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

Resources & Links

Guest Links

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

Organizations & Programs

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

Policy & Funding

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

Companies Mentioned

• PsiQuantum — photonic quantum computing company scaling up at IQMP
• IBM — anchor tenant at IQMP with longstanding partnership with UIUC

Key Quotes & Insights

"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. 

Calls to Action

• If you're working on quantum scale-up challenges or building a quantum startup approaching the growth stage, explore what IQMP and the Illinois quantum ecosystem offer — from cryogenic facilities to algorithm partnerships to connections with Fortune 500 end users.
• Subscribe to the NQE Podcast to follow the people and institutions building the infrastructure for quantum computing's next chapter.
• Share this episode with anyone in economic development, science policy, or workforce planning who wants a concrete example of how quantum investment translate...

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

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

Why this episode matters

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

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

What you'll learn

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

Resources & links

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

 Sponsor

Key insights & quotes

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

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

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

Why this episode matters

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

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

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

What you'll learn

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

Resources & links

Guest links

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

People mentioned in the episode

• Alex Challans — Co-founder and CEO of The Quantum Insider; Evan's business partner
• Nicholas Ogler — Former CIA operative featured in the documentary; redefines quantum advantage from a national security lens
• Dr. Bill Phillips — Nobel Prize-winning physicist; discusses his bet with Carl Williams on the quantum advantage timeline
• Dr. John Doyle — Professor of quantum at Harvard, president of APS; draws the Oppenheimer parallel
• Ilyas Khan — Former CEO of Quantinuum; argues for educational licensing frameworks around quantum technology
• Eric Cornell — Nobel Prize winner featured in the documentary

Mentioned in the intro

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

Key quotes & insights

Sponsor

Join the conversation

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

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

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

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

What You'll Learn

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

Resources & Links

• Quantacet
• Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC)
• University of Sherbrooke Institute Quantique
• C2MI semiconductor fabrication facility
• QuantumDELTA

Key Insights

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

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

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

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

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

Join the Conversation

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

What if consciousness isn’t generated by the brain, but emerges from its interaction with a ubiquitous quantum field? In this episode, Sebastian Hassinger and theoretical physicist Joachim Keppler explore a zero‑point field model of consciousness that could reshape both neuroscience and quantum theory.

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

What You’ll Learn

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

Resources & Links

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

Key Quotes or Insights

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

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

Summary 
This conversation is for anyone curious about how quantum materials research, academic leadership, and large‑scale public investment are shaping the next phase of quantum technology. You’ll hear how Nadya’s path from AT&T Bell Labs to dean of the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at UChicago informs her service‑oriented approach to leadership and ecosystem building.  The discussion spans superconducting devices, Chicago’s quantum hub strategy, and what it will actually take to build a diverse, job‑ready quantum workforce in time for the coming wave of applications.

What You’ll Learn

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

Resources & Links  

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

Key Quotes or Insights  

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

Calls to Action  

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

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

Chris’ background and Alumni Ventures in a nutshell

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

How Alumni Ventures structures access for individuals

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

Quantum in the Alumni Ventures portfolio

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

Barbell funding and the “3–5 year” view

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

Hybrid compute and NVIDIA’s signal to the market

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

Where near‑term quantum revenue shows up

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

University spin‑outs, clustering, and deal flow

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

Managing risk in a 100‑hardware‑company world

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

Democratizing access to quantum venture

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

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

Themes and key insights

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

Notable quotes

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

Articles, papers, and initiatives mentioned

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

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

Guest Bio

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

What we talk about

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

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

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

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

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

Topics Covered

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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