For decades, the word “quantum” has been nearly synonymous with “magic” in the popular imagination. With recent advances and breakthroughs in quantum technology, real applications of quantum computers feel closer than ever. Will quantum technologies live up to their potential? Join CIFAR Associate Fellow Dave Bacon (IonQ) and CIFAR Fellow Stephanie Simmons (Simon Fraser University) as they explore what quantum has in store for computation.
Dave Bacon is an associate fellow in CIFAR’s Quantum Information Science program. He is a software engineer who aims to understand whether there are practical algorithms for today’s quantum computers that will have a large impact on society. A member of the Google team that first achieved quantum supremacy in 2019, Bacon recently joined IonQ as the Vice President of Software.
Stephanie Simmons is a fellow in CIFAR’s Quantum Information Science program and an assistant professor at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia and a principal investigator in the Silicon Quantum Technology Lab. She is a world-leading expert in quantum technologies, silicon spin-photon interfaces, condensed matter spin dynamics and control, silicon integrated photonics, and quantum optics.