Falling Walls Circle – Plenary Table: Perspectives and Challenges in Quantum Computing

Juan Ignacio Cirac is director of the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics and honorary professor at the Technical University of Munich. He holds a PhD in Physics from the Complutense University of Madrid and is an expert in quantum technologies. He is a member of the Spanish, German and Bavarian academies of science and among the awards he has received are: Prince of Asturias, BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge, Wolf, Quantum Computing of the Micius Foundation, and the Benjamin Franklin, Max-Planck and Niels Bohr Medals.

Sabrina is a Professor of Quantum Information, Computing and Logic at the University of Helsinki. She is CEO and co-founder of Algorithmiq Ltd, a startup focusing on quantum algorithms for Life Sciences. She has been working on Quantum Technology for over 20 years, focusing on noise in quantum devices, complex quantum systems and quantum simulations. Sabrina has coordinated several international and interdisciplinary projects and is recognized as one of the leading experts in Quantum Technologies.

Since January 2012 Andreas Wallraff is a Full Professor for Solid State Physics in the Department of Physics at ETH Zurich. His research is focused on the experimental investigation of quantum effects in superconducting electronic circuits for performing fundamental quantum optics experiments and for applications in quantum information processing. His group at ETH Zurich engages in research on micro and nano-electronics, also on hybrid quantum systems combining superconducting electronic circuits with semiconductor quantum dots, making use of fast and sensitive microwave techniques at ultra-low temperatures.

Horst Weiß is Vice President Next Generation Computing at BASF in the Global Digital Services division. He started at BASF as a quantum chemist and worked for many years on multiscale modeling on high-performance computers. He is responsible for quantum computing at BASF. In 2020, Horst Weiß was appointed to the Expert Council for the creation of a national roadmap for quantum computing. He is active in many consortia and initiatives to bring quantum computing to the level of large-scale industrial application.

Jan-Martin Wiarda is an independent journalist, political scientist and economist.

Studied in Munich, Chapel Hill (USA) and German School of Journalism. Has been an author at the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Brand Eins, the Financial Times Deutschland, Tagesspiegel and others. For 8 years has worked as an editor in Hamburg at ZEIT in the education department “Chancen” and for 3 years as Head of Communications at the Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft . Since 2015 has worked as  freelance journalist, author and moderator. In 2016 defended his dissertation at the HU Berlin.