
On the verge of new technological breakthroughs, governments, universities, and companies across the world are investing heavily in quantum research and innovation, as well as talent and workforce development. Held in Lausanne on October 14, 2023, the Swissnex Quantum Summit will explore best practices in building multi-stakeholder quantum ecosystems at the local and national levels, while connecting them on a global scale. The moment is ripe to bring together quantum initiatives from different countries to jointly accelerate breakthroughs and shape the quantum economy.
Hosted at EPFL’s Rolex Learning Center, the Swissnex Quantum Summit is part of Project Quantum, Swissnex’s initiative to connect Switzerland and the world in quantum science and technology. For further information on the summit, see background information and detailed working program.
Program
Main Sessions | Quantum Ecosystems: Best Practices and Challenges
08:00 – Breakfast
08:30 – Welcome Remarks
08:45 – Building National Quantum Initiatives
09:15 – Fostering Science and Technology Breakthroughs
10:15 – Break
10:45 – Accelerating Commercialization and Impact
11:45 – The Swiss Quantum Ecosystem
12:30 – Lunch
13:45 – Preparing for the Quantum Era
14:45 – Break
Afternoon Breakouts | Addressing Common Challenges and Opportunities
15:00 – Conversation Cafés: Session I
- Public and Private Funding
- Regional Innovation Hubs and Competence Centers
- Use Cases and End Users
- Talent Pipelines and Exchanges
- Computing Ecosystem
- Sensing, Networking, and Cryptography Ecosystem
- Quantum Materials and Enabling Technologies
15:40 – Rotation
15:45 – Conversation Cafés: Session II (same topics as Session I)
16:25 – Transition
Evening Plenary | Enhancing International Collaboration
16:30 – Insights from Conversation Cafés: Where Do We Go from Here?
17:30 – Reception
19:00 – End
Travel Information
Participants should book their travel and lodging independently. Please refer to the travel brochure for more information.
We kindly ask all speakers and participants to cover their own costs.
Speakers
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Bio
Nicolas Gisin
Swiss Quantum Commission (Switzerland)Nicolas Gisin is President of the Swiss Quantum Commission, the coordinating body for the Swiss Quantum Initiative. The Initiative was launched in 2023 to further strengthen the leading position of the Swiss quantum ecosystem. Gisin is professor emeritus at the University of Geneva with a focus on quantum optics and sensors. His research in telecom and the sensing domains led to many patents and technological transfers to Swiss and international industries. More recently, the demonstration of quantum cryptography and of long distance quantum entanglement received attention from the international scientific community as from the general public. In 2009, Gisin was awarded the First Biennial John Stewart Bell Prize for Research on Fundamental Issues in Quantum Mechanics and their Applications.
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Tom Wong
National Quantum Coordination Office (USA)Tom Wong is the Quantum Liaison for the National Quantum Coordination Office at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where he works on workforce and outreach activities in support of the National Quantum Initiative and serves as the Department of Energy’s Designated Federal Officer for the National Quantum Initiative Advisory Committee. He is currently on detail from the Department of Energy, where he is a Program Manager in QIS in the Office of Science’s Advanced Scientific Computing Research program. Tom is on sabbatical from Creighton University, where he is an assistant professor of physics, and his research is focused on quantum algorithms, especially those involving quantum versions of random walks. Tom graduated from Santa Clara University, triple majoring in physics, computer science, and mathematics while minoring in urban education. Afterward, he served as an inner city high school teacher. Then, he earned a PhD in physics from the University of California, San Diego, followed by two postdocs in computer science at the University of Latvia and the University of Texas at Austin.
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Bio
Barry Sanders
University of Calgary (Canada)Dr. Barry Sanders is Director of the Institute for Quantum Science and Technology at the University of Calgary, Lead Investigator of the Alberta Major Innovation Fund Project on Quantum Technologies, a Distinguished Chair Professor at the University of Science and Technology China, and a Vajra Visiting Faculty member of the Raman Research Institute in India. He completed a PhD in 1987 at Imperial College London supervised by Professor Sir Peter Knight.
Dr. Sanders is especially well known for seminal contributions to theories of quantum-limited measurement, highly nonclassical light, practical quantum cryptography and optical implementations of quantum information tasks. His current research interests include quantum algorithms and implementations of quantum information tasks. -
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Anna Fontcuberta
EPFL (Switzerland)Professor Anna Fontcuberta i Morral is a physicist and materials scientist and head of the Laboratory of Semiconductor Materials at EPFL. Her research focuses on semiconductor nanowires, which constitute attractive building blocks for the assembly of novel nano-electronic and nano-photonic systems for use in quantum systems. Professor Fontcuberta i Morral also serves on the Presiding Board of the Swiss National Science Foundation’s National Research Council.
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Bio
Francesco Bova
Creative Destruction Lab (Canada)Francesco Bova is an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. Francesco is also the Academic Lead for Creative Destruction Lab’s Toronto site, the lab economist for its quantum stream, and a moderator for numerous streams. Francesco has diverse research interests and has published his work in journals from a variety of management disciplines. Most recently, his research has focused on the economics of quantum technologies. This research includes his co-authored work on quantum economic advantage and the commercial applications of quantum computing. Francesco is also an award-winning educator and leads the CDL Partners module on The Simple Economics of Quantum Computing.
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Elica Kyoseva
Wellcome Leap (USA)Elica Kyoseva works at Wellcome Leap as the Director of the Quantum for Bio Program, a $40M +$10M program focused on identifying, developing, and demonstrating biology and healthcare applications that will benefit from the quantum computers expected to emerge in the next 3-5 years. Kyoseva has expertise in quantum computing and its applications to drug discovery. She was a Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Marie Curie Fellow at Tel Aviv University, and served as Entrepreneur in Residence and Advisor at a venture capital firm. Most recently, she worked at Boehringer Ingelheim as a quantum computing scientist. She earned her PhD in Quantum Optics from Sofia University, Bulgaria.
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Bio
Catherine Lefebvre
PASQAL (USA)Catherine Lefebvre is Vice President for Global Policy and Partnerships at PASQAL. She also serves as Senior Advisor to the Open Quantum Institute, an initiative of the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator (GESDA). Prior to joining Pasqal, Lefebvre served in multiple roles, including as U.S. and Canada Innovation Ambassador for quantum technology company M Squared; advisor in quantum technologies at Quebec Ministry of Economy and Innovation; and as Science Liaison Officer for Element AI (acquired by ServiceNow), a global developer of AI solutions. Lefebvre has a background in research with a Ph.D. in molecular physics and quantum chemistry with training in science diplomacy.
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Bio
Jeongwon Lee
Korea-Europe Quantum Science Technology Cooperation Center (South Korea)Coming soon.
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Bio
Sadik Hafizovic
Zurich Instruments (Switzerland)Sadik Hafizovic is co-founder and CEO of Zurich Instruments. He received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from ETH Zurich in 2006 for research at the Institute for Quantum Electronics. After a postdoctoral experience at the Bio Engineering Laboratory of ETH, he co-founded the spin off Zurich Instruments in 2008. Since then, he has developed the company from an innovative lock-in manufacturer to a major T&M player and leading instrumentation provider for quantum computing. Entrepreneurship, organization development, FPGA technologies, quantum computing, experimental physics, and many things outdoors on land or on water resonate with him.
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Heike Riel
IBM Research (Switzerland)Dr. Heike Riel is an IBM Fellow, Head of Science & Technology, and Lead of IBM Research Quantum Europe at IBM Research. She leads the research agenda of the Science & Technology department, aiming to create breakthroughs in Quantum Computing, Physics of Artificial Intelligence, Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Precision Diagnostics, and Smart System Integration.
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Bio
Michael Hayduk
Air Force Research Lab (USA)Dr. Michael J. Hayduk is the Deputy Director, Information Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Rome, New York. The directorate’s mission is to lead the development and integration of Air Force warfighting information technologies for Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, and Cyber. Dr. Hayduk plays a key role in overseeing an annual budget of over $1.8 billion, leading the activities of over 1,200 scientists, engineers, administrative and support personnel. For the past eight years, Dr. Hayduk was the Chief of the Computing and Communications Division, Air Force Research Laboratory, Information Directorate, Rome, New York. The division’s mission is to lead the discovery, development and integration of affordable computing, networking and communications technologies for our air, space and cyberspace forces. Dr. Hayduk was responsible for defining, planning, budgeting, advocating, managing and directing the execution of the research program and leads all aspects of personnel management within the division.
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Bio
Richard St-Pierre
DistriQ (Canada)Richard St-Pierre is the Executive Director of one of the first Innovation Zones in Quebec, DistriQ, Quantum Innovation Zone. His purpose is making an optimistic future happen. Always in the front seat of technology transformation, Richard’s ambition for the Zone is to promote Quebec’s quantum innovation internationally, while creating an effervescent environment in Sherbrooke where industry and knowledge come together for innovations to emerge. Prior to embarking on this exciting adventure in quantum innovation, Richard was a seasoned professional and entrepreneur with extensive experience of over 20 years in international relations and financial administration. He was named a Top10 Innovator of 2017 by BizBash magazine in the United States. His educational background includes Harvard Business School, Oxford University’s Said Business School, HEC Montreal, ESC France, and Beijing University of International Business and Economics (China). He was President of C2 Montreal and C2 International. He has also worked for the Ministry of Health and Social Services of Quebec, the Global Data Pledge Foundation in Geneva, Ernst & Young (EY) and Bell Atlantic, in addition to providing strategic advice to several companies including Desjardins, BCE and Air Canada.
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Mattias Christandl
University of Copenhagen (Denmark)Matthias Christandl is a professor of mathematics at the University of Copenhagen developing Quantum Software for a future Quantum Computer.
He is the center leader of the Quantum for Life Center funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation and the chairman of the University of Copenhagen Quantum Hub. Matthias holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge and is a member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters. -
Bio
Yvonna Li
Roche (Switzerland)Yvonna Li is a senior scientist in Roche Pharma Research & Early Development, based in Basel. Her focus is on machine learning and its application to image analysis in the context of early clinical development. She has a special interest in quantum computing and its application to the pharma industry and machine learning.
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Denise Powell
Compound Semiconductor Centre (UK)Dr Denise Powell is the Programme Manager for Quantum Technologies at the Compound Semiconductor Centre (CSC) and runs multiple industry-academia quantum technology collaborative projects under the UK National Quantum Technologies Programme, including the open-access UK Foundry for Quantum Photonic Components (QFoundry) project, to upscale the manufacturability of quantum photonic devices. Prior to joining CSC in 2017, Denise held roles across open innovation, process integration, process engineering and product development at IQE, NXP and International Rectifier.
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Dominic O’Brien
University of OxfordProfessor Dominic O’Brien is a Professor of Engineering Science at Oxford and leads the optical communications group. He is the Director of the UK National Hub in Quantum Computing and Simulation. This is one of the four Quantum Technology Hubs funded as part of the UK National Quantum Technologies programme, running from 2019-2024. His research is in optical wireless communications, with a particular focus on system demonstration, with a number of world-firsts in this area. Recent demonstrations, together with industrial and academic partners, include Quantum Key Distribution using free-space links between handheld devices, between UAVs and ground stations, and Terabit/s wireless links within buildings. He also leads the recently funded EPSRC Hub in All-Spectrum Connectivity
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Bio
Andreas Wallraff
ETH Zurich (Switzerland)Andreas Wallraff is Full Professor for Solid-State Physics in the Department of Physics at ETH Zurich. His work focuses on the experimental investigation of quantum effects in superconducting electronic circuits for fundamental quantum optics experiments and for applications in quantum information processing. His group at ETH Zurich researches micro- and nano-electronics as well as hybrid quantum systems combining superconducting electronic circuits with semiconductor quantum dots, making use of fast and sensitive microwave techniques at ultra-low temperatures.
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Diego Rodriguez Mejias
Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology (UK)Diego is a Senior Adviser at the Office for Quantum Technologies in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology where he is working on the delivery of the UK National Quantum Strategy and leading on Quantum governance, regulation and standards. Previously, Diego worked at the Regulatory Horizons Council, an independent expert committee, that advises the UK government on regulatory reform to encourage the rapid and safe development of emerging technologies. He recently led the publication of a report on Neurotechnology regulation. Diego has also worked at the UK Government Office for Science and the GSMA, the international association of the telecommunications industry. He has a master’s in Technology Policy from the University of Cambridge and a bachelor’s in Physics and Philosophy from King’s College London.
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Alexandra Beckstein
QAI Ventures (Switzerland)Alexandra Beckstein is Founder of QAI Ventures, a company focused on empowering Quantum Technologies’ global transformation with strategic startup investments and collaborative ecosystem building. The investment activities focus on early stage startups in the whole supply chain of Quantum Technologies. In the uptownBasel project, out of which the company was born, she was responsible for the strategy development as well as building the startup ecosystem. A geoscientist by training with advanced education in business and leadership she has worked in her professional career for startups, SMEs and government. She was founder of her company in Berlin in the field of renewable energy and is author of the book: “Bossing it- The future belongs to the bold.” She is driven by the conviction that technology is a key to solving many global challenges and that ecosystems must replace the traditional ego-systems.
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Lennig Pedron
Trust Valley (Switzerland)Lennig Pedron has expertise in cybersecurity and emerging technologies applied to the digital trust economy. She works in particular for the EPFL Innovation Park Foundation and is CEO of the Swiss initiative Trust Valley, the center of excellence in digital trust and cybersecurity. She is co-founder and president of the NGO iCON, representing an international community of over 100 digital trust experts. Lennig Pedron represents iCON at the Council of Europe. She has been Data Protection expert for the Swiss Confederation. She provides advice and training to different audiences such as the police, prosecutors or banks. She has been a judge for the 9/12 geopolitical challenge of the GCSP for 4 years and she has spoken at the Forum of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). Lennig Pedron is the co-author of the book “The Fundamentals of Cyber Crisis Management” published by Ellipses in June 2022.
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Gabriel Puebla-Hellmann
QZabre (Switzerland)Dr. Puebla Hellmann is CEO of QZabre, an ETH Spinoff that creates NV Scanning Magnetometers and NV scanning probes. An enthusiast for moving quantum technologies from the lab to real world applications, he started his career with a PhD in Prof. Andreas Wallraff’s Quantum Device Lab at ETH Zürich. He then moved to IBM Zürich, first in collaboration with the University of Zurich, then with the University of Basel, where he worked to create a mass-fabrication compatible platform for molecular electronics. Mid 2018, immediately convinced of the potential that NV technology offers, he joined QZabre as a late cofounder. Dr. Puebla Hellmann has authored scientific papers published in Nature as well as several patents and won the Zeiss Quantum Challenge in 2020.
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Bio
Lorenz Herrmann
EMPA (Switzerland)Lorenz Herrmann is Head of Department and Member of the Directorate at Empa. In this role, he is responsible for the Research Focus Area Nanoscale Materials and Manufacturing Technologies. In terms of quantum systems, his interest is mainly in new materials and enabling technologies for quantum devices.
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Artem Nikitin
Delft Circuits (Netherlands)Artem Nikitin is leading commercial activities at Delft Circuits. He is responsible for expanding the partners and customers worldwide as well as marketing, PR and communication. Artem received a PhD in experiment condensed matter physics from the University of Amsterdam in 2017. Then obtained an EU Marie Curie fellowship to continue the research as a postdoc at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland. In 2019, he joined a young startup from Delft to create a commercial foundation for the ambitious technology – Cri/oFlex®. This technology aims to massively scale the qubit architecture by introducing flexible high-frequency cryogenic cabling.
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Bio
Richard Curry
University of Manchester (UK)Professor Richard Curry is Vice-Dean Research and Innovation within the Faculty of Science and Engineering at the University of Manchester. He is also a National Research Area Lead for the UK Henry Royce Institute (www.royce.ac.uk) research area of ‘Atoms to Devices’, and the co-leader of the UK Materials for Quantum Network (https://m4qn.org). He is Chair of the 30th International Conference on Amorphous and Nanoscale Semiconductors (www.icans30.com) being held in Manchester in 2024. His research focuses on the study and development of new photonic materials and devices and doped solid-state materials for quantum technologies. He developed the (now commercialised) P-NAME system for focused ion doping (https://www.royce.ac.uk/equipment-and-facilities/p-name/) and is the principal investigator of a portfolio of several research grants including the ~£10m EPSRC Programme Grant ‘Nanoscale Advanced Materials Engineering (www.name-pg.uk).
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Eunseong Kim
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (Korea)Eunseong Kim is the Chair of the Graduate School of Quantum Science and Technology and Professor of the Department of Physics at KAIST. He is an alumnus of the Pusan National University, ROK and the Pennsylvania State University, USA. He studied low temperature physics and obtained his Ph. D in 2004 under the supervision of Moses H. W. Chan. He joined the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in 2006. Since then, he has been working on various low temperature quantum phenomena and superconducting based quantum computing. He is the Director of the Center for K+Quantum Science and Technology, and the Center for KAIST Quantum Core Research Facility.
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Kiwon Moon
Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (Korea)Kiwon Moon works at the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute as the Chief Technical Staff of the Quantum Computing Section. Kiwon has many years of expertise in compound semiconductor devices, laser diodes, terahertz devices, and near-field optics. Recently, he is leading the development of a thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) QPIC platform and quantum interconnection system based on the TFLN QPIC devices. He is also interested in quantum memory and quantum computing based on the TFLN PIC platform.
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Jinwoong Cha
Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (Korea)Jinwoong Cha is a senior research scientist at the Quantum Technology Institute of the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science(KRISS). He has received his Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering in 2018 from ETH Zurich in 2018 with focus on nanoelectromechanical systems and mechanical metamaterials. Before joining to KRISS, he was a postdoctoral scholar at Caltech(2018) and KAIST(2018-2020). His current research focuses on the development of microwave-to-optical quantum transducers by integrating superconducting microwave circuits, nanomechanical resonators and photonic devices.
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Taeyoung Choi
Ewha Women’s University (Korea)Taeyoung Choi is an associate Professor in the Department of Physics at Ewha Womans University. His research aims to investigate Quantum properties of individual atoms and molecules and to utilize them for Quantum computation and simulation using trapped-ion platforms. His group at Ewha focuses on performing high fidelity and high speed quantum gates based on laser and microwave pulse shaping techniques, enabling for a scalable trapped-ion quantum processor.
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Jeongwon Lee
Korea-Europe Quantum Science Technology Cooperation Center (Korea)Jeongwon Lee is director general of the Korea-Europe Quantum Science and Technology Cooperation Center. He received a doctoral degree in technological policy and had planned the national ICT industrial & R&D Policy for over 10 years at the Institute for Information & Communication Technology Planning & Evaluation and was the administrative secretary for planning the national R&D program of quantum communication and quantum sensing. He also worked in LIGnex1 as an RF and radar subsystem engineer. Currently, he is interested in international R&D cooperation, policy, and the R&D ecosystem in the quantum science technology field.
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Wolfgang Tittel
University of Geneva (Switzerland)Professor Wolfgang Tittel is an experimental physicist specializing in quantum optics and
quantum communications. He is a full professor at the Delft University of Technology and a visiting professor at the University of Geneva. Some of his notable research results include the first demonstration of measurement-device independent quantum key distribution, which is of particular interest due to its resilience to quantum hacking, its suitability for building networks, and its upgradability to quantum repeater-based communication links; city-wide quantum teleportation; and the storage and recall of members of entangled photon pairs using rare-earth-based quantum memory. -
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Yong-Ho Lee
Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (Korea) -
Bio
Davide Venturelli
Universities Space Research Association (USA)Dr. Davide Venturelli is Associate Director for Quantum Technologies and Fellow at the Universities Space Research Association (USRA). He has worked in the NASA Quantum AI Laboratory (QuAIL) since its foundation in 2012 under the NASA Academic Mission Service contract, invested in research projects dealing with quantum optimization applications and their implementation in a hardware-software co-design approach. He has authored more than 50 publications and 9 patents on the subject of AI, Theoretical Physics, Quantum Computing, and Robotics. He teaches Quantum Integer Programming as an adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon University Tepper’s School of Business. He has experience winning, managing, and leading multi-million dollar R&D projects as Principal Investigator or co-PI, sponsored by DARPA, NSF, and DOE. He is the co-lead of the Ecosystem task of the National Quantum Initiative Superconducting Quantum Materials and System (SQMS) Center at Fermi National Laboratory. In 2021 he was elected member of the Quantum Economic Development Consortium (QED-C) steering committee.
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Pascal Fischer
Swiss National Science Foundation (Switzerland)Pascal Fischer is a physicist and head of Projects MINT at the Swiss National Science Foundation. In this role, he and his team organize and facilitate the evaluation of applications submitted for project funding in the fields of mathematics, informatics, natural sciences, and technology. This includes the previous “Quantum Transitional Call” and the upcoming “Quantum Call 2024”.
More speakers to be announced soon.
Partners
Hosted at EPFL, the Swissnex Quantum Summit is part of Project Quantum, Swissnex’s initiative to connect Switzerland and the world in quantum science and technology.