25. From PhD into the quantum industry: Michaela Eichinger

Show notes

Michaela Eichinger, Product Solutions Physicist at Quantum Machines and quantum content creator, joins ML4Q&A to discuss her journey from academic research to working in a deep-tech startup. She is representative of a generation of PhD students and postdocs from labs working on qubit technologies that join the emerging quantum industry. Her PhD work focused on gatemons and stencil-based nanofabrication of superconducting qubits at the Niels Bohr Institute. Now she works at Quantum Machines, a company developing control electronics for quantum computers that aims to provide hardware capable of meeting the demands of fault-tolerant quantum architectures.

In this episode, Michaela reflects on the 2025 Nobel Prize, talks about cleanroom and measurement challenges during her PhD, and compares writing papers with writing patents. She explains her role at Quantum Machines and the company’s mission to harness FPGAs—the key electronic component—to control qubits on nanosecond timescales. In addition to synthesizing control pulses and processing readout signals, intricate classical computations must be performed in real time, for example to track qubit errors to correct them on the fly. Despite growing sophistication these advanced electronic products must remain easy to deploy. She also discusses the importance of science communication, which led her to launch a newsletter to help educate a broad audience about the latest breakthroughs and explain key ideas in quantum computing. Whether you are an aspiring quantum researcher or simply curious about the state of the quantum industry, this episode conveys the excitement of living on this technological frontier.

00:00:00 Intro 00:01:46 The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics 00:08:41 Josephson junction fabrication 00:10:26 Choosing to study Physics in Regensburg and Infineon Internship 00:19:42 PhD at the Niels Bohr Institute and Lab Culture 00:29:26 PhD Research: From Gatemons to Stencil Fabrication 00:38:49 Writing Patents vs Publications 00:40:43 From PhD to Industry: Joining Quantum Machines 00:47:42 Michaela’s Role at QM and Quantum Control for different qubit platforms 00:55:31 What is an FPGA (Field programmable gate array) 00:59:46 Control requirements for fault tolerant quantum computers 01:11:08 Science Communication: Becoming a Quantum Content Creator 01:19:49 Outlook: Quantum Industry and Career Perspectives