benefit from deeper cross-organization collaboration, even as current business constraints limit what can be shared.

Papers and research discussed

?Energy-Level Quantization in the Zero-Voltage State of a Current-Biased Josephson Junction? ? John M. Martinis, Michel H. Devoret, John Clarke, Physical Review Letters 55, 1543 (1985). First clear observation of quantized energy levels and macroscopic quantum tunneling in a Josephson circuit, forming a core part of the work recognized by the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics. Link: https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.55.1543?Quantum Mechanics of a Macroscopic Variable: The Phase Difference of a Josephson Junction? ? J. Clarke et al., Science 239, 992 (1988). Further development of macroscopic quantum tunneling and wave-packet dynamics in current-biased Josephson junctions, demonstrating that a circuit-scale degree of freedom behaves as a quantum variable. Link (PDF via Cleland group):

Thomas Monz, CEO of AQT (Alpine Quantum Technologies), joins Sebastian Hassinger on The New Quantum Era to chart the evolution of ion-trap quantum computing ? from the earliest breakthroughs in Innsbruck to the latest roll-outs in supercomputing centers and on the cloud. Drawing on a career that spans pioneering research and entrepreneurial grit, Thomas details how AQT is bridging the gap between academic innovation and practical, scalable systems for real-world users. The conversation traverses AQT?s trajectory from component supplier to systems integrator, how standard 19-inch racks and open APIs are making quantum computing accessible in Europe?s top HPC centers, what Thomas anticipates from AQT launching on Amazon Braket, a quantum computing service from AWS, and what it will take for quantum to deliver genuine economic value.

Guest Bio  
Thomas Monz is the CEO and co-founder of AQT. A physicist by training, his work has helped transform trapped-ion quantum computing from a fundamental research topic into a commercially viable technology. After formative stints in quantum networks, high-precision measurement, and hands-on engineering, Thomas launched AQT alongside Peter Zoller and Rainer Blatt to make robust, scalable quantum computers available far beyond the university lab. He continues to be deeply engaged in both hardware development and quantum error correction research, with AQT now deploying systems at EuroHPC centers and bringing devices to Amazon Braket.

Key Topics  

From research prototype to rack-ready: How the pain points converting lab experiments into user-friendly hardware led AQT to build its quantum computers in the same form factors and standards as classical infrastructure, making plug-and-play integration with the supercomputing world possible.  Hybrid quantum?HPC deployments: Why systems-level thinking and classic IT lessons (such as respecting 19-inch rack and power standards) have enabled AQT to place ion-trap quantum computers in Germany and Poland as part of the EuroHPC initiative ? and why abstraction at the API level is essential for developer adoption.  Error correction and code flexibility: How the physical properties of trapped ions let AQT remain agnostic to changing error-correcting codes (from repetition and surface codes to LDPC), enabling swift adaptation to new breakthroughs via software rather than expensive new hardware ? and why end-users should never have to think about error correction themselves.  Scaling and networking: The challenges moving from one-dimensional to two-dimensional traps, the emerging role of integrated photonics, and AQT?s vision for interconnecting quantum computers within and across HPC sites using telecom-wavelength photons.  From local to cloud: What AQT?s move to Amazon Braket means for the range and sophistication of end-user applications, and how broad commercial access is shifting priorities from scientific exploration to real-world performance and customer-driven features.  Collaboration as leverage: How AQT?s open approach to integration?letting partners handle job scheduling, APIs, and orchestration?positions it as a technology supplier while benefiting from advances across Europe?s quantum ecosystem.

Why It Matters 
AQT?s journey illustrates how ?physics-first? quantum innovation is finally crossing into scalable, reliable real-world systems. By prioritizing integration, user experience, and abstraction, AQT is closing the gap between experimental platforms and actionable quantum advantage. From better error rates and hybrid deployments to global cloud infrastructure, the work Thomas describes signals a maturing industry rapidly moving toward both commercial impact and new scientific discoveries.

Episode Highlights  

How Thomas?s PhD work helped implement the first three-qubit ion-trap gates and formed the foundation for AQT?s technical strategy.  The pivotal insight: moving from bespoke lab systems to standardized products allowed quantum hardware to be deployed at scale.  The surprisingly smooth physical deployment of AQT machines across Europe, thanks to a ?box-on-a-truck? design.  Real talk on error correction, the importance of LDPC codes, and the flexibility built into trapped-ion architectures.  The future of quantum networking: sending entangled photons between HPC facilities, and the promise of scalable cluster architectures.  What cloud access brings to the roadmap, including new end-user requirements and opportunities for innovation in error correction as a service.

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This episode offers an insider?s perspective on the tight coupling of science and engineering required to bring quantum computing out of the lab and into industry. Thomas?s journey is a case study in building both technology and market readiness ? critical listening for anyone tracking the real-world ascent of quantum computers. In the spirit of full disclosure, Sebastian is an employee of AWS, working on quantum computing for the company, though he is not a member of the Braket service team. 

Quantum Materials and Nano-Fabrication with Javad Shabani

Guest: Dr. Javad Shabani is Professor of Physics at NYU, where he directs both the Center for Quantum Information Physics and the NYU Quantum Institute. He received his PhD from Princeton University in 2011, followed by postdoctoral research at Harvard and UC Santa Barbara in collaboration with Microsoft Research. His research focuses on novel states of matter at superconductor-semiconductor interfaces, mesoscopic physics in low-dimensional systems, and quantum device development. He is an expert in molecular beam epitaxy growth of hybrid quantum materials and has made pioneering contributions to understanding fractional quantum Hall states and topological superconductivity.

Episode Overview

Professor Javad Shabani shares his journey from electrical engineering to the frontiers of quantum materials research, discussing his pioneering work on semiconductor-superconductor hybrid systems, topological qubits, and the development of scalable quantum device fabrication techniques. The conversation explores his current work at NYU, including breakthrough research on germanium-based Josephson junctions and the launch of the NYU Quantum Institute.

Key Topics Discussed

Early Career and Quantum Journey
Javad describes his unconventional path into quantum physics, beginning with a double major in electrical engineering and physics at Sharif University of Technology after discovering John Preskill's open quantum information textbook. His graduate work at Princeton focused on the quantum Hall effect, particularly investigating the enigmatic five-halves fractional quantum Hall state and its potential connection to non-abelian anyons.

From Spin Qubits to Topological Quantum Computing
During his PhD, Javad worked with Jason Petta and Mansur Shayegan on early spin qubit experiments, experiencing firsthand the challenge of controlling single quantum dots. His postdoctoral work at Harvard with Charlie Marcus focused on scaling from one to two qubits, revealing the immense complexity of nanofabrication and materials science required for quantum control. This experience led him to topological superconductivity at UC Santa Barbara, where he collaborated with Microsoft Research on semiconductor-superconductor heterostructures.

Planar Josephson Junctions and Material Innovation
At NYU, Javad's group developed planar two-dimensional Josephson junctions using indium arsenide semiconductors with aluminum superconductors, moving away from one-dimensional nanowires toward more scalable fabrication approaches. In 2018-2019, his team published groundbreaking results in Physical Review Letters showing signatures of topological phase transitions in these hybrid systems.

Gatemon Qubits and Hybrid Systems
The conversation explores Javad's recent work on gatemon qubits?gate-tunable superconducting transmon qubits that leverage semiconductor properties for fast switching in the nanosecond regime. While indium arsenide's piezoelectric properties may limit qubit coherence, the material shows promise as a fast coupler between qubits. This research, published in Physical Review X, represents a convergence of superconducting circuit techniques with semiconductor physics.

Breakthrough in Germanium-Based Devices
Javad reveals exciting forthcoming research accepted in Nature Nanotechnology on creating vertical Josephson junctions entirely from germanium. By doping germanium with gallium to make it superconducting, then alternating with undoped semiconducting germanium, his team has achieved wafer-scale fabrication of three-layer superconductor-semiconductor-superconductor junctions. This approach enables placing potentially 20 million junctions on a single wafer, opening pathways toward CMOS-compatible quantum device manufacturing.

NYU Quantum Institute and Regional Ecosystem
The episode discusses the launch of the NYU Quantum Institute under Javad's leadership, designed to coordinate quantum research across physics, engineering, chemistry, mathematics, and computer science. The Institute aims to connect fundamental research with application-focused partners in finance, insurance, healthcare, and communications throughout New York City. Javad describes NYU's quantum networking project with five nodes across Manhattan and Brooklyn, leveraging NYU's distributed campus fiber infrastructure for short-distance quantum communication.

Academic Collaboration and the New York Quantum Ecosystem
Javad explains how NYU collaborates with Columbia, Princeton, Yale, Cornell, RPI, Stevens Institute, and City College to build a Northeast quantum corridor. The annual New York Quantum Summit (now in its fourth year) brings together academics, government labs including AFRL and Brookhaven, consulting firms, and industry partners. This regional approach complements established hubs like the Chicago Quantum Exchange while addressing New York's unique strengths in finance and dense urban infrastructure.

Materials Science Challenges and Interfaces
The conversation delves into fundamental materials science puzzles, particularly the asymmetric nature of material interfaces. Javad explains how material A may grow well on material B, but B cannot grow on A due to polar interface incompatibilities?a critical challenge for vertical device fabrication. He draws parallels to aluminum oxide Josephson junctions, where the bottom interface is crystalline but the top interface grows on amorphous oxide, potentially contributing to two-level system noise.

Industry Integration and Practical Applications
Javad discusses NYU's connections to chip manufacturing through the CHIPS Act, linking academic research with 200-300mm wafer-scale operations at NY Creates. His group also participates in the Co-design Center for Quantum Advantage (C2QA)  based at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Notable Quotes

"Behind every great experimentalist, there is a greater theorist."

"A lot of these kind of application things, the end users are basically in big cities, including New York...people who care at finance financial institutions, people like insurance, medical for sensing and communication."

"You don't wanna spend time on doing the exact same thing...but I do feel we need to be more and bigger."

Vijoy Pandey joins Sebastian Hassinger for this episode of The New Quantum Era to discuss Cisco's ambitious vision for quantum networking?not as a far-future technology, but as infrastructure that solves real problems today. Leading Outshift by Cisco, their incubation group and Cisco Research, Vijoy explains how quantum networks are closer than quantum computers, why distributed quantum computing is the path to scale, and how entanglement-based protocols can tackle immediate classical challenges in security, synchronization, and coordination. The conversation spans from Vijoy's origin story building a Hindi chatbot in the late 1980s to Cisco's groundbreaking room-temperature quantum entanglement chip developed with UC Santa Barbara, and explores use cases from high-frequency trading to telescope array synchronization.

Guest Bio
Vijoy Pandey is Senior Vice President at Outshift by Cisco, the company's internal incubation group, where he also leads Cisco Research and Cisco Developer Relations (DevNet). His career in computing began in high school building AI chatbots, eventually leading him through distributed systems and software engineering roles including time at Google. At Cisco, Vijoy oversees a portfolio spanning quantum networking, security, observability, and emerging technologies, operating at the intersection of research and product incubation within the company's Chief Strategy Office.

Key Topics
From research to systems: How Cisco's quantum work is transitioning from physics research to systems engineering, focusing on operability, deployment, and practical applications rather than building quantum computers.
The distributed quantum computing vision: Cisco's North Star is building quantum network fabric that enables scale-out distributed quantum computing across heterogeneous QPU technologies (trapped ion, superconducting, etc.) within data centers and between them?making "the quantum network the solution" to quantum's scaling problem and classical computing's physics problem.
Room-temperature entanglement chip: Cisco and UC Santa Barbara developed a prototype photonic chip that generates 200 million entangled photon pairs per second at room temperature, telecom wavelengths, and less than 1 milliwatt power?enabling deployment on existing fiber infrastructure without specialized equipment.
Classical use cases today: How quantum networking protocols solve present-day problems in synchronization (global database clocks, telescope arrays), decision coordination (high-frequency trading across geographically distributed exchanges), and security (intrusion detection using entanglement collapse) without requiring massive qubit counts or cryogenic systems.
Quantum telepathy for HFT: The concept of using entanglement and teleportation to coordinate decisions across locations faster than the speed of light allows classical communication?enabling fairness guarantees for high-frequency trading across data centers in different cities.
Meeting customers where they are: Cisco's strategy to deploy quantum networking capabilities alongside existing classical infrastructure, supporting a spectrum from standard TLS to post-quantum cryptography to QKD, rather than requiring greenfield deployments.
The transduction grand challenge: Why building the "NIC card" that connects quantum processors to quantum networks?the transducer?is the critical bottleneck for distributed quantum computing and the key technical risk Cisco is addressing.
Product-company fit in corporate innovation: How Outshift operates like internal startups within Cisco, focusing on problems adjacent to the company's four pillars (networking, security, observability, collaboration) with both technology risk and market risk, while maintaining agility through a framework adapted from Cisco's acquisition integration playbook.

Why It Matters
Cisco's systems-level approach to quantum networking represents a paradigm shift from viewing quantum as distant future technology to infrastructure deployable today for specific high-value use cases. By focusing on room-temperature, telecom-compatible entanglement sources and software stacks that integrate with existing networks, Cisco is positioning quantum networking as the bridge between classical and quantum computing worlds?potentially accelerating practical quantum applications from decades away to 5-10 years while solving immediate enterprise challenges in security and coordination.

Episode Highlights
Vijoy's journey from building Hindi chatbots on a BBC Micro in the late 1980s to leading quantum innovation at Cisco. 
Why quantum networking is "here and now" while quantum computing is still being figured out. 
The spectrum of quantum network applications: from near-term classical coordination problems to the long-term quantum internet connecting quantum data centers and sensors. 
How entanglement enables provable intrusion detection on standard fiber networks alongside classical IP traffic. 
The "step function moment" coming for quantum: why the transition from physics to systems engineering means a ChatGPT-like breakthrough is imminent, and why this one will be harder to catch up on than software-based revolutions. 
Design partner collaborations with financial services, federal agencies, and energy companies on security and synchronization use cases.
Cisco's quantum software stack prototypes: Quantum Compiler (for distributed quantum error correction), Quantum Alert (security), and QuantumSync (decision coordination)."

This episode is a first for the show - a repeat of a previously posted interview on The New Quantum Era podcast! I think you'll agree the reason for the repeat is a great one - this episode, recorded at the APS Global Summit in March, features a conversation John Martinis, co-founder and CTO of QoLab and newly minted Nobel Laureate! Last week the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences made an announcement that John would share the 2025 Nobel Prize for Physics with John Clarke and Michel Devoret ?for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit.? It should come as no surprise that John and I talked about macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantization in electrical circuits, since those are precisely the attributes that make a superconducting qubit work for computation.  

The work John is doing at Qolab, a superconducting qubit company seeking to build a million qubit device, is really impressive, as befits a Nobel Laureate and a pioneer in the field. In our conversation we explore the strategic shifts, collaborative efforts, and technological innovations that are pushing the boundaries of quantum computing closer to building scalable, million-qubit systems. 

Key Highlights

Emerging from Stealth Mode & Million-Qubit System Paper:Discussion on QoLab?s transition from stealth mode and their comprehensive paper on building scalable million-qubit systems.Focus on a systematic approach covering the entire stack.Collaboration with Semiconductor Companies:Unique business model emphasizing collaboration with semiconductor companies to leverage external expertise.Comparison with bigger players like Google, who can fund the entire stack internally.Innovative Technological Approaches:Integration of wafer-scale technology and advanced semiconductor manufacturing processes.Emphasis on adjustable qubits and adjustable couplers for optimizing control and scalability.Scaling Challenges and Solutions:Strategies for achieving scale, including using large dilution refrigerators and exploring optical communication for modular design.Plans to address error correction and wiring challenges using brute force scaling and advanced materials.Future Vision and Speeding Up Development:QoLab?s goal to significantly accelerate the timeline toward achieving a million-qubit system.Insight into collaborations with HP Enterprises, NVIDIA, Quantum Machines, and others to combine expertise in hardware and software.Research Papers Mentioned in this Episode:Position paper on building scalable million-qubit systems 

Pierre Desjardins is the cofounder of C12, a Paris-based quantum computing hardware startup that specializes in carbon nanotube-based spin qubits. Notably, Pierre founded the company alongside his twin brother, Mathieu, making them the only twin-led deep-tech startups that we know of! Pierre?s journey is unconventional?he is a rare founder in quantum hardware without a PhD, drawing instead on engineering and entrepreneurial experience. The episode dives into what drew him to quantum computing and the pivotal role COVID-19 played in catalyzing his career shift from consulting to quantum technology.

C12?s Technology and Unique Angle

C12 focuses on developing high-performance qubits using single-wall carbon nanotubes. Unlike companies centered on silicon or germanium spin qubits, C12 fabricates carbon nanotubes, tests them for impurities, and then assembles them on silicon chips as a final step. The team exclusively uses isotopically pure carbon-12 to minimize magnetic and nuclear spin noise, yielding a uniquely clean environment for electron confinement. This yields ultra-low charge noise and enables the company to build highly coherent qubits with remarkable material purity.

Key Technical Innovations

Spin-Photon Coupling: C12?s system stands out for driving spin qubits using microwave photons, drawing inspiration from superconducting qubit architectures. This enables the implementation of a ?quantum bus??a superconducting interconnect that allows long-range coupling between distant qubits, sidestepping the scaling bottleneck of nearest-neighbor architectures.Addressable Qubits: Each carbon nanotube qubit can be tuned on or off the quantum bus by manipulating the double quantum dot confinement, providing flexible connectivity and the ability to maximize coherence in a memory mode.Stability and Purity: Pierre emphasizes that C12?s suspended architecture dramatically reduces charge noise and results in exceptional stability, with minimal calibration drift, over years-long measurement campaigns?a stark contrast with many superconducting platforms.

Recent Milestones

C12 celebrated its fifth anniversary and recently demonstrated the first qubit operation on their platform. The company achieved ultra-long coherence times for spin qubits coupled via a quantum bus, publishing these results in *Nature*. The next milestone is demonstrating two-qubit gates mediated by microwave photons?a development that could set a new benchmark for both C12 and the wider quantum computing industry.

Challenges and Outlook

C12?s current focus is scaling up from single-qubit demonstrations to multi-qubit gates with long-range connectivity, a crucial step toward error correction and practical algorithms. Pierre notes the rapid evolution of error-correcting codes, remarking that some codes they are now working on did not exist two years ago. The interview closes with an eye on the race to demonstrate long-distance quantum gates, with Pierre hoping C12 will make industry headlines before larger competitors like IBM.

Notable Quotes

?The more you dig into this technology, the more you understand why this is just the way to build a quantum computer.??We have the lowest charge noise compared to any kind of spin qubit?this is because of our suspended architecture.??What we introduced is the concept of a quantum bus? really the only way to scale spin qubits.?

Episode Themes

Entrepreneurship in deep tech without a traditional research backgroundTechnical deep dive on carbon nanotube spin qubits and quantum bus architectureMaterials science as the foundation of scalable quantum hardwareThe importance of coherence, noise reduction, and tunable architectures in quantum system designThe dynamic evolution of error correction and industry competition

Listeners interested in cutting-edge hardware, quantum startup journeys, or the science behind scalable qubit platforms will find this episode essential. Pierre provides unique clarity on why C12?s approach offers both conceptual and practical advantages for the future of quantum computing,

Dr. Eli Levenson-Falk joins Sebastian Hassinger, host of The New Quantum Era to discuss his group?s recent advances in quantum measurement and control, focusing on a new protocol that enables measurements more sensitive than the Ramsey limit. Published in Nature Communications in April 2025, this work demonstrates a coherence stabilized technique that not only enhances sensitivity for quantum sensing but also promises improvements in calibration speed and robustness for superconducting quantum devices and other platforms. The conversation travels from Eli?s origins in physics, through the conceptual challenges of decoherence, to experimental storytelling, and highlights the collaborative foundation underpinning this breakthrough.

Guest Bio
Eli Levenson-Falk is an Associate Professor at USC. He earned his PhD at UC Berkeley with Professor Irfan Siddiqui, and now leads an experimental physics research group working with superconducting devices for quantum information science.

Key Topics

The new protocol described in the paper: ?Beating the Ramsey Limit on Sensing with Deterministic Qubit Control." Beyond the Ramsey measurement: How the team?s technique stabilizes part of the quantum state for enhanced sensitivity?especially for energy level splittings?using continuous, slowly varying microwave control, applicable beyond just superconducting platforms. From playground swings to qubits: Eli explains how the physics of a playground swing inspired his passion for the field and lead to his understanding of the transmon qubit, and why analogies matter for intuition. Quantum decoherence and stabilization: How the method controls the ?vector? of a quantum state on the Bloch sphere, dumping decoherence into directions that can be tracked or stabilized, markedly increasing measurement fidelity. Calibration and practical speedup: The protocol achieves greater measurement accuracy in less time or greater accuracy for a given time investment. This has implications for both calibration routines in quantum computers and for direct quantum measurements of fields (e.g., magnetic) or material properties. Applicability: While demonstrated on superconducting transmons, the protocol?s generality means it may bring improved sensitivity to a variety of platforms?though the greatest benefits will be seen where relaxation processes dominate decoherence over dephasing. Collaboration and credit: The protocol was the product of a collaborative effort with theorist Daniel Lidar and his group, also at USC. In Eli's group, Malida Hecht conducted the experiment.

Why It Matters
By breaking through the Ramsey sensitivity limit, this work provides a new tool for both quantum device calibration and quantum sensing. It allows for more accurate and faster frequency calibration within quantum processors, as well as finer detection of small environmental changes?a dual-use development crucial for both scalable quantum computing and sensitive quantum detection technologies.

Episode Highlights

 Explanation of the ?Ramsey limit? in quantum measurement and why surpassing it is significant. Visualization of quantum states using the Bloch sphere, and the importance of stabilizing the equatorial (phase) components for sensitivity. Experimental journey from ?plumber? lab work to analytic insights, showing the back-and-forth of theory confronting experiment. Immediate and future impacts, from more efficient calibration in quantum computers to potentially new standards for quantum sensing. Discussion of related and ongoing work, such as improvements to deterministic benchmarking for gate calibration, and the broader applicability to various quantum platforms.

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Assistant Professor Mohammad Mirhosseini (Caltech EE/APh) explains how his group built a mechanical quantum memory that stores microwave-photon quantum states far longer than typical superconducting qubits, and why that matters for hybrid quantum architectures. The discussion covers microwave photons, phonons, optomechanics, coherence versus lifetime (T2 vs. T1), current speed bottlenecks, and implications for quantum transduction and error mechanisms. The discussion centers on a paper from Mirhosseini's paper from December of 2024 titled, ?A mechanical quantum memory for microwave photons,? detailing strong coupling between a transmon and a long?lived nanomechanical oscillator for storage and retrieval of nonclassical states.

Guest

Mohammad Mirhosseini is an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics at Caltech, where his group engineers hybrid superconducting?phononic?photonic systems at millikelvin temperatures for computing, communication, and sensing. He completed his PhD at the University of Rochester?s Institute of Optics and was a postdoc in Oscar Painter?s group at Caltech before starting his lab. His recent team effort demonstrates mechanical oscillators as compact, long?lived quantum memories integrated with superconducting circuits.

Key topics

What ?microwave photons? are and how qubits emit/absorb single microwave photons in circuit QED analogously to atoms and optical photons.Why ?memory? is missing in today?s quantum processors and how a dedicated long?lived storage element can complement fast but dissipative superconducting qubits.Optomechanics 101: mapping quantum states between electrical and mechanical degrees of freedom, with phonons as the quantized vibrational excitations.T1 vs. T2: demonstrated order?of?magnitude gains in lifetime (T1) and more modest current gains in coherence (T2), plus paths to mitigate dephasing.Present bottleneck: state conversion between qubit and oscillator is about 100× slower than native superconducting operations, with clear engineering avenues to speed up.Quantum transduction: leveraging the same mechanical intermediary to bridge microwave and optical domains for interconnects and networking.Two?level system (TLS) defects: shared decoherence mechanisms across mechanical oscillators and superconducting circuits and why comparing both can illuminate materials limits.

Why it matters

Hybrid architectures that pair fast processors with long?lived memories are a natural route to scaling, and mechanical oscillators offer lifetimes far exceeding conventional superconducting storage elements while remaining chip?integrable.. Demonstrating nonclassical state storage and retrieval with strong qubit?mechanics coupling validates mechanical oscillators as practical quantum memories and sets the stage for on?chip transduction. Overcoming current speed limits and dephasing would lower the overhead for synchronization, buffering, and possibly future fault?tolerant protocols in superconducting platforms.

Episode highlights

A clear explanation of microwave photons and how circuit QED lets qubits create and absorb them one by one.Mechanical memory concept: store quantum states as phonons in a gigahertz?frequency nanomechanical oscillator and read them back later.Performance today: roughly 10?30× longer T1 than typical superconducting qubits with current T2 gains of a few×, alongside concrete strategies to extend T2.Speed trade?off: present qubit?mechanics state transfer is ~100× slower than native superconducting gates, but device design and coupling improvements are underway.Roadmap: tighter coupling for in?oscillator gates, microwave?to?optical conversion via the same mechanics, and probing TLS defects to inform both mechanical and superconducting coherence.

In this episode, host Sebastian Hassinger sits down with Xiaodi Wu, Associate Professor at the University of Maryland, to discuss Wu?s journey through quantum information science, his drive for bridging computer science and physics, and the creation of the quantum programming language SimuQ.

Guest Introduction

Xiaodi Wu shares his academic path from Tsinghua University (where he studied mathematics and physics) to a PhD at the University of Michigan, followed by postdoctoral work at MIT and a position at the University of Oregon, before joining the University of Maryland.The conversation highlights Wu?s formative experiences, early fascination with quantum complexity, and the impact of mentors like Andy Yao.

Quantum Computing: Theory Meets Practice

Wu discusses his desire to blend theoretical computer science with physics, leading to pioneering work in quantum complexity theory and device-independent quantum cryptography.He reflects on the challenges and benefits of interdisciplinary research, and the importance of historical context in guiding modern quantum technology development.

Programming Languages and Human Factors

The episode delves into Wu?s transition from theory to practical tools, emphasizing the major role of human factors and software correctness in building reliable quantum software.Wu identifies the value of drawing inspiration from classical programming languages like FORTRAN and SIMULA?and points out that quantum software must prioritize usability and debugging, not just elegant algorithms.

SimiQ: Hamiltonian-Based Quantum Abstraction

Wu introduces SimuQ, a new quantum programming language designed to treat Hamiltonian evolution as a first-class abstraction, akin to how floating-point arithmetic is fundamental in classical computing.SimiQ enables users to specify Hamiltonian models directly and compiles them to both gate-based and analog/pulse-level quantum devices (including IBM, AWS Braket, and D-Wave backends).The language aims to make quantum simulation and continuous-variable problems more accessible, and serves as a test bed for new quantum software abstractions.

Analog vs. Digital in Quantum Computing

Wu and Hassinger explore the analog/digital divide in quantum hardware, examining how SimuQ leverages the strengths of both by focusing on higher-level abstractions (Hamiltonians) that fit natural use cases like quantum simulation and dynamic systems.

Practical Applications and Vision

The conversation highlights targeted domains for SimuQ, such as quantum chemistry, physics simulation, and machine learning algorithms that benefit from continuous-variable modeling.Wu discusses his vision for developer-friendly quantum tools, drawing parallels to the evolution of classical programming and the value of reusable abstractions for future advancements. 

Listen to The New Quantum Era podcast for more interviews with leaders in quantum computing, software development, and scientific research.

Host Sebastian Hassinger interviews Alexandre Blais, professor of physics at the Universite de Sherbrooke and scientific director of the Insitut Quantique. Alexandre discusses his academic journey, starting from his master's and PhD work in Sherbrooke, his move to Yale, and his collaborations with both theorists and experimentalists. He outlines the development of circuit QED (quantum electrodynamics) and its foundational role in the modern superconducting qubit landscape. Blais emphasizes the interplay between fundamental physics and technological progress in quantum computing, highlighting both academic contributions and partnerships with industry. He also describes the evolution and mission of Institut Quantique, stressing its role in bridging academia and the quantum industry by training talent and fostering startups in Sherbrooke, Quebec. Finally, Blais reflects on the dual promise of quantum computing?as a tool for scientific discovery and as a long-term commercial technology.

Key Themes and Points

1. Early Career and Path into Quantum Computing

Alexandre Blais began his quantum computing journey during his master?s at Sherbrooke, inspired by a popular science article by Serge Haroche that laid out the argument for why quantum computers would never work.He pursued quantum studies at Sherbrooke despite a lack of local experts, showing early initiative and risk-taking.

2. Transition to Yale and Circuit QED

Blais joined Yale for his postdoc, attracted by the strong theory?experiment collaboration.The Yale group pioneered "circuit QED," adapting ideas from cavity QED (single atoms in magnetic cavities) to superconducting circuits, enabling new ways to read out and control qubits.Circuit QED became the backbone of superconducting qubit technology, notably enabling the transmon qubit (now a dominant architecture).Collaborated with figures like prior guests of the podcast Steve Girvin and Rob Schoelkopf, and was a postdoc along with Jay Gambetta and Andreas Wallraff.

3. Superconducting Qubits and Research Focus

Most of Blais?s work has centered on superconducting qubits, particularly on understanding and extending coherence times, reducing errors, and improving fabrication/design.Emphasizes the complex, nonlinear, and rich physics even of single-qubit systems (e.g., challenges of dispersive readout and unexpected phenomena like multiphoton resonances).Notes the continuing importance of deep, fundamental research despite growing industrial and engineering focus.

4. Role of Academia vs. Industry

Growth of corporate investment (Google, IBM, Amazon, Intel) has changed the landscape.Blais argues that universities should focus on pushing the scientific frontier and training talent, not on building commercial-scale quantum computers.Academic groups can pursue high-risk, high-reward research and deeper understanding of quantum technology?s physical underpinnings.

5. Institut Quantique and Quebec?s Quantum Ecosystem

Blais leads Institut Quantique, which supports both basic and applied quantum research and has been highly successful in fostering a local quantum startup ecosystem (e.g., SBQuantum, NordQuantique, Qubic).Offers entrepreneurship courses and significant seed grants (even to students and postdocs) to encourage talent retention and company creation in Sherbrooke.Partnership between academia, startups, and public investment has attracted international players like Pasqal and IBM, establishing Sherbrooke as a quantum technology hub.

6. Societal and Philosophical Reflections

Fundamental challenge: making increasingly large quantum systems remain quantum despite Bohr?s assertion, via the Correspondence principle, that as a quantum system scales it will become classical.Quantum computers are not only future commercial tools?they are already invaluable scientific instruments, enabling new physics via experimental control of complex quantum systems.Blais is optimistic about quantum computing?s potential for both discovery and eventual large-scale applications.

Main Takeaways

Building quantum computers is both a technological and fundamental scientific challenge. Even with commercial interest, deep physical understanding is essential?academic research remains vital.Close collaboration between theorists and experimentalists breeds breakthrough advances. Circuit QED exemplifies this synergy.Quantum research institutes can seed thriving tech ecosystems, if they focus on both talent training and supporting spinouts, as shown by Institut Quantique in Sherbrooke.Quantum computing?s greatest early impacts will likely be as scientific instruments, enabling novel experiments and discoveries, before large-scale commercial utility is achieved.Quantum hardware?s development continually reveals new, subtle physics; e.g., the decades-long puzzle of dispersive readout reflects the complexity inherent in scaling up quantum technology.

Notable Quotes

 ?Quantum computers will, before being commercially useful, be fantastic tools for discoveries.? ?What we?re trying to do is go against that very fundamental principle?we?re trying to build a bigger and bigger system that behaves ever more quantum.? ?There is real power in mixing theory and experiment when tackling the challenges of quantum technology.?

Listeners will enjoy a blend of scientific storytelling, personal insight, and a blueprint for building world-class quantum research hubs that advance both discovery and innovation.

In this episode, Sebastian Hassinger sits down with Bert de Jong, a leading computational chemist and Director of the Quantum Systems Accelerator at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. They explore Bert?s journey from high-performance classical computing to the front lines of quantum research, his vision for the future of the U.S. National Quantum Initiative (NQI) center he leads, and the scientific and engineering challenges that will define the next era of quantum computing.

Key Topics Covered

Career Arc: Bert reflects on his 27-year career in the national lab system, moving from classical computational chemistry and HPC to becoming a leader in quantum computing research and center management.Genesis of Quantum Focus: He describes his pivot to quantum in 2014, prompted by the scaling limitations of classical simulations and the promise of quantum systems to tackle ?bigger and bigger? problems.Role of National Labs and NQI: Discussion of the U.S. National Quantum Initiative and the unique positioning of national labs in driving foundational science and cross-sector collaboration through centers like QSA.QSA?s Multimodal Approach: Insight into QSA?s decision not to ?choose a lane,? advancing superconducting qubits, trapped ions, and neutral atoms in parallel, and the unique innovations?like integrated photonics?enabled by this breadth.Neutral Atom Milestones: Highlights the rapid progress in neutral atom systems (including work with QuEra and Misha Lukin), and the looming advent of devices with dozens of logical qubits and error correction.Logical Qubits and Error Correction: Bert explains how all quantum modalities are advancing toward error-corrected logical qubits, and why 100-logical-qubit prototypes are a realistic five-year goal.Scientific Impact: A discussion of what constitutes ?quantum (scientific) advantage,? and why Bert believes that chemistry, materials science, high-energy, and nuclear physics will be the first domains to benefit from quantum systems unavailable to classical computing.Balancing Science and Engineering: Exploration of the transition from fundamental scientific challenges to applied engineering problems as quantum hardware matures?touching on device manufacturing, integrated photonics, and the symbiosis between national labs and industry partners.Quantum Software Innovation: Bert?s perspective on bridging researcher expertise with usable tools, including his work on open-source quantum compilers (e.g., BQSKit/biscuit) and the importance of diverse, in- terdisciplinary teams.Looking Ahead: Bert?s vision for the next five years: transitioning quantum from promise to prototypes that deliver real scientific results, and solidifying a collaborative ecosystem across labs, universities, and industry.

Notable Quotes

?HPC, quantum, and AI are all just tools?what matters is how we use them to solve real science problems.??We?re at the point where error-corrected quantum prototypes with 100 logical qubits and high fidelity could deliver a true scientific advantage within five years.??National labs bring together deep science, advanced engineering, and a culture of collaboration that?s essential at this stage of quantum?s development.??Quantum advantage isn?t a buzzword for us?it?s about doing science that can?t be done any other way.?

Episode Highlights

Bert?s transition from classical to quantum and the pivotal role of DOE research centers.How QSA?s cross-modality approach both accelerates hardware and fosters cross-institutional partnerships.A preview of upcoming neutral-atom milestones and why industry is watching closely.The importance of open standards and software that supports a rapidly diversifying hardware landscape.The public sector?s role in driving ?over the horizon? technology, derisking pathways beyond what private startups can take on alone.Ambitious, concrete goals for the next five years: prototype quantum systems delivering early scientific wins, not just more research papers.

If you enjoy deep dives into the intersection of science, engineering, and the future of

quantum technology, subscribe and share The New Quantum Era.

Episode Overview

Join Sebastian Hassinger in conversation with Deeya Viradia, a Gen Z voice and rising researcher in the quantum computing field. Deeya discusses her multifaceted journey?from early inspiration and undergraduate research to hackathons, quantum clubs, and her ambitions in commercialization. This episode is packed with resources, perspectives on education, and advice for newcomers in quantum technology.

Key Topics & Highlights

Deeya?s Quantum Origin Story

Inspired by curiosity and early science exposure?especially an episode of "Martha Speaks" with Neil deGrasse Tyson?which led to an ongoing passion for exploring the unknown, from astronomy to quantum computing.Found her quantum footing through engineering physics at UC Berkeley and participation in the IBM Qiskit Summer School.

Building a Quantum Resume

Gained diverse hands-on experience with UC Berkeley?s Quantum Devices Group, SLAC (Stanford Linear Accelerator Center), the DoD Quantum Entanglement and Space Technologies (QuEST) Lab, and multiple quantum hackathons (MIT iQuHack Hack, Yale's Y Quantum).Emphasizes the breadth of opportunity for undergraduates?advocates for involvement in hackathons and clubs, even without prior quantum experience.

Theory vs. Experiment, and Academia vs. Industry

Challenges traditional boundaries, advocating for integration: understanding both the experimental physics and the theoretical/algorithmic sides of quantum.Describes work at SLAC: optimizing readout for superconducting qubits, working with dilution fridges, and collaborating across national labs and Stanford.

Student Community & Entrepreneurial Drive

Founded Q-BIT at Berkeley, a club focused on quantum computing applications and industry connections.Active in Berkeley?s entrepreneurship community, driven to explore how quantum research moves from lab to commercial product.

Commercialization and the Future of Quantum

Discusses the uncertain but promising path to quantum?s economic value, highlighting interdisciplinary collaboration, communication, and cross-sector engagement.Strong advocate for students and non-technical communities alike to take risks, reach out, and jump into the field?because quantum needs diverse perspectives and no one knows exactly where it?s headed!

Resources Mentioned

IBM Quantum education resourcesIBM Quantum blog - where the summer camp will be announcedMIT iQuHackYale?s Y QuantumUnitary FoundationQ-Ctrl Black OpalQ-BIT at BerkeleyQubit by QubitNational Q-12 Education Partnership IEEE Quantum WeekUC Berkeley Quantum Devices GroupSLAC National Accelerator LaboratoryEntrepreneurs @ Berkeley

Host: Sebastian Hassinger
Guest: Andrew Dzurak (CEO, Diraq)

In this enlightening episode, Sebastian Hassinger interviews Professor Andrew Dzurak. Andrew is the CEO and co-founder of Diraq and concurrently a Scientia Professor in Quantum Engineering at UNSW Sydney, an ARC Laureate Fellow and a Member of the Executive Board of the Sydney Quantum Academy. Diraq is a quantum computing startup pioneering silicon spin qubits, based in Australia. The discussion delves into the technical foundations, manufacturing breakthroughs, scalability, and future roadmap of silicon-based quantum computers?all with an industrial and commercial focus.

Key Topics and Insights

1. What Sets Diraq Apart

Diraq?s quantum computers use silicon spin qubits, differing from the industry?s more familiar modalities like superconducting, trapped ion, or neutral atom qubits.Their technology leverages quantum dots?tiny regions where electrons are trapped within modified silicon transistors. The quantum information is encoded in the spin direction of these trapped electrons?a method with roots stretching over two decades1.

2. Manufacturing & Scalability

Diraq modifies standard CMOS transistors, making qubits that are tens of nanometers in size, compared to the much larger superconducting devices. This means millions of qubits can fit on a single chip.The company recently demonstrated high-fidelity qubit manufacturing on standard 300mm wafers at commercial foundries (GlobalFoundries, IMEC), matching or surpassing previous experimental results?all fidelity metrics above 99%.

3. Architectural Innovations

Diraq?s chips integrate both quantum and conventional classical electronics side by side, using standard silicon design toolchains like Cadence. This enables leveraging existing chip design and manufacturing expertise, speeding progress towards scalable quantum chips.Movement of electrons (and thus qubits) across the chip uses CMOS bucket-brigade techniques, similar to charge-coupled devices. This means fast (<nanosecond scale) movement within the quantum processor, supporting complex quantum operations.

4. Cryogenic Operation

Diraq?s qubits run at around 1 Kelvin, much warmer than superconducting qubits (which require millikelvin temperatures). This enables integration of classical CMOS control electronics at the same temperature layer, avoiding the wiring and cooling challenges typical in superconducting systems1.

5. Error Correction & Control

Diraq aims for native error correction schemes adapted to their modular, but not fully 2D-grid, architecture.Error correction controllers (CPUs, GPUs, ASICs, FPGAs) will sit outside the fridge but integrated tightly with the quantum module, with exact architectures still under consideration.

6. Roadmap and Commercialization

Diraq is targeting a first product release during the first half of 2029: a fully integrated quantum computer module with thousands of physical qubits, enough logical qubits for meaningful problems beyond classical supercomputing.Near-term (100?200 qubit) systems will be available in limited cases to select partners and governmental organizations, but the focus is on large-scale, commercially relevant systems.

7. Vision for Quantum Data Centers

Dzurak envisions thousands of quantum processors integrated into conventional data centers, providing affordable and compact quantum computing alongside AI and HPC for applications such as drug design, materials discovery, and more.

Notable Quotes

"Our technology?the basic concepts go back...over twenty years. But the first demonstrations of spin qubits are really only about ten to fifteen years ago. We modify standard silicon transistors...and then we use the property of the electron known as its spin." ? Andrew Dzurak

"We've designed now a system that will go to many millions of qubits that can sit inside one single refrigeration unit, pretty much the size of a rack in a data center." ? Andrew Dzurak

"If we want quantum computing to be ubiquitous ... there are going to need to be thousands of quantum computers ... integrated with high-performance computing, GPUs, and so on." ? Andrew Dzurak

Episode Takeaways

Leveraging existing silicon manufacturing and design expertise offers a promising pathway to mass adoption.Quantum computing at scale requires not just clever physics, but robust industrial engineering and integration with classical technologies.Watch for Diraq?s commercial debut of thousands-of-qubit systems by 2029, poised to play a role in future quantum-enabled data centers.

For further episodes and details, visit www.newquantumera.com or follow on Bluesky @newquantumera.com.

This episode of The New Quantum Era podcast, your host, Sebastian Hassinger, has a conversation with Dr. Charlotte Bøttcher, Assistant Professor, Stanford University. Dr. Bøttcher is an experimental physicist working with superconducting quantum devices, and shares with us her areas of focus and perspective on this critical area of materials research for quantum information science and technology.

Episode Highlights

Meet Dr. Charlotte Bøttcher: Dr. Bøttcher shares her journey from Harvard (PhD) and Yale (postdoc with Michel Devoret) to launching her own experimental quantum materials group at Stanford. She discusses the excitement (and challenges) of building a new research lab from scratch.Hybrid Quantum Material Systems: The heart of the conversation centers on hybrid systems combining superconductors (aluminum) with semiconductors (indium arsenide). These materials pave the way for:Tunable and switchable superconductivity?the foundation for switchable quantum devices and potential advances in quantum information technology.Probing unconventional and topological superconductors, with implications for fundamental physics and exotic quantum states.Applications in Quantum Computing:Superconductivity plays a crucial role not only in qubits themselves but also in creating tunable couplers between qubits, allowing for controlled entanglement and reduced crosstalk.High-Tc superconductors (those with high critical temperatures) are discussed, including their complex, often disordered behavior?and their challenges and potential in qubit applications.Quantum Simulation and Sensing: Dr. Bøttcher describes her group?s efforts to use devices for simulating complex many-body quantum systems, including both bosonic and fermionic Hamiltonians. Quantum devices are also used for quantum sensing?detecting magnetic fields, charge, or collective modes in exotic materials (such as uranium-based superconductors).Controlling Disorder: The episode explores how adjusting electron carrier density can expose or screen disorder in materials, enabling the study of its effects on quantum properties.Building a New Lab: Charlotte highlights the rewarding process of establishing her own experimental lab and mentoring the next generation of quantum scientists.Fundamental Science vs. Application: Dr. Bøttcher emphasizes the synergy between foundational quantum research and technological development?the pursuit of basic understanding feeds directly into better qubits and devices, which in turn open new avenues for exploring quantum phenomena.Future Directions: Looking ahead, her group aims to develop new superconducting qubits capable of operating at higher temperatures and frequencies, expand their quantum simulation platforms, and continue collaborations with Yale and others. The quest for phenomena like Majorana fermions and the exploration of topological phases remain part of her group?s broader experimental frontier.

Key Quotes
?Combining superconductors and semiconductors gives us not just new functionality for quantum technology but also lets us explore fundamental questions about exotic states of matter.? ? Charlotte Bøttcher
?Building a lab from scratch is a lot of work, but every day is exciting. Working with students and starting new experiments is incredibly rewarding.? ? Charlotte Bøttcher

Tune in for a deep dive into hybrid materials, quantum simulation, and the inner workings of a cutting-edge quantum materials lab at Stanford!
For more episodes: Visit newquantumera.com

Thanks to the American Physical Society (APS) for supporting this episode.

In this episode of The New Quantum Era, host Sebastian Hassinger sits down with Dr. Mark Saffman, a leading expert in atomic physics and quantum information science. As a professor at the University of Wisconsin?Madison and Chief Scientist at Infleqtion (formerly ColdQuanta), Mark is at the forefront of developing neutral atom quantum computing platforms using Rydberg atom arrays. The conversation explores the past, present, and future of neutral atom quantum computing, its scalability, technological challenges, and opportunities for hybrid quantum systems.

Key Topics

Evolution of Neutral Atom Quantum Computing
The history and development of Rydberg atom arrays, key technological breakthroughs, and the trajectory from early experiments to today?s platforms capable of large-scale qubit arrays.Gate Fidelity and Scalability
Advances in gate fidelity, challenges in reducing laser noise, and the inherent scalability advantages of the neutral atom platform.Error Correction and Logical Qubits
Discussion of error detection/correction, logical qubit implementation, code distances, and the engineering required for repeated error correction in neutral atom systems.Synergy Between Academia and Industry
The interplay between curiosity-driven university research and focused engineering efforts at Infleqtion, including the collaborative benefits of cross-pollination.Hybrid Quantum Systems and Future Directions
Potential for integrating different modalities, including hybrid systems, quantum communication, and quantum sensors, as well as modularity in scaling quantum processors.

Key Insights

Neutral atom arrays have achieved remarkable scalability, with demonstrations of arrays containing thousands of atomic qubits?well-positioned for large-scale quantum computing compared to other modalities.Advancements in laser technology and gate protocols have been crucial for improving gate fidelities, moving from early diode lasers to more stabilized, lower noise systems.Engineering challenges remain, such as atom loss, measurement speed, and the need for technologies enabling fast, high-degree-of-freedom optical reconfiguration.Logical qubit implementation is advancing, but practical, repeated rounds of error correction and syndrome measurement are required for fault-tolerant computing.Collaboration between university and industry labs accelerates both foundational understanding and the translation of discoveries into real-world devices.

Notable Quotes

?One of the exciting things about the Neutral Atom platform is that this is perhaps the most scalable platform that exists.??Atoms make fantastic qubits ? they?re nature?s qubits, all identical, excellent coherence? but they do have some sort of annoying features. They don?t stick around forever. We have atom loss.??Our wiring is not electronic printed circuits, it?s laser beams propagating in space? That?s great because it?s reconfigurable in real time.?

About the Guest

Mark Saffman is a Professor of Physics at the University of Wisconsin?Madison and the Chief Scientist at Infleqtion, a company leading the commercial development of quantum technology platforms using neutral atoms. Mark is recognized for his pioneering work on Rydberg atom arrays, quantum logic gates, and advancing scalable quantum processors. His interdisciplinary experience bridges fundamental science and quantum tech commercialization.

Keywords: quantum computing, Rydberg atoms, neutral atom arrays, Mark Saffman, Infleqtion, gate fidelity, scalability, quantum error correction, logical qubits, hybrid quantum systems, laser cooling, quantum communication, quantum sensors, quantum advantage, optical links, atomic physics, quantum technology, academic-industry collaboration.

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For more episodes, visit The New Quantum Era and follow on Bluesky: @newquantumera.com. If you enjoy the podcast, please subscribe and share it with your quantum-curious friends!

In this episode, Sebastian Hassinger sits down with Dr. Liang Jiang from the University of Chicago to explore the exciting intersection of quantum error correction theory and practical implementation. Dr. Jiang discusses his group's work on hardware-efficient quantum error correction, the recent breakthroughs in demonstrating error correction thresholds, and the future of fault-tolerant quantum computing.

Key Topics Covered

Current State of Quantum Error Correction

Recent milestone achievements including Google's surface code experiment and AWS's bosonic code demonstrationsThe transition from purely theoretical work to practical implementations on real hardwareHardware platforms showing high fidelity: superconducting qubits, trapped ions, and cold atoms

Hardware-Efficient Approaches

Bosonic Error Correction: Using single harmonic oscillators to correct loss errors, demonstrated at Yale and AWSSurface Codes: Google's achievement of going beyond breakeven point for quantum memoryQLDPC Codes: Collaboration with IBM and neutral atom array experiments, particularly Michel Lukin's group at Harvard

Fault-Tolerant Gate Implementation

Challenges of implementing universal computation with error-corrected logical qubitsMagic State Injection: Preparing resource quantum states and teleporting them into circuitsCode Switching: Switching between different error correcting codes to achieve universal gate setsThe Eastin-Knill no-go theorem and methods to overcome it

Programming Abstraction Layers

Evolution toward higher-level programming abstractions similar to classical computingEfficient compilation of quantum circuits using discrete fault-tolerant gate setsMemory Operations: Teleporting gates into quantum memory rather than extracting qubits

Quantum Communication and Networking

Channel Capacity and GKP Codes

Application of Gottesman-Kitaev-Preskill (GKP) codes for achieving channel capacity in lossy channelsRecent experimental demonstrations in trapped ions and superconducting qubits showing breakeven performance

Microwave-to-Optical Transduction

Critical challenge for connecting quantum devices across different frequency domainsRecent progress in demonstrating quantum channels between microwave and optical modesApplications for both quantum networking and modular quantum computing architectures

Advanced Applications

Quantum Sensing with Error Correction

Research by Dr. Jiang's former student Sisi Zhou addressing John Preskill's 20-year-old questionNecessary and sufficient conditions for error correction to help quantum sensingApplications to gravitational wave detection and dark matter searches

Algorithmic Quantum Metrology

Collaboration with MIT researchers on combining global search algorithms with quantum sensorsPotential for quantum advantage in processing quantum signals from quantum sensors

Future Directions

Distributed Quantum Computing

Modular architecture with specialized components: memory, processors, and interfacesScaling challenges requiring interconnects between different quantum devicesSystem-level thinking about quantum computer architecture

Application-Specific Error Correction

Tailoring error correction schemes for specific algorithms and applicationsCo-design approach considering hardware capabilities and application requirements

Key Insights

Theory-Experiment Collaboration: The importance of close collaboration between theorists and experimentalists to understand real-world error modelsHardware Efficiency: Moving beyond generic error correction to platform-specific and application-specific approachesTemporal Considerations: The need for not just hardware efficiency but also time efficiency in quantum operationsAbstraction Evolution: The inevitable move toward higher-level programming abstractions as fault-tolerant quantum computing matures

Notable Quotes

"We want to do hardware efficient quantum error correction... given qubits are still very precious resource."

"Quantum computers are really good at processing quantum signals. Where does the quantum signal come from? Quantum sensor is definitely a very promising source."

About the Guest:
Dr. Liang Jiang leads a research group at the University of Chicago focused on the practical implementation of quantum error correction and fault-tolerant quantum computing. His work spans multiple quantum platforms and emphasizes the co-design of hardware and error correction schemes.

About The New Quantum Era:
The New Quantum Era is hosted by Sebastian Hassinger and features in-depth conversations with leading researchers and practitioners in quantum computing, exploring the latest developments and future prospects in the field.

In this episode of The New Quantum Era, your host, Sebastian Hassinger sits down with Dr. Yvonne Gao, a leading experimental physicist specializing in superconducting devices and quantum cavities. Recorded at the American Physical Society's Global Summit, the conversation explores the intersection of curiosity-driven research and technological advancement in quantum physics.

Key Topics Discussed

1. Research Focus: Quantum Cavities and Superposition

Dr. Gao shares her team's work on using cavities (harmonic oscillators) coupled with a single qubit to probe fundamental quantum effects.The experiments focus on quantum superposition and entanglement using minimal hardware?just one qubit and one cavity?eschewing the race for more qubits in favor of deeper scientific insights.Discussion of "cat states" as iconic demonstrations of quantum superposition, and how their properties can be engineered for robustness and sensitivity without specialized hardware.

2. Experimental Innovation

The team investigates loss mechanisms in cavity-based quantum states and explores ways to make these states more resilient through state engineering rather than hardware changes.Dr. Gao describes using standard, "vanilla" qubits and cavities, making their techniques accessible to other labs.

3. Fundamental Questions and Quantum Playground

Dr. Gao emphasizes the value of the circuit QED platform as a "playground" for exploring quantum phenomena, particularly entanglement and its quantification in real hardware.The challenge of visualizing and intuitively understanding quantum phenomena is highlighted, with experiments designed to make abstract concepts more tangible.

4. Device Fabrication and Advancements

Dr. Gao's lab at NUS has developed in-house fabrication capabilities, gradually building up expertise and infrastructure.The field is witnessing rapid improvements in device performance, driven by advances in materials science and process integration.

5. Multipartite Entanglement and Future Directions

Plans for multi-cavity devices: Moving from single and two-cavity systems to three, enabling the study of tripartite entanglement and richer quantum dynamics.The potential for these systems to serve as both research tools and pedagogical aids, demonstrating quantum strangeness in a hands-on way.

6. Synergy Between Science and Technology

The conversation explores the unique moment in quantum research where fundamental science and technological objectives are closely aligned.Knowledge flows both ways: curiosity-driven experiments inform processor design, while industrial advances in fabrication and control benefit academic labs.

7. The "Perfect Quantum Lab" Thought Experiment

Dr. Gao shares her wish list for a hypothetical, fault-tolerant quantum computer: to directly observe textbook quantum phenomena and simulate complex quantum behaviors in a tangible way.

Memorable Quotes

"We're very proud that we only use one qubit and one cavity... We tried to build in creative features and techniques from control and measurement perspectives to tease out interesting dynamics and features on the harmonic oscillator.""A lot of what we do is trying to find the most intuitive picture to capture what these abstract physical phenomena actually look like in the lab.""There's this nice synergy between the drive to make practical quantum processors and the more academic, curiosity-driven research focusing on the fundamental."

Find this and other episodes at New Quantum Era?s website or wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoyed the episode, please subscribe and share with your quantum-curious friends!

In this episode, your host Sebastian Hassinger sits down with Andrew Houck to explore the latest advancements and collaborative strategies in quantum computing. Houck shares insights from his leadership roles at both Princeton and the Center for Co-Design of Quantum Advantage (C2QA), focusing on how interdisciplinary efforts are pushing the boundaries of coherence times, materials science, and scalable quantum architectures. The conversation covers the importance of co-design across the quantum stack, the challenges and surprises in improving qubit performance, and the vision for the next era of quantum research.

KEY TOPICS DISCUSSED

Mission of C2QA:
The central goal is to build the components necessary to move beyond the NISQ (Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum) era into fault-tolerant quantum computing. This requires integrating expertise in materials, devices, software, error correction, and architecture to ensure compatibility and progress at every level.Materials Breakthroughs:
Houck discusses the surprising impact of using tantalum in superconducting qubits, which has significantly reduced surface losses compared to other metals. He explains the ongoing quest to identify and mitigate sources of decoherence, such as two-level systems (TLSs) and interface defects.Co-Design Philosophy:
The episode delves into two types of co-design:Vertical co-design: Aligning advances in materials, devices, error correction, and architecture to optimize the full quantum computing stack.Cross-platform co-design: Bridging ideas and techniques across different qubit modalities and even across disciplines, such as applying methods from quantum sensing to quantum computing.Error Correction Innovations:
Houck highlights breakthroughs like using GKP states for error correction, which have achieved performance beyond the break-even point, thanks to improvements in materials and device design.Bosonic Modes and Custom Architectures:
The conversation touches on leveraging native bosonic modes in hardware to simulate field theories more efficiently, potentially saving vast computational resources. Houck discusses the trade-offs between general-purpose and custom quantum circuits in the current era of limited qubit counts.Modular Quantum Computing:
As quantum systems scale, the focus is shifting to modular architectures. Houck outlines the challenges of connecting modules?such as chip-to-chip coupling and optimizing connectivity for error correction and algorithms.Institutional Collaboration:
Houck contrasts the long-term, foundational investment at Princeton with the national, multi-institutional mission of C2QA. He emphasizes the unique strengths universities, industry, and national labs each bring to quantum research, and the importance of fostering collaboration across these sectors.Looking Ahead:
The next phase for C2QA will incorporate advances in neutral atom quantum computing and diamond-based quantum sensing, while ramping down some networking efforts. Houck also reflects on the broader scientific and practical motivations driving quantum information science, and the fundamental questions that large-scale quantum systems may help answer.

NOTABLE QUOTES

?There?s a quasi-infinite number of ways that you can mess up coherence? If you?re really only using one number, you?ll never know.?

?Some of the best ideas we have are taking approaches from one field and bringing them to another. That?s what we call cross-platform co-design.?

?A million-qubit quantum computer is basically a cat? as you build these systems up, you can start to really ask: do we actually understand quantum mechanics as it turns into these macroscopically large objects??

RESOURCES & MENTIONS

Center for Co-Design of Quantum Advantage (C2QA)Princeton Quantum Initiative

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In this episode of The New Quantum Era, Sebastian is joined by Dr. Emily Edwards, a co-founder of the Q12 initiative, an NSF-funded effort aimed at enhancing quantum science education from middle school through early undergraduate levels. Emily brings her expertise in organizing and motivating educators, as well as her passion for science communication. In this episode, we delve into the unique challenges of teaching quantum science and explore effective strategies to make this abstract field more accessible to learners of all ages.

Key Points

Challenges in Quantum Communication and Education: Emily discusses the public perception of quantum science, often influenced by pop culture, and the importance of demystifying the subject to make it more approachable.Strategies for Formal and Informal Learning: The conversation highlights different techniques for teaching quantum science in formal settings, like schools, and informal settings, such as science museums or YouTube. Emily emphasizes the importance of foundational knowledge and incremental learning.Role of Technology in Quantum Education: Emily talks about using scanning electron microscopes and other technologies to make the invisible world of quantum science visible, thus igniting public interest and imagination similar to stargazing.Importance of Science Communication Workshops: Emily shares her experience in leading science communication workshops, aiming to improve the accuracy and effectiveness of science content created by the public.Public and Private Sector Collaboration: The discussion touches on the need for a blend of federal and private funding to sustain and scale quantum education initiatives. Emily stresses the importance of industry involvement to emphasize the urgency and importance of scientific literacy for the future workforce.

In this episode of The New Quantum Era, your host Sebastian Hassinger talks with Dr. Daniel Lidar. Dr. Lidar is a pioneering researcher in quantum computing with over 25 years of experience, currently a professor at the University of Southern California. His work spans quantum algorithms, error correction, and quantum advantage, with significant contributions to understanding quantum annealing and noise suppression techniques. Lidar has been instrumental in exploring practical quantum computing applications since the mid-1990s.

Key Topics Discussed:

Dr. Lidar discussed how his experiments have demonstrated computational advantages on D-Wave and IBM quantum devices using innovative error suppression methods like dynamical decouplingWe discuss Dr. Lidar's involvement in the exploration of the mechanics of quantum annealing, particularly with D-Wave devices, and its potential for solving optimization problemsDaniel provides a detailed view of emerging approaches to error suppression, including logical dynamical decoupling (LDD) and its experimental validationFinally we touch on Quantum Elements, his new company focused on developing more accurate open-system quantum simulation software to improve quantum hardware performance

In this episode, Sebastian Hassinger welcomes back James Wootton, now Chief Science Officer at Moth Quantum, for a fascinating conversation about quantum computing's role in creative applications. This is a return visit from James, having appeared on episode 2, this time to talk about his exciting new role. Previously at IBM Quantum, James has been a pioneer in exploring unconventional applications of quantum computing, particularly in gaming, art, and creative industries.

Key Topics

Origins of James's Quantum Journey

Started in Arosa, Switzerland (coincidentally where Schrödinger developed his wave equation)Initially skeptical about commercial applications of his quantum error correction researchCreated "Decodoku" (a play on "decoder" and "Sudoku"), a puzzle game to gamify quantum error correction in 2016The same year IBM put a 5 qubit machine on the cloud, creating a paradigm shift in accessibility

Quantum Gaming Innovations

Developed what may be the first quantum computing gameCreated "Hello Quantum," a mobile educational gameDeveloped "Quantum Blur," a tool that encodes images in quantum states, allowing users to see how quantum gates affect imagesUsed quantum computing for procedural generation in games, including terrain generation for Minecraft-like environments

Quantum Art and Creativity

Collaborated with a classical painter who has used Quantum Blur as his main artistic tool for five yearsExplored using quantum computing for music generationInvestigated language generation using the DiscoCat framework

Moth Quantum

James joined Moth Quantum as Chief Science OfficerThe company focuses on bringing quantum computing to creative industriesTheir approach recognizes that in creative fields, "usefulness" can mean bringing something unique rather than just superior performanceAims to build expertise with current quantum technologies to be ready when fault tolerance enables quantum advantageAt the beginning of May, 2025, Moth collaborated with musical artist ILA on a project called "Infinite Remix," using quantum computing in the creation of an exciting new musical creation tool. 

Introduction:
In this milestone 50th episode of The New Quantum Era, your host Sebastian Hassinger welcomes Dr. Anna Grassellino, a leading figure in quantum information science and the director of the Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center at Fermilab, or SQMS. Dr. Grassellino discusses the center?s mission to advance quantum computing and quantum sensing through innovations in superconducting materials and devices. The conversation explores the intersection of quantum hardware development, high energy physics applications, and the collaborative efforts driving progress in the field. We recorded our conversation at the APS 2025 Global Summit with assistance from the American Physical Society and from Quantum Machines, Inc. 

Main Topics Discussed:

The vision and mission of the Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems (SQMS) Center, including its role in the Department of Energy?s National Quantum Initiative and its focus on developing quantum systems with superior performance for scientific and technological applications.Advances in superconducting quantum hardware, particularly the use of high-quality superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities and their integration with two-dimensional superconducting circuits to enhance qubit coherence and scalability.Key technical challenges in scaling up quantum systems, such as mitigating decoherence, improving materials, and developing large-scale cryogenic platforms for quantum experiments.The importance of interdisciplinary collaboration between quantum engineers, materials scientists, and high energy physicists to achieve breakthroughs in quantum technology.Future directions for the SQMS Center, including the pursuit of quantum advantage in high energy physics algorithms, quantum sensing, and the development of robust error correction strategies.

Notable Papers from Fermi?s SQMS Center:

Quantum computing hardware for HEP algorithms and sensing (arXiv:2204.08605) ? Overview of SQMS?s approach to quantum hardware for high energy physics applications, including architectures and error correction.A large millikelvin platform at Fermilab for quantum computing applications (arXiv:2108.10816) ? Description of the design and goals of a large-scale cryogenic platform for hosting advanced quantum devices at millikelvin temperatures.Searches for New Particles, Dark Matter, and Gravitational Waves Additional recent preprints and publications from SQMS can be found on the SQMS Center?s publications page, including work on nonlinear quantum mechanics bounds, materials for quantum devices, and quantum error correction strategies.

Introduction

In this episode of The New Quantum Era podcast, host Sebastian Hassinger delves into an insightful conversation with Yonatan Cohen, CTO and co-founder of Quantum Machines. As a pioneer in quantum control systems, Quantum Machines is at the forefront of tackling the critical challenges of scaling quantum computing, and they also provided support for my interviews conducted at the American Physical Society?s Global Summit 2025. APS itself also graciously provided support for these episodes. 

Yonatan shares exciting updates from their latest demos at the APS conference, discusses their unique approach to quantum control, and explores how integrating classical and quantum computing is paving the way for more efficient and scalable solutions.

Key Points

Scaling Quantum Control Systems: Yonatan discusses the challenges of scaling up quantum control systems, emphasizing the need to make systems more compact, reduce power consumption, and lower costs per qubit while maintaining high analog specifications.Integration of Classical Compute with Quantum Systems: The conversation highlights Quantum Machines? collaborative work with NVIDIA on DGX Quantum, a platform that integrates classical and quantum computing to enhance computational power and low-latency data transfer.AI for Quantum Calibration and Error Correction: Yonatan explains the role of AI and machine learning in speeding up the calibration process of quantum computers and improving qubit control, potentially transforming how frequently and effectively quantum systems can be calibrated.Versatility Across Different Quantum Modalities: Quantum Machines? control systems are adaptable to various quantum computing modalities such as superconducting qubits, NV centers, and atomic qubits, providing a flexible toolkit for researchers.The Role of the Israeli Quantum Computing Center: Yonatan describes Quantum Machines? involvement in building and operating the Israeli Quantum Computing Center, providing researchers with hands-on access to cutting-edge quantum control technologies.

Welcome to episode 48 of The New Quantum Era podcast! Another episode recorded at the APS Global Summit in March, today's special guest is true quantum pioneer, John Martinis, co-founder and CTO of QoLab, a superconducting qubit company seeking to build a million qubit device. In this enlightening conversation, we explore the strategic shifts, collaborative efforts, and technological innovations that are pushing the boundaries of quantum computing closer to building scalable, million-qubit systems. This episode was made with support form The American Physical Society and Quantum Machines, Inc. (BTW I know I said episode 49 in the intro to this episode, I noticed it too late to fix without a further delay in posting the interview!)

Key Highlights

Emerging from Stealth Mode & Million-Qubit System Paper:Discussion on QoLab?s transition from stealth mode and their comprehensive paper on building scalable million-qubit systems.Focus on a systematic approach covering the entire stack.Collaboration with Semiconductor Companies:Unique business model emphasizing collaboration with semiconductor companies to leverage external expertise.Comparison with bigger players like Google, who can fund the entire stack internally.Innovative Technological Approaches:Integration of wafer-scale technology and advanced semiconductor manufacturing processes.Emphasis on adjustable qubits and adjustable couplers for optimizing control and scalability.Scaling Challenges and Solutions:Strategies for achieving scale, including using large dilution refrigerators and exploring optical communication for modular design.Plans to address error correction and wiring challenges using brute force scaling and advanced materials.Future Vision and Speeding Up Development:QoLab?s goal to significantly accelerate the timeline toward achieving a million-qubit system.Insight into collaborations with HP Enterprises, NVIDIA, Quantum Machines, and others to combine expertise in hardware and software.Research Papers Mentioned in this Episode:Position paper on building scalable million-qubit systems 

In this episode of The New Quantum Era podcast, your host Sebastian Hassinger interviews two of the field's most well-known figures, John Preskill and Rob Schoelkopf, about the transition of quantum computing into a new phase that John is calling "megaquop," which stands for "a million quantum operations." Our conversation delves into what this new phase entails, the challenges and opportunities it presents, and the innovative approaches being explored to make quantum computing perform better and become more useful. This episode was made with the kind support of the American Physical Society and Quantum Circuits, Inc. Here?s what you can expect from this insightful discussion:

Introduction of the Megaquop Era: John explains the transition from the NISQ era to the megaquop era, emphasizing the need for quantum error correction and the goal of achieving computations with around a million operations.Quantum Error Correction: Both John and Rob discuss the importance of quantum error correction, the challenges involved, and the innovative approaches being taken, such as dual rail and cat qubits.Superconducting Qubits and Dual Rail Approach: Rob shares insights into Quantum Circuits' work on dual rail superconducting qubits, which aim to make error correction more efficient by detecting erasure errors.Scientific and Practical Implications: The conversation touches on the scientific value of current quantum devices and the potential applications and discoveries that could emerge from the megaquop era.Future Directions and Challenges: The discussion also covers the future of quantum computing, including the need for better connectivity and the challenges of scaling up quantum devices.

Mentioned in this Episode:

Beyond NISQ: The Megaquop Machine: John Preskill's paper adapting his keynote from Q2B Silicon Valley 2024Quantum Circuits, Inc.: Rob's company, which is working on dual rail superconducting qubits.

In this episode of The New Quantum Era podcast, host Sebastian Hassinger speaks with Steve Girvin, professor of physics at Yale University, about quantum memory - a critical but often overlooked component of quantum computing architecture. This episode was created with support from the American Physical Society and Quantum Circuits, Inc.

Episode Highlights

Introduction to Quantum Memory: Steve explains that quantum memory is essential for quantum computers, similar to how RAM functions in classical computers. It serves as intermediate storage while the CPU works on other data.Coherence Challenges: Quantum bits (qubits) struggle to faithfully hold information for extended periods. Quantum memory faces both bit flips (like classical computers) and phase flips (unique to quantum systems).The Fundamental Theorem: Steve notes there?s ?no such thing as too much coherence? in quantum computing - longer coherence times are always beneficial.Quantum Random Access Memory (QRAM): Unlike classical RAM, QRAM can handle quantum superpositions, allowing it to process multiple addresses simultaneously and create entangled states of addresses and their associated data.QRAM Applications: Quantum memory enables state preparation, construction of oracles, and processing of big data in quantum algorithms for machine learning and linear algebra.Tree Architecture: QRAM is structured like an upside-down binary tree with routers at each node. The ?bucket brigade? approach guides quantum bits through the tree to retrieve data.Error Resilience: Surprisingly, the error situation in QRAM is less catastrophic than initially feared. With a million leaf nodes and 0.1% error rate per component, only about 1,000 errors would occur, but the shallow circuit depth (only requiring n hops for n address bits) makes the system more resilient.Dual-Rail Approach: Recent work by Danny Weiss demonstrates using dual resonator (dual-rail) qubits where a microwave photon exists in superposition between two boxes, achieving 99.9% fidelity for each hop in the tree.Historical Context: Steve draws parallels to early classical computing memory systems developed by von Neumann at Princeton?s IAS, including mercury delay line memory and early fault tolerance concepts.Future Outlook: While building quantum memory presents significant challenges, Steve remains optimistic about progress, noting that improving base qubit quality first and then scaling is their preferred approach.

Key Concepts

Quantum Memory: Storage for quantum information that maintains coherenceQRAM (Quantum Random Access Memory): Architecture that allows quantum superpositions of addresses to access corresponding dataCoherence Time: How long a qubit can maintain its quantum stateBucket Brigade: Method for routing quantum information through a tree structureDual-Rail Qubits: Encoding quantum information in the presence of a photon in one of two resonators

References

Weiss, D.K., Puri, S., Girvin, S.M. (2024). ?Quantum random access memory architectures using superconducting cavities.? arXiv:2310.08288Xu, S., Hann, C.T., Foxman, B., Girvin, S.M., Ding, Y. (2023). ?Systems Architecture for Quantum Random Access Memory.? arXiv:2306.03242Brock, B., et al. (2024). ?Quantum Error Correction of Qudits Beyond Break-even.? arXiv:2409.15065

In this episode of The New Quantum Era, host Sebastian Hassinger interviews Professor Will Oliver from MIT about the advancements in fluxonium qubits. The discussion delves into the unique features of fluxonium qubits compared to traditional transmon qubits, highlighting their potential for high fidelity operations and scalability. Oliver shares insights from recent experiments at MIT, where his team achieved nearly five nines fidelity in single-qubit gates, and discusses how these qubits could be scaled up for larger quantum computing architectures through innovative control systems.

Major Points Covered:

Fluxonium vs. Transmon Qubits: Fluxonium qubits have a double-well potential, unlike the harmonic oscillator-like potential of transmon qubits. This design allows for high anharmonicity, which is beneficial for reducing leakage to higher energy levels during operations.High Fidelity Operations: The MIT team achieved high fidelity in both single and two-qubit gates using fluxonium qubits. For single qubits, they reached nearly five nines fidelity, and for two-qubit gates, they achieved fidelities around 99.92%.Scalability and Cost Reduction: Fluxonium qubits operate at lower frequencies, which could enable the integration of control electronics at cryogenic temperatures, reducing costs and increasing scalability. This approach is being developed by Atlantic Quantum, a startup spun out of Oliver's research groupFuture Directions: The goal is to implement surface code error correction with fluxonium qubits, which could lead to efficient production of logical qubits due to their high fidelity operations

This episode brought to you with support from APS and from Quantum Machines, a big thank you to both organizations!

Professor Zoe Holmes from EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland, discusses her work on quantum imaginary time evolution and variational techniques for near-term quantum computers. With a background from Imperial College London and Oxford, Holmes explores the limits of what can be achieved with NISQ (Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum) devices.

Key topics covered:

Quantum Imaginary Time Evolution (QITE) as a cooling-inspired algorithm for finding ground statesComparison of QITE to Variational Quantum Eigensolver (VQE) approachesChallenges in variational methods, including barren plateaus and expressivity concernsTrade-offs between circuit depth, fidelity, and practical implementation on current hardwarePotential for scientific value from NISQ-era devices in physics and chemistry applicationsThe interplay between classical and quantum methods in advancing our understanding of quantum systems

Welcome to another episode of The New Quantum Era, where we delve into the cutting-edge developments in quantum computing. with your host, Sebastian Hassinger. Today, we have a unique episode featuring representatives from two companies collaborating on groundbreaking quantum algorithms and hardware. Joining us are Sean Weinberg, Director of Quantum Applications at Quantum Circuits Incorporated, and Guillermo Garcia Perez, Chief Science Officer and co-founder at Algorithmiq. Together, they discuss their partnership and the innovative work they are doing to advance quantum computing applications, particularly in the field of chemistry and pharmaceuticals.

Key Highlights:

Introduction of New Podcast Format: Sebastian explains the new format of the podcast and introduces the guests, Sean Weinberg from Quantum Circuits Inc. and Guillermo Garcia Perez from Algorithmic.Collaboration Overview: Guillermo discusses the partnership between Quantum Circuits Inc. and Algorithmiq, focusing on how Quantum Circuits Inc.'s dual-rail qubits with built-in error detection enhance Algorithmiq?s quantum algorithms.Innovative Algorithms: Guillermo elaborates on their novel approach to ground state simulations using tensor network methods and informationally complete measurements, which improve the accuracy and efficiency of quantum computations.Hardware Insights: Sean provides insights into Quantum Circuits Inc.'s Seeker device, an eight-qubit system that flags 90% of errors, and discusses the future scalability and potential for error correction.Future Directions: Both guests talk about the potential for larger-scale devices and the importance of collaboration between hardware and software companies to advance the field of quantum computing.

Mentioned in this Episode:

Quantum Circuits Inc.AlgorithmiqQCI?s forthcoming quantum computing device, Aqumen SeekerTensor Network Error Mitigation: A method used by Algorithmic to improve the accuracy of quantum computations.

Tune in to hear about the exciting advancements in quantum computing and how these two companies are pushing the boundaries of what?s possible in this new quantum era, and if you like what you hear, check out www.newquantumera.com, where you'll find our full archive of episodes and a preview of the book I'm writing for O'Reilly Media, The New Quantum Era.

Welcome back to The New Quantum Era, a podcast by Sebastian Hassinger and Kevin Rowney. After a brief hiatus, we?re excited to bring you a fascinating conversation with a true pioneer in the field of quantum computing, Alán Aspuru-Guzik. Alán is a professor at the University of Toronto and a leading figure in quantum computing, known for his foundational work on the Variational Quantum Eigensolver (VQE). In this episode, we delve into the evolution of VQE and explore Alán?s latest groundbreaking work on the Generative Quantum Eigensolver (GQE). Expect to hear about the intersection of quantum computing and machine learning, and how these advancements could shape the future of the field.

Key Highlights:

Origins of VQE: Alan discusses the development of the Variational Quantum Eigensolver, a technique that combines classical and quantum computing to approximate the ground state of chemical systems. This method was a significant step forward in efforts to make practical use of noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices.Challenges and Innovations: The conversation touches on the challenges of variational algorithms, such as the barren plateau problem, and how Alán?s group has been working on innovative solutions to overcome these hurdles.Introduction to GQE: Alán introduces the Generative Quantum Eigensolver, a new approach that leverages generative models like transformers to optimize quantum circuits without relying on quantum gradients. This method aims to make quantum computing more efficient and practical.Future of Quantum Computing: The discussion explores the potential future workflows in quantum computing, where hybrid architectures combining classical and quantum computing will be essential. Alán shares his vision of how GQE could be foundational in this new era.Broader Applications: Beyond chemistry, the GQE technique has potential applications in quantum machine learning and other variational algorithms, making it a versatile tool in the quantum computing toolkit.

Mentioned in this episode:

A variational eigenvalue solver on a quantum processor: Foundational paper on VQE technique.The generative quantum Eigensolver (GQE) and its application for ground state search: Alan?s latest paper on GQE and its applications.Tequila Framework: An extensible software framework for VQE experiments.The Meta-Variational Quantum Eigensolver (Meta-VQE): Learning energy profiles of parameterized Hamiltonians for quantum simulation: A paper on learning across potential energy surfaces.Quantum autoencoders for efficient compression of quantum data: Early work on quantum autoencoders for molecular design.Beyond NISQ: The Megaquop Machine: John Preskill?s slides from Q2B SV 2024. I think John is great, but "megaquop" is very "fetch."Myths around quantum computation before full fault tolerance: what no-go theorems rule out and what they don't: A paper discussing myths and truths about quantum computing.

Stay tuned for more exciting episodes and deep dives into the world of quantum computing. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, review, and share it on your preferred social media platforms. Thank you for listening!

Welcome to another episode of The New Quantum Era, hosted by Sebastian Hassinger and Kevin Rowney. Today, we have the privilege of speaking with Dr. Robert Schoelkopf, Sterling Professor of Applied Physics at Yale, Director of the Yale Quantum Institute, and CTO and co-founder at Quantum Circuits, Inc. Dr. Schoelkopf is a pioneering figure in the field of quantum computing, particularly known for his contributions to the development of the transmon qubit architecture. In this episode, we delve into the history and future of quantum computing, focusing on the latest advancements in error correction and the innovative dual rail qubit architecture.

Key Highlights:

Historical Context and Contributions: Dr. Schoelkopf discusses the early days of quantum computing at Yale, including the development of the transmon qubit architecture, which has been foundational for superconducting qubits.Introduction to Dual Rail Qubits: Explanation of the dual rail qubit architecture, which promises significant improvements in error detection and correction, potentially reducing the overhead required for fault-tolerant quantum computing.Error Correction Strategies: Insights into how the dual rail qubit architecture simplifies the detection and correction of errors, making quantum error correction more efficient and scalable.Modular Approach to Quantum Computing: Discussion on the modular design of quantum systems, which allows for easier scaling and maintenance, and the potential for interconnecting quantum modules via microwave photons.Future Prospects and Real-World Applications: Dr. Schoelkopf shares his vision for the future of quantum computing, including the commercial deployment of Quantum Circuits, Inc's new quantum devices and the ongoing collaboration between theoretical and experimental approaches to advance the field.

Mentioned in this Episode:

Yale Quantum InstituteQuantum Circuits Inc. announces Aqumen Seeker

Join us as we explore these groundbreaking advancements and their implications for the future of quantum computing.

In this episode of The New Quantum Era, Sebastian talks with Martin Schultz, Professor at TU Munich and board member of the Leibniz Supercomputing Center (LRZ) about the critical need to integrate quantum computers with classical supercomputing resources to build practical quantum solutions. They discuss the Munich Quantum Valley initiative, focusing on the challenges and advancements in merging quantum and classical computing.

Main Topics Discussed:

The Genesis of Munich Quantum Valley: The Munich Quantum Valley is a collaborative project funded by the Bavarian government to advance quantum research and development. The project quickly realized the need for software infrastructure to bridge the gap between quantum hardware and real-world applications.Building a Hybrid Quantum-Classical Computing Infrastructure: LRZ is developing a software stack and web portal to streamline the interaction between their HPC system and various quantum computers, including superconducting and ion trap systems. This approach enables researchers to leverage the strengths of both classical and quantum computing resources seamlessly.Hierarchical Scheduling for Efficient Resource Allocation: LRZ is designing a multi-tiered scheduling system to optimize resource allocation in the hybrid environment. This system considers factors like job requirements, resource availability, and the specific characteristics of different quantum computing technologies to ensure efficient execution of quantum workloads.Open-Source Collaboration and Standardization: LRZ aims to make its software stack open-source, recognizing the importance of collaboration and standardization in the quantum computing community. They are actively working with vendors to define standard interfaces for integrating quantum computers with HPC systems.Addressing the Unknown in Quantum Computing: The field of quantum computing is evolving rapidly, and LRZ acknowledges the need for adaptable solutions. Their architectural design prioritizes flexibility, allowing for future pivots and the incorporation of new quantum computing models and intermediate representations as they emerge.

Munich Quantum Valley
IEEE Quantum