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In this episode Chris talks to Steven Koester, Professor of Nanotechnology in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Minnesota. Steve - who is our first external guest on the podcast - is joining us mainly as the Director of the Global Quantum Leap program – a network of networks including ML4Q - which provides an essential linkage between the fields of nanofabrication and quantum information sciences on an international level.
They talk about his electrical engineering background, how he got a first taste of quantum devices during his Masters studies at Notre Dame, eventually leading...

In this episode, Chris talks to Erwann Bocquillon, ML4Q professor at the 2nd Institute of Physics at the University of Cologne who started his group in October 2021. They talk about Erwann’s educational and research journey touching upon differences between studying physics in France and Germany. They also discuss electron quantum optics and learn about Erwann’s best memory from his PhD time.

In this episode, we talk to David DiVincenzo, Director of the Institute of Theoretical Nanoelectronics at Forschungszentrum Jülich & co-founder of the Institute for Quantum Information which is a joint institute of RWTH Aachen and the Forschungszentrum. We start by listening to David's take on different aspects of the fast developments in the field of quantum computing. Then, we take a deep dive into the mid eighties and early ninties and discuss how David started working on quantum computing before Shor’s algorithm and quantum error correction were discovered. Naturally then, him and his collaborators at IBM were ready to contribute...

We continue our new season by featuring members of the cluster who are working at the intersection with other stakeholders in the larger quantum community. In this episode, we talk to Christian Gogolin and Gian Anselmetti who are in-house scientists at Covestro and associated to ML4Q. We discuss solving chemistry problems with quantum computers, research in a company setting and the PhD student-supervisor-relationship.

In our new season we feature members of the cluster who are working at the intersection to other stakeholders in the larger quantum community. In this episode, we talk to Tommaso Calarco, Director of the PGI Institute for Quantum Control at Forschungszentrum Jülich, professor for Theoretical Physics at the University of Cologne and member of ML4Q. We discuss how he started working on apparently useless science which soon turned out to be the future of quantum. We also talk about many synergies: between theory and experiment, science and government as well as academia and rising startups in the field.

We continue to feature some of our experimental physicists. In this episode, we talk to Jan Klos, PhD student and associated member of ML4Q. Jan - who is almost done with his PhD thesis - performed his project in the group of Hendrik Bluhm and Lars Schreiber at the JARA Institute for Quantum Information. In the episode, Chris talks with Jan about going from a Master project in simulating quantum dot spin qubits to a PhD project fabricating them. They also discuss outreach, student supervision, thesis writing and working with engineers.

We continue to feature some of our experimental physicists. In this episode, we talk to Annika Kurzmann, Junior Principle Investigator at RWTH Aachen and associated member of ML4Q. We talk abour her work on optical quantum dots during her PhD and bilayer graphene quantum dots in her postdoc and how she is now bringing this together to detect single electron dots in graphene. We also discuss the Ruhrgebiet, tenure tracks and starting a lab during the pandemic.

We continue to feature some of our experimental physicists. In this episode, we talk to Beata Kardynal, group leader at Forschungszentrum Jülich and at RWTH Aachen. We discuss her career and her training in electronic devices to using these devices to couple to single photons. She reveals her favorite materials and how she didn't see a strong distinction between physics and engineering from the start.