The Hackers

Dr. Geordie Rose

Dr. Geordie Rose

I helped found, and am currently the CTO of, D-Wave. This is me being interviewed by Larry Smarr at Future in Review 2008.

Because what D-Wave is trying to do is so cool, I get to talk about it at lots of interesting places; everything from the 2003 TED conference to Supercomputing 2008. Our approach to building quantum computers has been covered in a lot of different places (see sidebar in the blog) and a Harvard Business School case study. I earned a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the University of British Columbia with Philip Stamp, studying the effects of nuclear spins on decoherence in molecular magnets. Prior to UBC I went to school at McMaster University, where I did engineering physics with a solid state devices focus. Since D-Wave was founded in 1999, we’ve managed to team with many excellent top-tier blue chip investors, including a round led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ)—the first ever investment by a US venture capital firm in quantum computing, and a substantial investment by Goldman Sachs.

.

——————————–

.

Dr. Suzanne Gildert (a.k.a. physicsandcake)

Dr. Suzanne Gildert

I’m interested in the big picture: Can Physics tell us about what it is possible to do, build, and be within our Universe?

During the day I work for D-Wave Systems, helping to build and sell the world’s first commercial quantum computers. I work on communicating to people why these systems will be a revolutionary addition to the family of modern computing tools. Factoring? Encryption? No. These systems are much better applied to artificial intelligence, genomics, bio-informatics and next-generation search. We’re building hardware and applications to demonstrate to the world why we need new computing paradigms. I received my PhD in experimental quantum physics from the University of Birmingham, UK. My other interests include researching Artificial General Intelligence, writing popular science articles and communicating science topics to a general audience. I also enjoy art, programming, web design, and entrepreneurship.

.

——————————–

.

Murray Thom

Murray Thom

I’m a research engineer at D-Wave Systems and over the past eight years I’ve helped to develop and build some of the core technologies in our quantum computing systems. As a designer I like to combine function with form and photos of some of my designs have appeared on Boing Boing, Steve Jurvetson’s photo stream and a few other places on the web.

I’m an Engineering Physics alumni from UBC where I did some work in microfabrication and optics; but I really cut my teeth with electro-mechanical design in cryogenic systems. I have hand-built — quite literally — several hardware subsystems, written test system programs, and worked with some machine learning algorithms.

Now I’m getting involved in spreading the good word about QC. And like all toolmakers before me I’m interested in putting this new resource into the hands of people with really hard problems that need solving.

.

——————————–

.

Dr. Mohammad Amin

Dr. Mohammad Amin

Mohammad Amin obtained a BSc degree in electrical engineering from Shiraz University (Iran, 1991), a MSc degree on the foundations of quantum mechanics from Sharif University of Technology (Iran, 1993), and a PhD degree in condensed matter physics from the University of British Colombia (Canada, 1999). He is currently a senior scientist at D-Wave Systems Inc. and an adjunct professor at Simon Fraser University.
Mohammad has been involved in research in a variety of areas including strongly correlated electron systems, high Tc superconductivity, grain boundary junctions, Josephson phenomena, decoherence theory, superconducting quantum circuits and qubits, quantum computation, entanglement, and quantum phase transitions.

.

——————————–

.

Paul Bunyk

Paul Bunyk

Paul Bunyk is currently a Senior Engineer, Processor Architecture with D-Wave Systems Inc., The Quantum Computing Company™.
He has been involved in research and development of superconductor digital electronics, as well as specialized CAD tools and design approaches since 1990. He started his career in K.K. Likharev’s laboratory in Moscow State University, Russia, where his work centered on software tools. He is the author of LMeter, probably the most widely used software for inductance extraction in SFQ layouts. In 1993 he followed Likharev to SUNY, Stony Brook, where he did SFQ circuit design for sub-micron Josephson junction technologies. In 1994, he designed and experimentally verified the world’s fastest digital gate, a flip-flop operating up to 360 GHz; the current fastest digital gate, a flip-flop operating at 770 GHz, is a direct descendant of that design. Later in Stony Brook he lead the group that designed the first all-SFQ microprocessor prototype (1994-97); he provided critical input into system design of the HTMT Petaflops Supercomputer and its SFQ-based processing elements (1997-2000), and started the FLUX-1 microprocessor demonstration design. In 2001 he joined TRW’s Superconductor Electronics Organization, now Northrop Grumman, where he completed the FLUX-1 design and worked on application of SFQ processing to data network switching and digital signal processing, while continuing to advance the state of the art in SFQ design tools and approaches. Before joining D-Wave Paul was on staff in Northrop Grumman Space Technology’s Custom IC Design Group where he was designing 40-60 GHz InP HBT electronics and packaging.
Paul has authored and co-authored 30+ scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals and is inventor or co-inventor of 6 granted US patents. He received the M.S. in Physics (summa cum laude) from Moscow State University in 1993, and the M.S. in Computer Science from SUNY, Stony Brook in 1997.

.

——————————–

.

Eric Ladizinsky

Eric Ladizinsky

Eric Ladizinsky is a senior scientific management executive with strong background in physics, engineering, materials, and manufacturing. He brings specific expertise in multi-disciplinary R&D, technical team building, creation and management of infrastructure, and convergence of R&D efforts with full-scale manufacturing. At Northrop Grumman Space Technology (formerly TRW, Inc.), he ran a multi-million dollar DARPA program in Quantum Computing using superconducting integrated circuit technology. Mr. Ladizinsky leads D-Wave’s technical effort to develop the superconducting integrated circuit fabrication process and has introduced industrial optimization practices for high yields, including construction of custom vacuum systems, automated testing infrastructure, and specialized low noise electronics. From our US foundry location, he runs the entire fabrication process – thin film deposition, photolithography, etching, testing and troubleshooting. Mr. Ladizinsky is also an Adjunct Professor of Physics at Loyola Marymount University, where he has taught courses including classical mechanics, electromagnetic theory and quantum theory. He worked with faculty and students to bring the quantum mechanics program current with state-of-the-art in quantum theory, covering quantum computing, decoherence theory and modern experimental techniques. Mr. Ladizinsky has a BSc. Physics and Mathematics degree from the University of California, Los Angeles. He has 3 granted US patents covering advanced superconducting IC processes and new materials development.

.

——————————–

.

Chris Rich

Chris Rich

Quantum computers are as awesome as their potential applications! The tool is as interesting as that which it crafts!

At D-Wave, I am one in a team of people that gets to take our newest chips from Fab down their first cold steps to becoming processors. My expertise is in the D-Wave One’s™ cooling and magnetic environment engineering. However, my interests lie in a broad general understanding our system from waveform to qubit readout, from problem to solution. Taking advantage of D-Wave’s open culture allows me to regularly gain insight from our design engineers, algorithm developers, and other team members.

My enthusiasm for the technology in the system also extends to the applications it will enable. Because the class of problems QC’s can enhance occurs everywhere, I love explaining to people why they should be excited about this technology, be they chemists, school teachers or truck drivers.

Outside of D-Wave, you can find me skiing Vancouver’s local mountains, traveling, enjoying sushi on the Drive, or lurking on Reddit.