Dr. Carlos Abellan is cofounder and CEO at Quside, a quantum technology spin-off from ICFO. Carlos got his PhD in quantum technologies at ICFO, where he developed the quantum randomness technologies that were transferred to Quside. 10 years of experience in quantum and photonics technologies, co-inventor of multiple patent families and co-author of 15+ papers in top scientific journals. Received the award MIT Innovators Under 35 Europe.

Prof. Clarice D. Aiello is a quantum engineer interested in how quantum physics informs biology at the nanoscale. She is an expert on nanosensors harnessing room-temperature quantum effects in noisy environments. Aiello received her B.S. in Physics from the Ecole Polytechnique; her M.Phil. in Physics from the University of Cambridge, Trinity College; and her Ph.D. from MIT in Electrical Engineering. She also held postdoctoral appointments in Bioengineering at Stanford, and in Chemistry at Berkeley. Two months before the pandemic, she joined UCLA, where she leads the Quantum Biology Tech (QuBiT) Lab.

Rima Alameddine has served as IonQ’s Chief Revenue Officer since December 2022. Since November 2018, Ms. Alameddine has served as the Vice President, Enterprise Sales, Healthcare, Life Science and Manufacturing, Americas, of NVIDIA Corporation, a publicly listed company. From July 2016 to October 2018, Ms. Alameddine served as the Vice President, Enterprise Sales, East and Central United States, of NVIDIA. Prior to this, between September 1998 and July 2016, Ms. Alameddine served in various roles at Cisco Systems, Inc., a publicly listed company, including Director, Enterprise Sales, New York from August 2012 to 2016 and Director, Enterprise Sales, Financial Services, from November 2010 to July 2012. Ms. Alameddine holds an M.S. in computer engineering and a B.S. in computer and communications engineering from Syracuse University and the American University of Beirut, respectively.

Dr. Reza Azarderakhsh is the CEO and Founder of PQSecure with the main focus on development of quantum-safe cryptographic solutions for tomorrow’s data today in-transit, at-rest, and in-use. Dr. Azarderakhsh is well-known fo the development of several cryptographic algorithms and architecture for various applications. He published more than 100 papers in journals and conferences on applied cryptography.

Nir Bar-Lev brings a wealth of experience in spearheading technological advancements and steering successful business initiatives to his current role as CEO at QuantLR, a pioneering Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) vendor. Prior to QuantLR, Nir played a crucial role as the co-founder and CEO of ClearML, where he navigated the company to become the global open source MLOps leader.

Before founding ClearML, Nir held various leadership roles at Google, where he made significant contributions to revamping product strategies and enhancing operational efficiencies, notably in the realms of Search Ads, Google Analytics and payments. His endeavors were critical in reshaping Google’s product offerings in the EMEA region and spearheading the development of various innovative tools and platforms.

Nir’s journey in the tech industry began as a software engineer and an alum of one of the IDF’s elite technology units.

Alongside his corporate journey, Nir has been recognized with several awards and holds patents in visual event detectors and competitive analysis based on search interest data. He holds an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Sciences from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.

Riccardo Bassoli is an Assistant Professor at the Deutsche Telekom Chair of Communication Networks and Head of the Quantum Communication Networks Research Group, at the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, at Technische Universität Dresden. He is member of the Centre for Tactile Internet with Human-in-the-loop (CeTI) , Cluster of Excellence, Dresden. He is also member of the EU Quantum Internet Alliance (QIA) and of the EU flagships for 6G Hexa-X and Hexa-X II. He is principal investigator in the 6G-life research hub of Germany. He got his Ph.D. from 5G Innovation Centre at University of Surrey (UK), in 2016. He was also a Marie Curie ESR at the Instituto de Telecomunicações (Portugal) and visiting researcher at Airbus Defence and Space (Elancourt, France). Between 2016 and 2019, he was postdoctoral researcher at Università di Trento (Italy). He is member of the Glue Technologies for Space Systems Technical Panel of the IEEE AESS. He is also co-founder and managing director of QcomBIT GmbH.

Catarina Bastos graduated in Physics/Applied Mathematics – Astronomy by the Faculty of Sciences in University of Oporto in 2005. She completed the PhD degree in Physics with the thesis: “Phase Space Noncommutativity: Formalism and Applications” by Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) in Lisbon in 2010. During her PhD and Pos-Doc work in Instituto Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear (IPFN) she became expert in models using quantum mechanics to explain different physical aspects of the universe. She had published 28 papers: 20 in international peer review journals and 8 in conference proceedings.

In February 2017 she started her adventure in Deimos Engenharia, in the GNSS Business Unit. She worked in several ESA projects related with precise orbital determination. In 2019 she became Project Manager in GNSS for the development of a space GNSS receiver, G3STAR. She was also responsible for the commercial activities and business development in GNSS in Lisbon during that period.

In 2021 she has become a Bid and Project Manager in Secure Quantum Communications projects in Deimos, leading a pioneer project for the European Defence, DISCRETION, where an SDN enabled by QKD shall be developed jointly with Spain, Austria and Italy. She is also co-coordinating through Deimos the national road map in quantum networks that shall be implemented in Portugal with the National Security Office, the Portuguese Defence and several research institutes and companies. In 2022 she has been assigned the Account Manager for Defence projects in Deimos Engenharia.

Dr. Deborah Berebichez is Founder & CEO of Solve For You, a firm using data, statistics and computational solutions to help companies succeed in the digital era. Deborah is a strategic thought leader in quantum computing, passionate about driving quantum-based solutions into new realms.

She is the first Mexican woman to earn a Ph.D. in physics from Stanford, where she did her doctorate with two Nobel laureates: Steve Chu (former US Secretary of Energy) and Robert Laughlin. Deborah is an award-winning science-communicator who has a life-sized 3D statue of her, created by the American Association for the Advancement of Science on display in Washington, DC. She is also a TV presenter, currently appearing on “Weird Earth” on the Weather Channel. Selected by WIRED as part of the “Most Inspiring Women of the Decade” list.

Dr. Vincent Berk is responsible for charting the growth of the company and driving stronger alignment between all revenue-generating functions of the business.

Vince comes to Quantum Xchange from Riverbed Technologies, a large network performance company where he served as Chief Technology Officer and Chief Security Architect. Recognized as a highly technical cybersecurity executive and industry thought leader, Vince is also a successful entrepreneur and academic. He founded and led FlowTraq, an enterprise network security and analytics company from conception to acquisition and served as a computer science faculty member at the prestigious Dartmouth College.

Vince has a Ph.D. in machine learning and large-scale data analytics from Leiden University and holds several patents in the application of data analysis in cybersecurity and network performance.

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During Robert’s 38-year industrial career Robert has made significant contributions to the developing internet in all layers of the TCP/IP model. While at Cisco Robert led the development and deployment of the first internet optical transport links that were integrated into existing telecommunication infrastructure. Robert holds numerous patents, published numerous papers and led 3 academic-industrial research programs that have led to multi-billion-dollar businesses.

Hyeongrak Choi (Chuck) is a postdoctoral researcher in MIT RLE, quantum photonics group led by Prof. Dirk Englund. Chuck obtained his PhD in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT in 2021 under the supervision of Prof. Dirk Englund. He was awarded Claude E Shannon Research Fellow in 2019 and supported by a non-committing Samsung Scholarship from 2014-2019. His interest is in quantum information science, quantum networks, quantum computing, and quantum optics.

Jose Coello holds a PhD in quantum Computing from University College London. He is an expert in bringing theoretical models to experimental experiments and in the case of Crypta Labs to actual products. His main areas of research are in the field of Quantum Information based on mesoscopic systems such as N@C60 Carbon NanoWires or Self-assembled quantum dots. This research was developed in conjunction with Oxford University, QinetiQ and Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Jose’s expertise allows Crypta Labs to implement the cutting edge of quantum research into their technology development. Jose has filed several patents with Crypta Labs for his work on our Quantum Random Number Generator (QRNG).

He has been the leader for the creation of the first space graded QRNG, designed for Low Earth Orbit and tested for Temperature, Vacuum and Launch vibrations at the facilities of Southampton University. With his team reached the conclusion and proved that one of the tests for Random Number Sequences from NIST 800-22 was slightly biased for large amount of data thanks to the quality of our random numbers produced by our RNG. He is also leading the Industrial participation of Crypta Labs at the Innovate UK project “Assurance of Quantum Random Number Generators”, a project that will help to establish the quality of QRNG and their advantage against current state of the art RNG.

Dr. Scott Crowder is currently Vice President, IBM Quantum Adoption and Chief Technical Officer, IBM Systems. He leads the commercialization effort for quantum computing and IBM Quantum’s efforts to create the global diverse and skilled workforce required to unlock the potential of quantum computing. Previously, Scott led technical strategy development within IBM Corporate Strategy. In this role, he helped define the cross-IBM strategy for cloud infrastructure, Big Data and Analytics, composable services, and software-defined infrastructure. Scott was the lead engineer on the industry’s first logic-based embedded DRAM technology before serving in a variety of executive management roles within global cross-cultural alliances for semiconductor process development including Taiwanese, Singaporean, Korean, Japanese and German companies. Scott received A.B./Sc.B. degrees in Electrical Engineering and International Relations from Brown University and a M.A. in Economics and M.Sc./Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.

The Honorable Paul M. Dabbar is co-founder and CEO of Bohr Quantum Technology, a company focused on developing networking technologies for the emerging quantum internet. He is also a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Columbia University.

Prior to that, he was Under Secretary for Science at the U.S. Department of Energy, leading the Department’s efforts in fundamental energy, science, and commercialization of technologies. He managed 65,000 people and deployed $15BN p.a. at the 17 national labs, U.S. universities, and international collaborations including at CERN. While Under Secretary, he led the five-times increase in quantum research budget at the Department. He helped draft the National Quantum Initiative Act and testified before Congress in support of the legislation. Subsequently he managed the creation of the five National Quantum Initiative Centers. He also generated the Quantum Internet Blueprint project, and was a co-author of the published plan. Previously he also worked at J.P.Morgan, and was a nuclear submarine officer.

He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a contributor to the Wall Street Journal. He has also traveled to the geographic North and South Poles: to the North Pole by submarine to conduct environmental research while in the Navy and to the South Pole in support of high energy physics missions at South Pole Station.

Mark has participated in the Deep Tech space for over two decades, with an intimate understanding of technological roadmaps and an information matrix that includes the activities of the hyperscalers. This has afforded him the privilege of investing in some of the world’s most impactful companies, teams, and technologies. He has invested in several unicorns across Series A to D with expertise in Quantum Computing, AI, ML, Next-Gen Compute, Space, Energy, Water, and other impactful areas shaping the Arc of Humanity.

Etienne De Montigny is a Defense Scientist at Defense Research and Development Canada in the Department of National Defense. He is part of the Electro-Optic Surveillance and Reconnaissance section at the Valcartier Research Center. His research interest are in active imaging and lidar, and more recently in quantum imaging and sensing. He obtained his Ph.D. in Engineering Physics from Polytechnique Montréal.

Kees Eijkel is Business Development Director at QuTech, the Delft quantum institute founded by the Technical University of Delft and TNO. Before that, he was president of Kennispark Twente, the science park and innovation ecosystem in and around the University of Twente and Saxion University of Applied Sciences, and technical-commercial director of the MESA+ Institute of Nanotechnology. His education is in Mathematics (MSc University of Amsterdam) and Engineering (PhD University of Twente). Kees has held several positions in organizations to support commercialization and startups, including public venture funds.

Dr. Rozhin Eskandarpour is the founder and CEO of Resilient Entanglement (RE), the first global women-owned company in the Quantum-Smart Grid field. She is a senior member of the IEEE, a member of the Technical Advisory Committee for QED-C, and an adjunct professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Her primary mission is to accelerate the adoption of quantum computing technology within the energy sector, aiming to enhance the reliability, resiliency, and sustainability of the electric power grid, especially in light of climate change challenges. Dr. Eskandarpour earned her Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Denver.

Doug Finke is a Consulting Analyst to Inside Quantum Technology. He is also founder of the Quantum Computing Report where he applies his wide breadth of experience to help accelerate the deployment of quantum computing. Doug has been involved in the computer, semiconductor, and storage industry for over 30 years and has helped drive the growth of many new technologies during this period. Doug believes that many of the new technology growth patterns he has seen within the computer industry will reoccur as the quantum technology field evolves. Doug has served as the Chief Operating Officer of the startup company, IntelliSense, where he helped sell the company at a valuation of $750 million. As Vice-President of Marketing and Business Development at the semiconductor startup ChipWrights, Doug also helped raise $25 million in venture capital funding. Other important firms for whom Doug has worked include Intel, IBM, Standard Microsystems and HGST/Western Digital. Doug holds degrees in computer engineering and management from the University of Illinois and MIT respectively.

Jonah Force Hill is Managing Director at The LightBridge Group, an advisory firm for quantum tech companies. From 2021-2023, he served as the Director for Cybersecurity and Emerging Technology on the staff of the National Security Council at the White House, where he directed President Biden’s national security memorandum on quantum computing (NSM 10). Prior to joining the White House, he served as Head of Cyber Policy at the U.S. Secret Service and Senior Specialist for Technology and International Affairs at the U.S. Department of Commerce. He maintains affiliations at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, American University, and the Council on Foreign Relations, and holds an MTS and MPP from Harvard University and a BA from UCLA.

Lawrence Gasman is the founder and President of Inside Quantum Technology. He has authored industry analysis reports on quantum key distribution, quantum computing, quantum networks, and quantum sensors and numerous studies on high-speed interfaces for high-performance computers. He also served on a panel at the Q2B conference in 2017; the first ever business-oriented quantum computing conference. Lawrence has been tracking commercialization of new technologies for 35 years and has written four books in this area. His consulting work has included both major multinationals and high-tech start-ups as clients and he has also carried out due diligence work for investment banks, venture capitalists and leading management consulting firms.

BlueQubit is a California-based startup specializing in crafting GPU- accelerated quantum infrastructure and QC platform tailored for hybrid classical-quantum algorithms. As its co-founder and CEO, Hrant Gharibyan plays a pivotal role in guiding its scientific innovations and fostering strategic partnerships. Hrant is a Stanford-trained quantum scientist with a decade of experience in quantum physics and algorithms as a Simon’s Fellow at Caltech and researcher at Google’s Quantum AI team.

Maëva Ghonda specializes in Risk Oversight and Governance. She is the chair of the Quantum AI Institute and Senior Fellow of HQS Quantum Simulations, the leading quantum computing software company based in Germany. Maëva was previously the Cybersecurity Blockchain Global Group Leader for the Cloud Security Alliance where she led a global group of 210 security professionals. She has also worked as a Scholar for the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI), the world-class quantum research institution supported by NIST — a vital government agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce. She has held roles in Cybersecurity Risk Management, including at John Hancock Financial, a diversified financial services company that serves institutional clients and retail customers.

Noel is the CEO of Qunnect, a company innovating first-in-class hardware to transform the existing telecom infrastructure into Quantum-secure communication networks. Prior to this role, she was a seed investor with the Accelerate NY Seed Fund, where she built a portfolio of companies across deep technology and life science sectors in the NYC metro-region. Noel is a serial entrepreneur, having founded her own company, then served as the CTO of another startup in NYC. Before joining the startup community, Noel was a professor of physics at Hunter College, CUNY. She completed her postdoctoral research as a fellow at Harvard University.

Sebastian Hassinger is the worldwide lead for public sector business development and go-to-market at AWS Quantum Technologies. He previously built and lead the academic partnerships at IBM Quantum, and has had a long career in areas of emerging technology at both large enterprises and startups. He co-hosts The New Quantum Era podcast and is writing a book for O’Reilly.

Dr. Michael J. Hayduk is the Deputy Director, Information Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Rome, NY. The directorate’s mission is to lead the development and integration of Air Force warfighting information technologies for Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, and Cyber. Dr. Hayduk plays a key role in overseeing an annual budget of over 1.6 billion dollars, leading the activities of over 1,200 scientists, engineers, administrative and support personnel. He coordinates AFRL’s Quantum Information Science research portfolio spanning seven technical directorates. Dr. Hayduk orchestrated the stand-up of the Innovare Advancement Center, opening an innovation technology hub located just outside of the security perimeter of the Information Directorate. Dr. Hayduk continues to lead the development of strategic partnerships at Innovare.

Prior to his current position, Dr. Hayduk served as the Chief of the Computing and Communications Division, Air Force Research Laboratory, Information Directorate, Rome, New York from 2011 to 2019. The division’s mission was to lead the discovery, development and integration of affordable computing, networking and communications technologies for our air, space, and cyberspace forces. Dr. Hayduk defined, planned, budgeted, advocated, managed; and directed the execution of the research program and led all aspects of personnel management within the division.

Dr. Hayduk joined the Air Force through the Palace Knight educational program in 1991 and was assigned to Rome Laboratory. Upon completion of his graduate studies, he served as a research engineer where he developed ultrafast solid state pulsed lasers for optical communication systems. As a team leader, Dr. Hayduk led the development of microwave photonic components and subsystems for use in radio frequency sensors. In 2005, he was named the acting Chief of the Electro-Optic Components Branch in the AFRL Sensors Directorate, Dr. Hayduk developed components and subsystems for advanced radio frequency and electro-optic AF sensor systems. In 2007, he transitioned into the Chief of the Emerging Computing Technology Branch in the AFRL Information Directorate which performed fundamental and exploratory research and development in nanocomputing, quantum computing, computational intelligence, and optical computing for advanced computing architectures. Dr. Hayduk has published more than 50 journal and conference papers and holds one U.S. patent.

Chris Hickman is the Chief Security Officer at Keyfactor. As a member of the senior management team, Chris is responsible for establishing & maintaining Keyfactor’s leadership position as a world-class, technical organization with deep security industry expertise. He leads client success initiatives and helps integrate the voice of the customer directly into Keyfactor’s platform and capability set.

Chris previously held the position of Director of Technical Services at Alacris, an Ottawa based smartcard and certificate management company, which was sold to Microsoft and is now part of the Microsoft Identity Manager product suite. Chris has worked on PKI projects for organizations and firms including NATO, both the U.S. and Canadian Departments of Defense, Fortune 100 banks and financial institutions, manufacturers, insurance companies, telecommunication providers and retailers. He continues to be a trusted resource for enterprises looking to leverage digital certificates within existing portfolios and new product development.

Chris lives in Ottawa, Canada and enjoys traveling with his family, working on classic cars, and photography.

Kenna Hughes-Castleberry is a staff writer at Inside Quantum Technology News and the Science Communicator at JILA (a partnership between the University of Colorado Boulder and NIST). Her writing beats include deep tech, quantum computing, social media, and AI. Her work has been featured in Scientific American, Discover Magazine, Ars Technica, Astronomy Magazine, and more.

Poolad Imany is a quantum networking expert with a decade of experience in this field. He has conducted in-depth research on quantum light generation and has extensive knowledge about the state-of-the-art in various quantum computing and communications platforms. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Purdue University in 2019. He then joined the Quantum Nanophotonics Group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Boulder, Colorado, to develop scalable solutions for quantum communications. At NIST, Poolad founded Icarus Quantum to commercialize NIST’s superior quantum dot technology for on-demand quantum light generation, unlocking data security and processing applications of quantum networks.

James “Jim” Ingraham is Vice President of Strategic Research for EPB, a municipal provider of energy and connectivity services for Chattanooga, Tennessee, and the surrounding areas. He is responsible for strategic business development projects, energy & communications market research, electric rate analysis and design, federal public policy research, and grant development. Most recently, he was a member of the team that launched EPB Quantum NetworkSM powered by Qubitekk, America’s first industry-led, commercially available quantum network designed for running equipment and applications in an established fiber optic environment.

Ingraham also made essential contributions to the rollout of EPB’s community-wide 100% fiber optic network and smart grid infrastructure which put Chattanooga on the map as the first in America to make Gig-speed internet accessible to all. Since then, EPB has continually worked to keep Chattanooga on the cutting edge, most recently through the launch of the nation’s first community-wide 25 Gig internet offering. In the first 10 years of its existence, Chattanooga’s advanced smart city infrastructure has generated $2.7 billion in economic benefit through jobs creation, bridging the digital divide, reduced power outages and more.

Prior to joining EPB, Ingraham held several positions over 13 years at the Tennessee Valley Authority and was a technology development policy advisor to the State of Tennessee Commissioner for Economic and Community Development.

Dr. Yoann Jestin, is the CEO and co-founder of Ki3 Photonics, a Canadian startup focusing on the development of quantum resource distribution with the vision to adapt quantum technologies to the actual telecommunications infrastructure. He received his Ph.D. in Materials Science from the University of Maine (France) and has been a professional researcher since 2002. He is an authority in the realization of systems and devices for telecommunications applications like optical amplifiers, ultra-stable interferometers, sources of optical frequency comb, including specialized optical fibers and integrated optics. His research and development work has produced over 70 scientific papers and 15 patents to date.

Konstantinos Karagiannis is the Director of Quantum Computing Services at Protiviti. His team helps deliver real use cases for emerging NISQ machines to customers, and also prepares companies for post-quantum cryptography challenges. Konstantinos has been involved in the quantum computing industry since 2012, and InfoSec since the 1990s. He has spoken at RSA, Black Hat, Defcon, and dozens of conferences worldwide. He is the host of The Post-Quantum World podcast.

Dr. Shahar Keinan is the CEO & co-founder of POLARIS Quantum Biotech. She has over 20 years of extensive experience in the field of computational and theoretical chemistry and published over 50 peer-reviewed manuscripts in the fields of in-silico drug design and discovery, as well as molecular materials design and computational methods development. Shahar has received a Ph.D. in theoretical chemistry from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, after which she moved to Northwestern University and Duke University for a post-doc positions. Previously she was CSO of Cloud Pharmaceuticals and has been instrumental in the development of the Quantum Molecular Design process since its inception at Duke University, and has pioneered the use of Inverse Design algorithms to optimize electro-optical materials and small molecule drugs.

Robert Keys is a Senior Director of Optical Transmission R&D at Ciena. In this role, Robert oversees all aspects of optical systems transmission including link performance assurance, planning tools, optical hardware development and Quantum communications. In his 30+ years of experience, Robert has held several leadership positions including VP of Packet Optical R&D at Juniper Networks where he developed optical systems for switching and routing platforms, as well as CTO at BTI Systems.

Dr. Hoon Kim is the founder and CEO of SeeDevice Inc, a fabless quantum CMOS-SWIR image sensor company. Dr. Kim received his PhD from the University of Tokyo, where he worked on the use of quantum dots and superlattice structures for single electron tunneling memory and single photon detection devices.

Dr. Kim has over 25 years of experience in nano-sized semiconductor devices and next generation CMOS quantum image sensors, over 60+ filed patents globally spanning quantum photodetectors and their applications, and co-authored 30+ papers. He is currently leading the commercialization of the revolutionary QMOS (Quantum effect CMOS) image sensor, with his innovative technology.

Wojciech Kozlowski studied Theoretical Quantum Physics at the University of Cambridge where he obtained his MSci (2012). He then completed his PhD in Atomic and Laser Physics at the University of Oxford (2016). In his PhD he studied the interactions of quantum light with trapped cold atomic gases and developed theoretical models for the resulting competition between measurement back-action and intrinsic atomic dynamics.

Following his PhD studies, Wojciech decided that he would rather dive into Computer Science. Therefore, rather than following an academic career he went to work as a software engineer in the network protocols team at Metaswitch in London. It is here that he developed his interest in computer networks. During his time in industry, Wojciech was able to learn the basic theory of operation of computer networks whilst gaining practical experience in implementing and running network software.

Wojciech found out about QuTech while attending the IETF 101 meeting in London where the Quantum Internet Research Group at the IRTF was formed. Less than a year later, in February 2019 Wojciech joined QuTech as a postdoc in the Wehner Group. His research work focused on quantum network protocol design and the software architecture for quantum networking nodes. In the meantime he also became a co-chair of the Quantum Internet Research Group at the IRTF. As of April 2021, Wojciech is a Quantum Network Engineer at QuTech. In his new role he works on developing the overall software architecture for quantum networks covering both the data and control plane.

Zoran Krunic joined Amgen R&D in 2018, focusing on the application of Machine Learning to model patient outcomes and clinical trial enrollment using Electronic Health Records and clinical trial data sets. Since 2019, Zoran has led the Quantum Machine Learning initiative, collaborating with the IBM Quantum research team to evaluate machine learning models in the quantum domain on IBM’s Qiskit platform and compare them with classical machine learning models.

Recently, his work has centered on the evaluation of new generative AI models, particularly their application in the clinical space, combined with Quantum Computing and Quantum Machine Learning. Prior to joining Amgen, Zoran spent several years at Optum, developing Machine Learning applications to predict hardware and software failures within enterprise architectures. Before his tenure at Optum, he worked as a consultant for several large companies including Capital Group, ARCO Petroleum, Southern California Gas Company, and PacifiCare. During this time, he specialized in data engineering, data warehousing, and real-time system development.

Zoran holds a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Dr. Ravi Kumar is a co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Atomionics Pte. Ltd., Singapore, building Quantum Sensors for field applications such as mineral exploration and navigation in GPS-denied areas. Ravi has a master’s degree in Photonics and a PhD in Physics. He has over a decade of experience working with quantum systems using laser cooled atoms and has led the development of a Quantum Gravimeter (called Gravio) which is now reaching a commercialization stage.

Olivier Landon-Cardinal is a Teaching Professor at the Ecole de Technologie Superieure (ETS) in Montreal. After graduate studies in quantum information, he held postdoctorate fellowships in Caltech and McGill. He has been teaching an introductory undergraduate course to quantum computing since January 2021. He is now building a curriculum and fostering research in quantum technologies at ETS.

Dr. Olivia Lanes completed her PhD in physics, focused on quantum measurement, in 2020 from the University of Pittsburgh. She joined IBM shortly after, where she works as the North American Lead for Qiskit Research/Education. In this capacity, she works to help put Qiskit into the hands of researchers and to make sure the people who are using our systems have access to the best tools and devices. She is also passionate about education, and works on IBM Quantum’s challenges and summer schools with the aim of democratizing quantum education. She also sits on the national Q-12 education council to focus on workforce development at a national level.

Anthony (Tony) Lawrence is the founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of VOR Technology and Light Rider, and a leader in the cyber and communications security fields. Mr. Lawrence is a service-disabled U.S. army veteran who began his career being recruited at 17-years-old into the intelligence field by the National Security Agency (NSA). Serving in multiple high-profile roles, Mr. Lawrence gained invaluable experience in counterterrorism and threat analysis as well as tracking high-value targets and tactical intelligence collection. His cyber target geo-location efforts produced intelligence reports directly leading to the capture or elimination of terrorists worldwide. Because of his skill and experience, Mr. Lawrence was ultimately selected to serve as the lead corporate briefer for NSA and the newly established U.S. Cyber Command. He briefed hundreds of audiences on the organizations’ operations, missions and capabilities.

In 2012, following his time in service, Mr. Lawrence established VOR Technology. VOR has supported more than 50 cybersecurity and related contracts and has employed upwards of 300 personnel. VOR has grown into a highly successful, nationally recognized company focused on providing superior tactical mission support to the Department of Defense and other U.S. Government departments and agencies. Mr. Lawrence’s accomplishments have garnered national media attention, and his experience continues to lend itself to VOR’s objectives.

Mr. Lawrence went on to establish the quantum communications company Light Rider in 2018. Light Rider develops state-of-the-art entropy distribution Light Fidelity (LiFi) systems and other quantum capabilities designed to secure communications from the consumer level to enterprise environments. By marrying both quantum entropy and LiFi technology, Light Rider’s growing suite of products is poised to revolutionize networks and prepare the world for the arrival of the quantum Internet, and beyond.

Mr. Lawrence continues to pave the way through his companies’ innovations and support to ongoing national defense missions and plans to expand the reach of his technologies to contribute to academia and underserved communities.

Anton Lebedev has completed his M.Sc. in theoretical physics at the University of Tübingen and has been working since as a scientific assistant and high-performance software engineer for the Helmholtz Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf as well as the Hartree Centre. His work spans statistical physics, stochastic linear algebra, uncertainty quantification and touches upon plasma physics. His research interests are in quantum optics and computing as well as general relativity, with a focus on the mathematical formalism of the fields and the reproducibility of simulation-based findings.

David Levonian is an experimental physicist with a background in quantum optics, quantum memories, and quantum networks. David’s expertise lies at the intersection of quantum science and engineering, and he is passionate about realizing applications of quantum technologies. During his PhD research at Harvard, he helped develop a novel integrated nanophotonic quantum repeater platform based on color-center qubits in diamond. Using this system, his team was able to perform the first experimental demonstration of memory-enhanced quantum communication, a major milestone towards large-scale quantum networks based on quantum repeaters.

Mr. Levy has worked at the intersection of technology and finance for more than 35 years. In 2018 Mr. Levy co-founded SEEQC, a scalable quantum computing company, where he serves as the company’s CEO and Chair. From 2010-18 he served as the Chair of BioLite, a distributed clean energy company. In 2013, Mr. Levy joined the board of goTenna, an ad hoc mesh networking company. In 2011, he was named Chair of Hypres, a digital RF and MRI company. In 2012, Mr. Levy joined the investment committee of the Nathan Cummings Foundation overseeing a $450m endowment and became Chair of the investment committee in 2017, pursuing a commitment to impact investment. Mr. Levy was a founding partner from 2005-2010 of L Capital Partners, a $185m venture capital fund, where Mr. Levy led investments in the technology sector and served on seven technology company boards including WiSpry, OnPATH Technologies, HiGTek, Simparel (Exenta), and Evogen.

From 2001-2005, Mr. Levy was a partner in the Shalom Equity Fund, a seed stage tech fund based in the US and Israel. Prior to 2000, Mr. Levy served as founding CEO of ePlanet, a pioneering computer vision company funded by Interval Research and Intel Corp. During the mid-1990’s, Mr. Levy worked at Interval Research Corporation, a Palo Alto based development lab sponsored by Paul Allen. Before that he was a general partner of Ariel Securities Corp., an NASD-licensed broker/dealer specializing in venture capital and media-based investments.

Since 1997, Mr. Levy has served as a board member of the Cathay Investment Fund, a private equity fund with over $1b invested in Chinese companies. He also served on the boards of VisionSense, Adjungo Networks and Ovex and was an adviser to Tseng Labs and Advanced Medical Imaging. Mr. Levy served on the board of Bend the Arc and was chairman of the organization from 2000-2006 overseeing the merger of two non-profits.

Mr. Levy is a regular guest lecturer at Columbia University Business School and has given talks on entrepreneurial finance at Harvard Business School, M.I.T., and at numerous industry conferences including a TEDx event at Amherst College in 2014.

Mr. Levy received an A.B. from Amherst College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Tom Lubowe is the product manager for quantum computing libraries at NVIDIA. Prior to joining, he held roles in business development and product management at quantum computing hardware startups like Xanadu, Rigetti, and other quantum machine learning software startups. Prior to that he ran a quantum machine learning startup looking to solve optimal execution in asset trading. Before working on bringing quantum computing to users he worked at SEI Investments on FinTech products.

Nardo Manaloto is the Managing Partner of Qubits Ventures, a sector agnostic venture fund investing in pre-seed and seed stage quantum and photonics technology startups solving complex challenges that creates positive societal impact.

Denis is a physicist and CTO of Qrypt, a post quantum cryptography company. He is a founding member of the Quantum Economic Development Consortium and the Mid Atlantic Quantum Alliance where he is the co-chair of the Crypto Working Group. Denis served 20 years in the intelligence community working on sensitive technology programs in partnerships with National Labs, academia, and large industrial partners. He has patents in quantum entropy and encryption. He works on the American National Standards Institute Quantum Computing Risk Study Group advising the financial community and the ITU-T Quantum Information Technology for Networks advancing international telecommunications standardization.

Mr. McClelland has worked domestically and internationally in a variety of executive, operations, technology, research and development, and business roles in the quantum, utility, energy, healthcare, cybersecurity, and computer science industries. With over 30 years of industry experience he worked at Science Applications International Corporation, SAIC, for over 23 years and Sempra Energy for San Diego Gas and Electric for eight years. Mr. McClelland currently works with Qubitekk Inc where they apply cutting edge quantum science to solve the nation’s most critical security and quantum networking needs. Qubitekk provides quantum entangled communications systems to the nations critical infrastructure. Mr. McClelland is active in philanthropy as founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Prevent Drowning Foundation of San Diego formally the San Diego Junior Lifeguard Foundation and a board member of Humans Against Trafficking. Mr. McClelland holds a BA from San Diego State University in Clinical Psychology and a MS in Computer Science from West Coast University.

Rafael is a Cryptographer at Meta. His areas of expertise are post-quantum cryptography (PQC), fully homomorphic encryption (FHE), privacy enhancing technologies (PET), conventional cryptography, and the application of these constructions to various use cases. Previously, he was a Cryptographer at Google, co-maintainer of Google’s cryptography library Tink (https://github.com/google/tink) “smartCard-inline”) and the lead of storage encryption projects. He was a member of the ISE-Crypto team, responsible for reviewing and approving the usage of cryptography in any products and infrastructure for Alphabet, and member of the PQC workgroup responsible for the migration of the company to post quantum cryptography. Prior to that, he was a Research Scientist (cryptography) at Intel Labs, where he created Intel’s cryptography library TinyCrypt (http://01.org/tinycrypt) “smartCard-inline”) and led the post quantum cryptography migration effort for the company. He has dozens of US patents filed, scientific papers published, and he is an active contributor to international standardization efforts on cryptography (NIST, ISO, IETF). Rafael received his PhD degree from Sorbonne Universités (University of Paris – Pierre et Marie Curie), France, in 2013, with a thesis on efficient constructions for post-quantum cryptography.

Mathieu Munsch is a co-founder and the CEO of Qnami. He holds an engineering degree from the ENS Grenoble INP and a PhD on quantum mechanics from the University Grenoble Alpes. He worked 10 years as a researchers developing new sources of quantum light and lasers. He is the author of > 15 publications in high profile papers such as Nature and the Physical Review. In 2017, Mathieu founded Qnami AG, a pioneer company in the quantum technology industry. Today Qnami is a leader in the emerging market of quantum sensing and metrology. Mathieu is actively supporting the creation of a European quantum ecosystem and training of a new European workforce for quantum applications.

Dr. Michael Murphy is VP of Product at Arqit, a cybersecurity company leading in stronger, simpler encryption. He has experience across many industries and technologies, particularly cybersecurity, insurtech, location tracking, data science and machine learning, and digital marketing. Michael has a PhD in quantum physics where he optimised qubit gates and transport methods, the building blocks of quantum computers.

Mehdi is the Chief Science Officer of Qunnect Inc. As a graduate student he co-founded Qunnect with the intent to transform his PhD work, the experimental demonstration of a room temperature Quantum Memory, into a commercial product. He now leads the research agenda for the company’s product suite, a collection of instruments to enable scalable quantum networking. Prior to Qunnect, Mehdi was awarded the Yale Joint Quantum Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship and completed his PhD at Stony Brook University.

William V. Oxford, Ph.D. – Wil is founder and CEO of Anametric, a quantum photonic cybersecurity-focused startup in Austin, TX, working closely with a team at Southern Methodist University in Dallas TX. Wil received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering, Mathematics, and Computer Science from University of North Carolina in 1987. His dissertation project was one of the world’s first tabletop E-beam testers for commercial ICs.

Wil moved from academia to Apple’s Advanced Technologies Group in Cupertino CA, where he worked on advanced DSP algorithms as well as mixed-signal IC designs for personal computer use. In 1995, Wil joined the Apple/IBM/Motorola Design Center in Austin, TX, where he was part of the team that produced several generations of PowerPC CPU designs. After Apple, Wil joined LifeSize Communications, where he led a small team of engineers to design and ship several ground-breaking products within 18 months from the day that he joined the company. LifeSize was acquired by multimedia giant Logitech in 2009.

After LifeSize, Wil founded Rubicon Labs, Inc. and spent the next dozen years developing Rubicon’s Zero-Knowledge IoT security platform. His work resulted in products spanning a wide range from very low-power edge devices to high performance server farm applications.

Wil left Rubicon in 2017 to found Anametric. He is the holder of 45 issued US patents, several foreign patents and has many more still pending.

Edward Parker is a Physical Scientist at the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy research organization. He received his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2017, where his research involved numerical modeling of quantum magnetic materials that might eventually be useful for building topological quantum computers. Since coming to RAND, his research has focused on the national security and economic policy implications of emerging technologies – primarily quantum technology, but also artificial intelligence and 5G. He was the lead author of a recent comprehensive assessment of the U.S. and Chinese industrial bases in quantum technology, which was sponsored by the U.S. government and is publicly available on the RAND web site.

Damien Petty is a Partner with Morpheus Ventures, where he primarily focuses on sourcing new deep tech investments and working with portfolio companies. He led Morpheus’ investments in Quantum-related companies including Rigetti Computing, Q-Ctrl and Quoherent. Other investments he’s led include Vicarious, DeepMind, Ten63 Therapeutics, VeriSIM Life, Starship Technologies, and Fanduel. He actively helps his portfolio companies with financing, M&A and growth hacking. Damien was part of the team that represented the founders of Skype in all major transactions from first investment through to the sale to Microsoft for $8.5 billion. He began his career in the Strategic Consulting Practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers. Damien received his BS in Physics from the University of Virginia and MBA from UCLA.

Ravi Pillarisetty is working on leveraging Intel’s expertise in transistor manufacturing towards building a commercial quantum computing system. He joined Intel in 2005 and has worked on a variety of research topics across the transistor and memory landscape. This included serving as the device lead on the team that created the 22nm node prototype FinFet transistor. For this he received an Intel Achievement Award, which is the company’s highest honor. Additionally, he has been involved in research on several non-silicon channel materials, including having led Intel’s germanium transistor research program. He is extensively involved in Intel’s external research activities having co-chaired its Corporate Research Council, which manages all of the company’s external university investments spanning the entire compute stack. He also served as Intel’s Scientific Advisory Board representative for the NRI and N-CORE SRC research consortia. He has been granted over 840 international patents related to semiconductor technology, and has been recognized as Intel’s Technology and Manufacturing Group Inventor of the Year. He completed his PhD from Princeton University in 2005, where his thesis focused on low temperature electron physics, and his ScB from Brown University in 1999.

Nick is Senior Advisor to the Federal Chief Information Security Officer focusing on national security and emerging technology. Previously, Nick worked as Deputy Chief of Staff to the Department of Defense Deputy Chief Information Officer for Cybersecurity, focusing on the cybersecurity of Weapon Systems and Critical Infrastructure, as well as Special Assistant to the Deputy Homeland Security Advisor and Cybersecurity Coordinator on the National Security Council. Nick was also previously Country Director for Spain, Portugal, and NATO affairs in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy.

Throughout his 30-year career, John Prisco has demonstrated success driving revenue growth, implementing operational excellence, and bringing companies such as Triumfant, Penn Access, GeoVantage and Ridgeway Systems to successful exits. His depth of experience in telecommunications, cybersecurity and quantum physics are ideally suited to lead Quantum Xchange and its customers, partners, investors, and employees through the emerging era of quantum computing and the future of secure key exchange and encryption. His consulting work for Toshiba in Japan, Europe and the United States is a logical progression from his collaboration with Toshiba when he was CEO of Quantum Xchange.

Prisco established a track record of success in the high-tech field first by founding Penn Access, a competitive local access carrier operating in Pittsburgh. Prisco also served as President and CEO of 2nd Century Communications, the nation’s first packet-based CLEC operating in 33 of the largest U.S. metropolitan areas. In 2001, Prisco became CEO of eLink Communications, a BLEC with over 300 multi-tenant buildings operating in New York City. In 2003, he became President and CEO of Ridgeway Systems & Software, a U.K.-based software company specializing in secure firewall traversal and acquired by Tandberg Incorporated in 2004. Prisco served as President and CEO of GeoVantage Inc., a location-based services aerial imaging company sold to John Deere at the end of 2005. Prior to joining Quantum Xchange, Prisco was CEO of Triumfant for 11 years. Triumfant was the first cybersecurity company to perfect anomaly detection techniques to detect and remediate advanced threats such as file-less attacks in memory. Recently Prisco signed a consulting agreement to represent Toshiba in the United States and Europe in their quantum key and quantum internet business areas.

Prisco holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University and a Master of Science in the field of Quantum Optics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dr. Satyam Priyadarshy is Technology Fellow and Chief Data Scientist at Halliburton. He is also the Managing Director of Halliburton’s India Center. He often is recognized as the first Chief Data Scientist of the oil and gas industry. Recently Forbes India named him as one of the top 10 outstanding business leaders. His work or profile has appeared in many places including Chemical and Engineering News, The Scientist, Silicon India, Oil Review Middle East, Petroleum Review, Rigzone, Forbes among others. He is an author/co-author of over 35+ research papers, numerous patents, book chapters and expert opinion articles in magazines like Science. He is the recipient of many industry accolades and he is one of the most sought out invited speakers in areas of Emerging Technologies, Quantum mechanics, Cyber security and Blockchain, Big Data, Digital Transformation among others. The Society for Petroleum Engineers named him as the 2021-2022 SPE Distinguished Lecturer. He is also a Member of the Mauritius Artificial Intelligence Council, Republic of Mauritius. He is currently associated as an adjunct/visiting faculty at a number of universities and institutes in USA and India. Dr. Priyadarshy is also on the advisory board of a number of emerging entrepreneurial companies. He earned his PhD in Quantum/Theoretical Chemistry from IIT Bombay and an MBA from Virginia Tech.

Dr. Del Rajan is a Quantum Computing Research Scientist at HSBC Lab in London. In a nutshell, his work is on the intersection of quantum information and financial technology. His focus is on developing new ways quantum information technologies could be applied to areas such as cybersecurity, financial simulations, and algorithmic trading. His industry work includes the quantum key distribution project at HSBC, and a highlight of his scientific research was the design of the first quantum blockchain.

Michael Redding is CTO at Quantropi, a provider of complete quantum-secure cryptographic solutions for data and communications. Before joining Quantropi, Mike was Managing Director and co-founder of Accenture Ventures, where he grew a global portfolio of strategic partnerships and 38 equity investments in emerging technology startups. During his nearly 30 years with Accenture, he incubated and launched technology innovations for enterprises across multiple geographies and industries. Ever-passionate about bold ideas with game-changing results, he speaks frequently on the impact of emerging technology on large organizations. With a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Princeton, and a Master’s in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern, Mike is a former member of the Board of Directors for the Accenture Foundation and Board Observer for startups Maana and Splice Machine.

Gerhard is a German physicist, Director at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics and Honorary Professor at the Technical University of Munich. He has performed pioneering experiments in atomic and molecular physics, quantum optics and quantum information processing.

Francesco joined Runa Capital in 2022. He has a background in Robotics Engineering and has worked for years on the development of autonomous robots.

He joins us after his MBA at INSEAD, during which he also started a company, Presto Robotics, in the field of robotics last-mile deliveries. At Runa, Francesco will focus on deep tech investments, with particular attention to the quantum world.

Dr. Wolfgang Rohde is the Director of Research, Digital Manufacturing for Siemens Digital Industries Software. Dr. Rohde skilled at driving inventive strategies and optimizing manufacturing operations for heightened efficiency and profitability. Acknowledged for consistently delivering outstanding results and fostering continuous enhancement across diverse sectors. Proficient in leading cross-functional teams to achieve company goals while upholding quality, safety, and compliance standards.

David is the CEO and co-founder of SBQuantum, a spinoff from Institut quantique, Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada. After completing his PhD studies on diamond based quantum magnetometry, he led an engineering team to prototype the technology out of the optics labs. Over the last three years, the passage through the Creative Destruction Lab quantum stream has added an algorithmic and data centric focus to SBQuantum, to provide to clients the best Magnetic Intelligence for geophysics exploration, magnetic based navigation and defense applications. For these streams, David and the SBQuantum team are thinking differently to solve user problems using quantum magnetometers assisted with interpretation algorithms. Currently, SBQuantum is building the future of the World Magnetic Model by deploying its quantum magnetometer on cubesat platforms.

Skip Sanzeri is the Founder, Board Chair, and COO of QuSecure, a top post-quantum cyber-security company using post-quantum cryptography. QuSecure helps secure the US military, government and commercial businesses. I have had five successful exits, including one IPO. Skip also co-authored The Quantum Design Sprint, a book which outlines methodologies to develop quantum computing applications. Skip is a highly sought after industry speaker and a member of the Forbes Tech Council.

Gina Scinta is Thales TCT’s Deputy Chief Technology Officer (CTO). In this role, Gina serves as the company’s technology evangelist. Her mission is to help Thales TCT’s U.S. Federal Government customers learn effective ways to solve their mission critical cyber security challenges. Gina also leads several strategic initiatives for the company such as the collaboration with NIST National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence, ACT-IAC, and more.

Gina has over 30 years of experience in the technology community. Prior to joining Thales TCT, Gina served as a Senior Solutions Architect with Thales Digital Identity & Security. In this role, she focused on providing solutions for protecting data using world class encryption and key management for data at rest in data centers and cloud infrastructures.

Thomas A. Searles currently serves as an Associate Professor in the Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois Chicago, hired under the University of Illinois System Distinguished Faculty Recruitment Program. This past year (20-21), he was a Martin Luther King Visiting Professor at MIT and served as the Director of the IBM-HBCU Quantum Center. Thomas received his Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Rice University in 2011, where his thesis work primarily focused on the magneto-optical properties of carbon nanotubes. Upon his appointment at Howard University in the Fall of 2015, Thomas has established a new research program in applied and materials physics, which now focuses on quantum materials, metamaterials and quantum information science and engineering at UIC. In recognition for his research in light-matter interactions and his capability to train and mentor Black students in Physics and Engineering, Thomas was recently awarded the inaugural AIP-NSBP Joseph A. Johnson Award for Excellence and an NSF CAREER Award. Thomas graduated from Morehouse College with a B.S. in Mathematics and Physics. He is a native of Albany, GA.

Javad Shabani is an Associate Professor of Physics and Director of Center for Quantum Information Physics at New York University. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University and conducted post-doctoral research at Harvard University and University of California, Santa Barbara. His research interests are mainly on developing novel quantum hardware using materials innovation with recent research focus on topological superconductivity, developing voltage-controlled superconducting qubits and building a telecom test-bed for quantum communication in New York City. He is an active member of quantum education and workforce development in New York area. He is recipient of IBM Q Scholar, US Army and US Air Force young investigator awards.

Ramy is the co-founder and CEO of Quantum Dice, a venture-backed Oxford University spinout commercialising the world’s first compact, high-speed, source-device independent quantum random number generator. After completing his PhD in atomic and laser physics, Ramy started Quantum Dice with his team and led the company as it started its product development, expanded its team and successfully closed its first round of funding, raising seven-figures from a consortium of European investors. In the addition to the commercialisation of quantum technologies, Ramy is passionate about science communication and policy, viewing them as essential to bringing any deep tech product to market.

Dr. Sarah Sheldon is a Principle Research Staff Member and senior manager of the Quantum Theory and Capabilities team at IBM Quantum. She received Bachelor of Science degrees in physics and nuclear science and engineering in 2008 and her PhD in nuclear science and engineering in 2013 from MIT. As a graduate student she studied quantum control techniques in magnetic resonance experiments. Since joining IBM in 2013, Sarah has focused on improving the physical operations that are the building blocks of quantum algorithms, developing techniques for characterizing quantum devices, and demonstrating and extending the capabilities of our current quantum systems.

Andrew Shields leads R&D and business development on quantum technologies in Toshiba Europe. According to Google Scholar, he has published over 500 research papers and patents in the field of quantum devices and systems. He was a member of the leadership team of the OpenQKD consortium in Europe and the EU Strategic Research Agenda Working Group. In the UK, he led the AQuaSeC project developing next generation quantum communication technology. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and was awarded the Mott Medal and Prize in 2013 for research on quantum photonics and its applications and the Katharine Burr Blodgett Medal and Prize in 2023 for pioneering industrial R&D over two decades on quantum communication devices and systems, leading to their commercial exploitation in the UK.

Dr. Stephanie Simmons is the founder and chief quantum officer at Photonic, and a world-leading expert in quantum technologies, silicon spin-photon interfaces, condensed matter spin dynamics and control, silicon integrated photonics, and quantum optics. Stephanie the co-chair of the advisory board to Canada’s National Quantum Strategy, a research chair in Quantum Nanoelectronics, as well as a Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Fellow in Quantum Information Science.

Her work on developing CMOS-compatible, scalable, quantum technologies was awarded a Physics World Top Ten Breakthrough of the Year of twice. She earned her doctorate in materials science at Oxford University as a Clarendon Scholar and a double degree (Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Physics) from the University of Waterloo. She was a postdoctoral research fellow of the electrical engineering department at the University of New South Wales in Australia and completed her junior research fellowship and Glasstone research fellowship at St. John’s College in Oxford University. She joined Simon Frasier University as a Canada research chair in Quantum Nanoelectronics.

Stephanie is an international speaker with over 30 publications, 60 keynote and panel talks, and numerous patents. She has been a reviewer for Nature, Science, Physical Review, NSERC, CRC, and more. Her work has been covered by the New York Times, CBC, BBC, Wired Magazine, Scientific American, the New Scientist, and the New York Times.

Paul Stimers is a partner in the Public Policy & Regulation Group at Holland & Knight. He focuses his policy advocacy efforts on matters related to emerging technologies such as quantum technology, commercial spaceflight, and artificial intelligence, and advises a wide range of companies and industry associations in pursuing legislation and representing their interests before Congress and federal agencies. He is the founder and executive director of the Quantum Industry Coalition.

Bob Sutor has been a technical leader and executive in the IT industry for over 30 years. He is currently Chief Quantum Advocate at Infleqtion.

Bob’s industry role is to advance quantum technologies by building strong business, partner, technical, and educational ecosystems. The singular goal is to evolve quantum to help solve some of the critical computational problems facing society today. Bob is widely quoted in the press, delivers conference keynotes, and works with industry analysts and investors to accelerate understanding and adoption of quantum technologies.
More than two decades of Bob’s career was spent in IBM Research in New York. During his time there, he worked on or led efforts in symbolic mathematical computation, optimization, AI, blockchain, and quantum computing.

He was also an executive on the software side of the IBM business in areas including middleware, software on Linux, mobile, open source, and emerging industry standards. Bob is a theoretical mathematician by training, has a Ph.D. from Princeton University, and an undergraduate degree from Harvard College.

He’s the author of a book about quantum computing called Dancing with Qubits that was published in late 2019. He is also the author of the 2021 book Dancing with Python, an introduction to Python coding for classical and quantum computing.

Prof. Jakub Szefer’s research focuses on computer architecture and hardware security. His research encompasses secure processor architectures, cloud security, FPGA attacks and defenses, hardware FPGA implementation of cryptographic algorithms, and most recently quantum computer cybersecurity. His research is supported through National Science Foundation and industry grants and donations. He is currently an Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering at Yale University, where he leads the Computer Architecture and Security Laboratory (CASLAB).

Prior to joining Yale, he received Ph.D. and M.A. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University, and B.S. degree with highest honors in Electrical and Computer Engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has received the NSF CAREER award in 2017. Jakub is the author of first book focusing on processor architecture security: “Principles of Secure Processor Architecture Design”, published in 2018. Recently, he has been promoted to the IEEE Senior Member rank in 2019 and is a recipient of the 2021 Ackerman Award for Teaching and Mentoring.

Connor Teague is a recognized expert in the field of quantum computing, renowned for their expertise in talent acquisition, strategic partnerships, and ecosystem development. With a passion for driving innovation, Connor plays a pivotal role in connecting key stakeholders within the quantum community.

Beyond his recruitment prowess, Connor has a proven track record of fostering connections between venture capitalists (VCs) and promising startups in the quantum space. Leveraging its extensive network and industry insights, Connor bridges the gap between investors and visionary entrepreneurs, facilitating crucial funding opportunities that fuel the growth and commercialization of quantum technologies.

Recognizing the importance of collaboration and knowledge transfer, Connor forges strategic partnerships between government agencies and academic institutions to support research, development, and education in quantum computing. By facilitating these connections, Connor drives the advancement of quantum computing, ensuring that groundbreaking discoveries are translated into real-world applications.

Ton is the Managing Director of QDNL Participations, a €15 million specialist, early-stage fund within a community of expert quantum talent nurturing the next wave of quantum technologies to commercial success. Backed by Quantum Delta NL, QDNL Participations will invest €15 million into early-stage Dutch quantum technology startups in the coming years. It provides the bridge between the grant-giving phase of research and the ‘patient capital’ phase of venture investment, as well as impactful business and commercial support.

Dr. Stefan Woerner is a Principal Research Scientist and Manager of the Quantum Computational Science group of IBM Quantum in Zurich. He received a Master of Science in Applied Mathematics from ETH Zurich in 2010, and a Doctor of Sciences in Operations Management from ETH Zurich in 2013. The focus of his research is the development and analysis of quantum algorithms for optimization, simulation, and machine learning as well as their practical applications, particularly in finance.

Michael Wood is a distinguished technologist and dynamic leader in the realm of quantum technology and engineering with a career spanning more than two decades. As the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of Aliro Quantum, Michael spearheads product innovation, marketing, and quantum technologies.

His prowess in identifying new markets, creating innovative products, and implementing Product Led Growth (PLG) initiatives has been pivotal in scaling cybersecurity, SaaS, and cloud businesses to unparalleled heights. With a Silicon Valley native’s tenacity, Michael has been a trailblazing force at prominent industry players like Cisco, VMware, and Akamai.

A true visionary, Michael excels in evangelizing cutting-edge technologies, driving industry analyst and investor relations, and developing compelling brand narratives. His expertise in quantum networking, AI-driven operations, and cloud security has shaped the quantum landscape, driving businesses toward scalable, quantum-powered systems.

Zhanet is a Quantum Nanotechnologist by training with long years of extensive academic experience in designing nanomaterials for a wide variety of applications. During her Ph.D. at the University of Oxford, Zhanet specialized in developing novel quantum nanomaterials with unique optoelectronic properties for applications such as thin-film solar cells and bioimaging agents. Naturally passionate about translating quantum scientific discoveries into real-world applications, Zhanet co-founded Quantum Dice with a team of Oxford University graduates in the summer of 2019.

Quantum Dice is a quantum hardware company from the University of Oxford’s Physics Department pioneering the world’s fastest, quantum-secure, and completely embedded self-certifying QRNG for applications ranging from encrypting highly sensitive data to protecting communications networks and private data to applications in scientific computing. Zhanet is Quantum Dice’s COO, responsible for overseeing the company’s operational processes and optimizing Quantum Dice’s operating capabilities. Zhanet manages the hiring for the company as Quantum Dice is currently actively expanding the company’s engineering team. Alongside managing operations, Zhanet is part of the business development team where she is actively working on enabling the commercial adoption of Quantum Dice’s QRNGs in both their direct and end-user markets by setting up key collaboration opportunities as well as bringing Quantum Dice’s visibility across financial institutions.

Dr. William Zeng is a partner at the venture fund Quantonation, investing in early stage quantum and deep physics technology companies. He is also founder and President of the Unitary Fund, a non-profit dedicated to developing the quantum ecosystem to benefit the most people. His research focuses on quantum computer architecture, algorithms and software. He previously led a quantum computing research group at Goldman Sachs and initial development of Rigetti Computing’s quantum cloud platform. He received his PhD in quantum algorithms from Oxford University and his BSc. in Physics from Yale University.