• 37 minutes 15 seconds
    The Quantum Control Stack with Niels Bultink

    Why This Episode Matters

    Niels Bultink earned his PhD at QuTech under Leonardo DiCarlo, where he performed some of the first real-time feedback experiments on solid-state qubits — the foundational primitive behind quantum error correction. He spun Qblox out of TU Delft in 2018, and has grown it to roughly 140 people serving 150+ customers worldwide, mostly on revenue rather than venture capital, before raising a $26M Series A in 2024.

    This conversation matters now because the goalposts for useful quantum computing have moved closer in the last 12 months. Recent estimates suggest breaking RSA may need ~10,000–100,000 qubits, not tens of millions — and at that scale, the control stack is no longer a lab afterthought. It is a strategic supply chain question, which is why the DOE just picked Qblox to manufacture Fermilab's QICK platform domestically. If you care about how quantum computers actually get built — the layer between the qubit and the software — this is the episode for you.


    Sponsor

    This episode is brought to you by Outshift, Cisco's incubation engine. The need for computational power is rapidly increasing in every sector. From drug discovery to material innovation to complex financial modeling, classical systems are reaching their absolute limits. It’s time for a paradigm shift. The answer is a scalable quantum network, built on open standards and vendor-agnostic architecture. By uniting distributed quantum devices, you unlock limitless computational power.
    Learn more about the Cisco Universal Quantum Switch at Outshift.com.

    Go deeper with the blog post.


    What We Get Into

    • Why the IBM Quantum Experience originally needed a meter of rack equipment per qubit, and what had to change architecturally to scale past that
    • How a quantum control stack can be genuinely qubit-agnostic — and where modality differences actually live (mostly in the analog front end, not the digital core)
    • Why pre-compiled pulse sequences hit a wall, and how dynamic, adaptive control is a prerequisite for fault tolerance, not a nice-to-have
    • The role of Qblox's SYNQ and LINQ protocols in achieving picosecond-level synchronization and low-latency feedback across hundreds of cores
    • Why FPGAs are the right substrate today, and why the field will need to move toward ASICs as production volumes grow
    • The strategic logic behind manufacturing Fermilab's open-source QICK platform — and how it complements rather than cannibalizes the Qblox Cluster
    • What the Quantum Utility Block partnership with QuantWare and Q-CTRL actually delivers, including a full-stack demo built in a weekend at APS March Meeting
    • Why Qblox opened a Boston HQ and started U.S. manufacturing in Canton, Massachusetts in 2026, and how geopolitics is reshaping quantum supply chains
    • Niels's read on which qubit modalities are gaining ground fastest right now — including a notable jump in spin qubits and neutral atoms
    • What's special about the Dutch quantum ecosystem, and why a value-chain culture produced multiple revenue-driven hardware companies

    Resources & Links

    Guest & Company

    Partnerships Discussed

    Foundational Paper

    Funding & Market Context

    Key Quotes & Insights

    • On why the control stack is more than picks and shovels: "Sometimes companies like us are called picks and shovels. It's a nice analogy, but it doesn't hold entirely. The qubits are just the bottom layer of the stack — and all the other layers are also crucial to develop."
    • On flexibility as a requirement, not a feature: Pre-compiled, rigid sequences can't support quantum error correction. Adaptive, real-time control flows aren't a performance upgrade — they're "a basic need for this new era of quantum fault tolerance."
    • On the moving goalposts for useful quantum computing: A year ago, breaking RSA looked like tens of millions of qubits. Recent estimates put it at 10,000–100,000 — "a factor hundred smaller what we now think we need versus a year ago."
    • On the future of FPGAs: FPGAs are the right substrate for today's flexibility, but already at current production volumes, "it makes more sense to put things in chips, in ASICs."
    • On the Dutch ecosystem: What sets Delft apart isn't a slogan about ecosystems but a value-chain culture — companies that focus on one layer, work together, and grow on customer revenue rather than venture rounds.

    Stay in the Ecosystem

    11 May 2026, 12:30 pm
  • 38 minutes 13 seconds
    Hardware-Faithful Digital Twins for Quantum Computing with Izhar Medalsy

    Hardware-Faithful Digital Twins for Quantum Computing with Izhar Medalsy

    Izhar Medalsy is not a career qubit theorist. His path runs from a physical chemistry PhD and an ETH Zurich postdoc in atomic force microscopy and ternary nanoscale logic, through productizing scientific instruments at Bruker, through building one of the fastest resin 3D printers on the market, into co-founding Quantum Elements in 2023 with Daniel Lidar (USC) and Amir Yacoby (Harvard). That arc — nanoscale measurement scientist turned deep-tech operator — shapes how he thinks about the simulation gap in quantum computing.

    The conversation lands at a specific moment. In April 2026, Quantum Elements published a joint result with AWS, USC, and Harvard simulating a distance-7 rotated surface code with 97 physical qubits using full quantum master equations on AWS HPC7a, and announced a deeper collaboration with Rigetti Computing on next-generation superconducting processors. If you care about how error correction strategies, decoders, and pulse-level controls actually get developed before they ever touch hardware, this episode is for you.


    EPISODE SPONSOR

    This episode is brought to you by Outshift, Cisco's incubation engine. The need for computational power is rapidly increasing in every sector. From drug discovery to material innovation to complex financial modeling, classical systems are reaching their absolute limits. It’s time for a paradigm shift. The answer is a scalable quantum network, built on open standards and vendor-agnostic architecture. By uniting distributed quantum devices, you unlock limitless computational power.


    Learn more about the Cisco Universal Quantum Switch at Outshift.com
    Go deeper with the blog post The switch that quantum networking has been waiting for

    ====================================================================================================


    What We Get Into

    • Why generic noise models fall short and what "hardware-faithful" actually means when two nominally identical QPUs have different noise fingerprints
    • How Quantum Elements scaled open-system master-equation simulation from a brute-force ceiling around 16 qubits to 97 qubits using stochastic compression on top of Quantum Monte Carlo
    • The compute reality of the distance-7 surface code run on AWS HPC7a — only 96 vCPUs and a few hundred gigabytes of memory, not the thousands of vCPUs they initially feared
    • Why decoders are the invisible bottleneck in fault tolerance, and where AI-trained decoders fed by digital twin data could plausibly run inside the real-time quantum-classical loop
    • Extending error suppression from physical qubits up to logical qubits — the IBM Eagle work where digital-twin-guided strategies reportedly took entangled logical qubit fidelity from 43% to 95%
    • How the same digital twin approach extends to neutral atoms (live today) and ion traps (on the roadmap)
    • What Rigetti gets out of the partnership, what it means to have Chad Rigetti on the board, and how Constellation fits alongside real hardware time
    • Izhar's "wooden models in the air tunnel" critique of how the quantum industry currently iterates — and what a parallel virtual development track buys you

    Resources & Links

    Guest & Company

    Papers & Articles

    Key Quotes & Insights

    • "Sometimes when I look at the quantum industry, there are instances where you think, well, it's almost like building the next fighter jet with wooden models in the air tunnel." — Izhar's framing for why the field needs a real simulation layer.
    • On hardware awareness: each modality, each QPU, sometimes each calibration cycle has its own pulses, its own noise processes, and its own failure modes. You cannot build the control stack without modeling where you are starting from and where you are trying to get to.
    • Insight: The brute-force ceiling for open-system master-equation simulation is roughly 16 qubits. Stochastic compression layered on Quantum Monte Carlo is what let Quantum Elements reach distance-7 surface code at 97 qubits — exploiting sparsity rather than enumerating the full state space.
    • On logical qubits: "We cannot assume that logical qubits will be noise-free." Error suppression strategies developed at the physical level need to be re-derived at the logical level, and digital twins are how you train and test those strategies before hardware.
    • Insight: The most interesting downstream story may not be simulation itself but AI decoders trained on digital-twin-generated data — small enough to run at the edge, fast enough to live inside the real-time quantum-classical loop.

    Related Episodes

    4 May 2026, 12:38 pm
  • 45 minutes 16 seconds
    Are We Computing Quantum in the Wrong Base? with Ivan Deutsch

    Are We Computing Quantum in the Wrong Base? with Ivan Deutsch


    Ivan Deutsch is Distinguished Regents' Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of New Mexico and the founding director of CQuIC, the Center for Quantum Information and Control. Along with his longtime collaborator Poul Jessen, Ivan helped lay the theoretical foundations for neutral-atom quantum computing in the 1990s: trapping individual atoms in optical lattices, cooling them to near absolute zero, and shuttling them in parallel to perform quantum logic. The companies commercializing those ideas today — QuEra, Pasqal, Atom Computing, Infleqtion, and the newly announced Aurora out of Caltech — are building on architectural concepts that trace directly to his group's early papers. His 9,600+ citations across quantum information, atomic physics, and quantum control place him among the most-cited theorists in the field.


    The reason to talk to Ivan now is that he has been making a quietly heterodox argument: every one of those commercial platforms encodes information in two energy levels of an atom that has ten or sixteen, and Ivan thinks the field should be asking whether that's the right choice — not for information density, which is only a logarithmic gain, but for fault tolerance. This conversation goes deep on qudits, spin cat codes, and the co-design philosophy that has shaped Ivan's career at the interface between theory and experiment, ions and neutral atoms, and academia and industry. If you are following neutral-atom hardware, fault-tolerant quantum error correction, or the emergence of regional quantum ecosystems, this episode is essential.


    What You'll Learn

    • Why neutral atoms were the "underdog cousins" of trapped ions — and the precise trade-off at the heart of a 30-year rivalry: ions are great and terrible because they're charged; neutral atoms are great and terrible because they're neutral
    • What the original neutral-atom quantum computing paper actually got right: the parallel atom-movement architecture now central to QuEra, Atom Computing, and Infleqtion's roadmaps was already there — even if the Rydberg blockade's full power wasn't appreciated until later
    • What qudits are and why fault tolerance, not information density, is the compelling argument: the information gain from base-2 to base-10 is only logarithmic, but co-designing error-correcting codes with the physical structure of the hardware may be transformative
    • How spin cat codes work: using the extra energy levels inside a single atom for error redundancy, directly analogous to bosonic cat codes in microwave cavities, with fault-tolerant thresholds that may surpass standard qubit surface codes
    • Why biased error correction matters: real physical errors in neutral atoms aren't arbitrary, and codes designed around the dominant error channels — including leakage and erasure — can dramatically outperform worst-case generic schemes
    • How leakage becomes an asset: when population escapes the qubit subspace into other levels, detecting that escape converts it from an unknown error into an erasure error, which is far easier to correct
    • Why working at interfaces is where the creative work happens: Ivan's career has been built at the boundary between theory and experiment, between ion-trap and neutral-atom communities, and now between research and industry
    • How New Mexico became a quantum hub: the founding of QNM-I, the partnership with Colorado, and the Elevate Quantum Tech Hub — turning decades of national-lab and university strength into an actual industrial ecosystem


    Resources & Links

    Guest Links

    Key Papers

    Talks & Context

    Ecosystem

    Field Context

    Key Quotes & Insights

    "Ions are great because they're charged. You can hold onto them very tightly and manipulate them extremely precisely. Ions are terrible because they're charged — you can't push many together and they all talk to one another."  — Ivan Deutsch, on the fundamental ion/neutral-atom trade-off at the heart of a 30-year platform rivalry

    "I don't want to be an evangelist, because I don't really feel I've studied this well enough to say we really should do quantum computation base-10 rather than base-two. But I think it's an important question." — Ivan Deutsch, on qudits — a carefully calibrated position from a theorist making a strong technical bet

    "We just wanted to make the whole thing faster." — Steve Rolston (Ivan's co-author), on the mindset behind the Rydberg blockade paper, which ultimately unlocked the entire commercial neutral-atom industry

    Insight: The spin cat code ...

    27 April 2026, 8:07 pm
  • 41 minutes 13 seconds
    Quantum Chemistry's Classical Limits with Garnet Chan

    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 sounds
    • What "chemical accuracy" (~1 kcal/mol) actually means as a precision target, and why hitting it classically undermines a decade of quantum resource estimates
    • Why real chemical systems are only "slightly entangled" — and what that means for the general argument that quantum computers are the natural tool for quantum chemistry
    • The difference between a problem being hard and a problem being exponentially hard — and why that distinction matters enormously for quantum advantage claims
    • Where 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 that
    • Why 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 industry
    • The 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 states
    • What 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.
    • Begušić & 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...
    20 April 2026, 2:39 pm
  • 1 hour 2 minutes
    Quantum Open Source with Will Zeng and Ziyaad Bhorat

    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 trajectory
    • How Mozilla Foundation evaluates emerging technology fields for philanthropic intervention, and what specifically convinced them quantum was ripe for engagement
    • What Google's 20x efficiency gain for Shor's algorithm and the Oratomic launch mean for Q-Day timelines and post-quantum migration urgency
    • Why 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 pathways
    • What PyMatching, PyZX, and other microgrant-funded projects reveal about the scalability of small open source investments
    • Why open source benchmarking through Metriq Gym matters — and why vendor-driven benchmarks can't fill this role
    • How the Qiskit team reductions at IBM illustrate the fragility of corporate-backed open source in quantum
    • What specific policy asks the quantum open source community has for the NQI reauthorization
    • The 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 conversation
    • Unitary 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 work
    • Mitiq — Open source toolkit for quantum error mitigation
    • Metriq — Community-driven quantum benchmarking platform 
    • Metriq Gym — Open source benchmarking suite for quantum computers 
    • Unitary Compiler Collection (UCC) — Quantum circuit compilation tools
    • QuTiP — Quantum Toolbox in Python, stewarded by Unitary Foundation
    • PyMatching — 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 paper
    • Will Zeng — President and co-founder of Unitary Foundation; Partner at Quantonation; DPhil in Quantum Information, University of Oxford
    • Ziyaad 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


    Subscribe & connect

    17 April 2026, 3:55 pm
  • 40 minutes 7 seconds
    Simulating Quantum Materials with Arnab Banerjee

    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 qubits
    • How 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 simultaneously
    • Why Banerjee's team chose to benchmark quantum simulation against known experimental data first before tackling classically intractable problems
    • What the IBM Heron benchmarking paper actually showed — reproducing spinon excitations in KCuF3, a one-dimensional Heisenberg chain, with quantitative agreement to neutron data
    • How 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 Hamiltonians
    • How close we are to quantum advantage in materials simulation — Banerjee estimates 70-90 "good enough" qubits in 2D geometry could reach classically inaccessible regimes
    • Why 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


    Guest & lab links 


    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

    7 April 2026, 1:16 pm
  • 37 minutes 2 seconds
    Quantum Advantage Achieved with Dominik Hangleiter

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


    Resources & Links


    Papers & Articles


    Blog Series & Commentary


    Guest Links


    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


    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: ...

    1 April 2026, 3:38 pm
  • 37 minutes 29 seconds
    Scaling Quantum Hardware Like Semiconductors with Matthijs Rijlaarsdam

    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 wall
    • How 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 chips
    • Why 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 computing
    • The 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 there
    • How QuantWare's three business models mirror the semiconductor industry — selling packaged QPUs (Intel model), foundry services (TSMC model), and packaging services for third-party chips
    • Why 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 infrastructure
    • What "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 revolution
    • QuantWare'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 processors
    • VIO Technology — QuantWare's 3D vertical integration and optimization architecture
    • VIO-40K announcement — press release on the 10,000-qubit scaling breakthrough


    Coverage & Analysis


    Partnerships Mentioned


    Ecosystem & Policy

    • QuantWare 2026 industry predictions — QuantWare's view on entering the kiloqubit era
    • QuTech — TU Delft quantum research institute where both QuantWare co-founders did their graduate work
    • Quantum 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

    23 March 2026, 2:18 pm
  • 40 minutes 16 seconds
    Engineering the Quantum Future with Brian Gaucher

    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 learn
    • How engineering precision has replaced theoretical understanding as the primary quantum bottleneck across computing, sensing, and biological applications
    • Why superconducting qubit fabrication still resembles lab experiments despite being labeled an "engineering problem" since 2016—and what's needed to achieve semiconductor-level reproducibility
    • The specific materials challenges blocking quantum scaling: surface and interface noise control, defect management, cryogenic packaging, and atomic-layer precision manufacturing
    • Why quantum computing will require hundreds of interconnected dilution refrigerators rather than single large systems, and the engineering implications of distributed quantum architectures
    • How AI and quantum computing create bidirectional acceleration opportunities: AI enabling quantum calibration and error mitigation, while quantum enhances optimization and molecular simulation workloads
    • Why quantum standards development faces a chicken-and-egg problem that won't resolve until reproducible quantum advantage is demonstrated—but must be ready immediately afterward
    • How regional quantum initiatives like Illinois Quantum Network and Elevate Quantum balance necessary specialization against harmful fragmentation in the pre-standards era
    • Why the semiconductor industry's offshore manufacturing migration offers critical lessons for maintaining quantum manufacturing leadership in the United States
    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

    Papers & reports

    Organizations & initiatives

    Standards & technology platforms

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

    Guest links

    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


    16 March 2026, 2:30 pm
  • 48 minutes 57 seconds
    Quantum Engineering with David Reilly and Tom Ohki

    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 qubits
    • Why the "special ops" team model enables breakthrough engineering when tackling unprecedented technical challenges across quantum and classical computing
    • How cryogenic cooling could transform classical data centers by dramatically reducing power consumption and improving processor performance
    • The systems-level thinking required to build quantum computers that actually work at scale, beyond just improving individual qubit performance
    • Why Australia offers unique advantages for deep tech R&D companies focused on long-term hardware development rather than venture-driven growth
    • How quantum computing infrastructure development creates spillover benefits for classical computing, sensing, and other cryogenic applications
    • The historical parallels between today's quantum engineering challenges and the foundational R&D that built the internet and early computing systems
    • Why "qubit-agnostic" approaches to control systems provide more flexibility as quantum hardware continues evolving

    Company & Guest Links

    Research & Papers

    Organizations Mentioned

    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.

    Technologies & Concepts

    • Cryo-CMOS: CMOS electronics operating at cryogenic temperatures
    • Dilution refrigerators: Ultra-low temperature cooling systems
    • Superconducting 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.

    9 March 2026, 1:44 pm
  • 39 minutes 48 seconds
    The Illinois Quantum Ecosystem with Harley Johnson

    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 world
    • Why 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 next
    • How IQMP's public-private governance model works: a university-governed LLC partnering with private developers, accountable to the public while incentivizing industry
    • Why the park deliberately hosts a diverse portfolio of hardware modalities — including PsiQuantum, IBM, Inflection, Dirac, and Pascal — and how that mirrors venture portfolio thinking
    • How IQMP's algorithm center connects quantum hardware companies with Fortune 500 end users in finance, insurance, energy, logistics, and pharma
    • What the DARPA Quantum Benchmarking Initiative means for tenant selection and validation
    • Why 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 site
    • How the Duality Accelerator, Chicago Quantum Exchange, and Polsky Center create a pipeline from early-stage startups to scale-up tenants
    • Why 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

    Organizations & Programs

    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 IQMP
    • IBM — 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. 
    <...
    2 March 2026, 2:54 pm
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