Oxford
Quantum
Circuits

Ilana is the Founding CEO of OQC. In her role she is responsible for setting the strategy and direction of the company, defining and modelling our culture and values, building and leading OQC’s senior team, and for allocating resources to the company’s priorities.

Ultimately, Ilana makes sure that OQC remains at the forefront of the quantum revolution. Thanks to her academic background, having gained a PhD in quantum physics from Royal Holloway, University of London, where she spent most of her PhD as a student in industry at the National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, she’s also providing technical input in the design of our quantum computer.

Ilana’s ambitions can be summed up in a single word that comes up a lot in a conversation with her: impact. Not just in the fledging quantum computing industry, but in the world writ. She believes in pushing the boundaries and doing things that have never been done before, thanks to quantum computing.

Ilana takes pride in breaking grounds on multiple levels: as a pioneer in quantum physics and as an executive woman in tech. When she’s not roadmapping, speaking at an event, reporting to the Board, pitching investors, hiring more ninjas or giving interviews, you might find her playing the piano, enjoying live music nights or boxing at the gym.

As a Project Engineer at OQC, Tawfik supports the organisation by leading the delivery of civil projects, from inception to completion.
Since joining OQC his objective was to always add value to the organisation and contribute positively to its ongoing success. Utilising his academic background, Civil Engineering (BSc) and Construction Project Management (MSc), Tawfik is an asset to OQC and is a pivotal member of the team that helps bring OQC vision to life.
Outside work Tawfik spends most of his time with family and friends, whilst sparing some time for reading, writing, playing football and bodybuilding.

Oscar joined OQC as a quantum engineer working in the quantum hardware team and is working on measurement of our superconducting qubits.
Before joining OQC Oscar worked at UCL and Imperial College London. At UCL he performed experiments building prototypical quantum memories and at Imperial he worked on transmon qubits. He completed his PhD at UCL.
Outside of science Oscar is a pretty amateur potter, forages in the autumn and likes to cook for and with his friends.

As a Nanofabrication Engineer, Kowsar is involved in the design, fabrication, process development and characterisation of devices.
Prior to OQC, Kowsar was working as a research associate at the University of Bath, where she was responsible for the design, fabrication and process optimisation of magnetic MEMS devices. To do so, she gained a lot of knowledge on process design and COMSOL simulations, as well as cleanroom fabrication and electroplating.

Kowsar studied for her PhD as a Marie Curie early stage researcher in University of Leeds. Her work was on magnetic thin films suitable for new generation of data storage, and focused on domain wall dynamics in Co/Pt multilayers. Hence, she got skilled in different thin film deposition systems and various characterisation techniques. She also has prior experience of working on organic solar cells and Co/Pd thin films.

Outside the lab, Kowsar loves enjoying nature, taking long walks (listening to a podcast) and maybe going climbing from time to time. She also enjoys reading Persian poems as a way to relax.

Simon is OQC's Chief Technology Officer (CTO).

Simon is an experienced technology executive and a seasoned entrepreneur. Since joining a burgeoning entertainment software industry in the 90’s, Simon has founded and grown several companies to international acclaim. From raising finance, establishing international organisations (including in China) and business development, Simon has a deep understanding of the fast paced technology sector.

Having previously been recognised in the ‘Games Industry Top 30 under 30’ for three consecutive years (before getting too old!) and Young Business Person of the Year in the Oxfordshire Business Awards, Simon is excited to apply his expertise and dynamic thinking to the world of Quantum computing.

Outside of technology, Simon has a private pilot's license and enjoys flying vintage aircrafts, has competed in international endurance motorsport events and has finished the London and New York marathons!

Marco joined OQC as a CAD Engineer to centralise the design using CAD tools, analysing different alternatives of hardware and improving them; and he assists the Quantum Engineering team solving challenges.

Marco is an Aeronautical Engineer, and prior to joining OQC he has worked in different industries in diverse countries as a Project Engineer. He gained experience in problem solving and design applying new technologies to improve production processes.

Marco grew up in Argentina, and outside the office he enjoys riding horses and running. He also likes outdoor sports, such as diving and motocross.

As Lead Quantum Materials and Devices, Connor is involved in the design, simulation, fabrication, and measurement of quantum devices and quantum processing units (QPUs).

Prior to joining OQC, Connor worked at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) where he was the lead researcher for the Superconducting Electronics team and worked on the development of Josephson Travelling Wave Parametric Amplifiers (JTWPAs) and research into the physics of superconducting nanobridges as Josephson elements, as well as dipping his toes into quantum metrology.

Connor received his PhD in physics from Royal Holloway, University of London in 2014 for work on the detection of thermoelectric effects in superconductors using a Hybrid Quantum Interference Device (HyQUID) as the read-out detector. He also developed a novel implementation of the HyQUID for use as a latching quantum read-out.

Connor is a member of the Institute of Physics, and has held Chartered Physicist status since 2017.

Outside of the laboratory he enjoys being outdoors - particularly multi-day hiking, as well as running (extremely slowly) through forests.

Charlie studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Loughborough and has previously worked as a Mechanical Design Engineer, designing equipment for the construction industry. She enjoys problem solving and finding creative solutions to complex problems.

In her spare time Charlie loves travelling, keeping fit and cooking.

Brian is an engineer that specializes in quantum hardware development with 10 years of quantum tech experience. At OQC, Brian is a part of the quantum engineering team developing commercial-grade quantum processors.

Originally from the United States, Brian moved to the UK in 2017 where he has served as a Marie Curie research fellow at the University of Oxford focusing in superconducting quantum circuits. Previously a research staff scientist for IBM, Brian helped develop their large-scale quantum computing platform. He was also a part of the founding team for the ‘IBM Quantum Experience’, the first publicly-accessible quantum computer.

Brian received his PhD in experimental physics at Yale University with work that showed the largest ‘Schrodinger cat states’ to date using microwave photons. Since moving to the UK, Brian has enjoyed running (slowly) through the muddy trails along the Thames and is a self-proclaimed transit nerd.

Chris has joined OQC as a Lab technician and was later promoted to Lab Supervisor. As such, he will primarily be helping run the Lab, managing the team of technicians and looking after the equipment within the Lab.

Chris is a multi-skilled technician who has worked in a number of different industries. He has a lot of practical hands-on experience working with anything from CNC sheet metal machinery, to electronic rework and repair. Chris will use his experience to assist the quantum hardware team in overcoming practical problems.

Chris enjoys working on old motor cars, playing the drums, and fixing / operating old machinery in his spare time.

As a nanofabrication engineer Narendra helps the quantum hardware team to develop a fully scalable quantum processor. He is involved in chip design, process development, and nanofabrication of OQC’s unique superconducting qubits, the coxamon.

Narendra completed his PhD in physics from Temple University Philadelphia, USA where he focused on the development of superconductingTHz receivers for NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Before joining OQC, Narendra was a post-doctoral research fellow at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden where he developed novel MgB2 superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors. His interests include superconducting quantum technology, quantum education outreach activities for underrepresented communities in science.

Originally from the foothills of the Himalayas, Narendra loves trekking, and he reads books and writes poems in his native language.

Kajsa first came to Oxford for an internship at Rutherford Appleton Laboratories, where she developed a simulation tool to assist in the evaluation of a ground based laser orbital debris removal system. Once this internship was completed, her passion for cutting edge science motivated her to further her expertise in deep-tech and ultimately become a part of the OQC software team.

As a Software Engineer, Kajsa is responsible for a number of quantum and development infrastructure projects around quantum chip simulation and data management systems.

Kajsa holds an M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Lund University (Sweden) and a dual M.Sc. in Space Instrumentation and Technology from Université Paul Sabatier (France) and Luleå University of Technology (Sweden). Originally from Sweden, Kajsa loves the outdoors and takes any opportunity for alpine skiing. When there's no place to ski, she is quite content going for a hike or building a camp in some remote forest. This is fortunate as Oxfordshire doesn't have any mountains and seldom any snow.

Ailsa completed her PhD in quantum systems engineering at Imperial College London in January 2021. Her research project, developing electron spin resonance techniques using superconducting resonators, was carried out in the Solid State Quantum Tech group at the National Physical Laboratory.

From there she joined OQC as a quantum engineer, working in the quantum hardware team to run qubit measurements and develop our unique superconducting qubit technology.

As a Systems Integration Engineer, Norbert is responsible for bringing together the components vital for controlling our cutting-edge quantum processors, and solve challenges from both hardware and end-users' experience.

Prior to joining OQC Norbert worked on several integrated development environments as a software engineer, getting familiar with multiple areas of software development, like automated tests, build automation, compilers and UI.

Norbert received a Master’s degree in Computer Science from the ENS Lyon (France). Besides his professional experience, he also got involved in several research projects in academia. Most of the time, he worked closely with FPGAs, for example studying floorplanning algorithms, high level synthesis, or designing several applications.

Norbert loves to travel and visit new places, either as a vacation or for work, so moving to the UK from Romania was an exciting adventure. When he is not exploring, Norbert reads and watches movies, preferably science fiction or fantasy themed ones.

As a software engineer Jamie is responsible for building software solutions that will help build a quantum future. In particular Jamie is part of the compiler team, building a bespoke quantum compiler that will allow groundbreaking problems to be solved on OQC's hardware.
Before joining OQC Jamie worked as a software developer for a grid battery company, part of the UK's national grid goal to bring greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. Academically, Jamie's research was centered around quantum estimation theory, with an emphasis on the optimisation of multidimensional magnetic field estimation.
In his spare time Jamie enjoys chess (playing for Hackney chess club virtually), crochet and likes to attempt to finish a crossword puzzle. He also enjoys assorted weather dependent sports including running, bouldering and powerlifting.

Jonathan works with the Quantum Hardware team to advance OQC’s experimental efforts. Specifically, he oversees developments across the device design, fabrication, cryogenic setup, measurement and reporting.

Prior to joining OQC, Jonathan worked as a Senior Research Scientist and Measurement Fellow at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL). While there, he led research on the metrology of superconducting qubits focusing on the metrology and statistics for reliable reporting of qubit parameters. Before this, Jonathan was a PDRA/Quantum Engineer at the Wallenberg Centre for Quantum Technology (WaCQT) at Chalmers University in Sweden where he focused on understanding decoherence in superconducting qubits and nanowire superinductors. He has also worked as a PDRA at the London Centre for Nanotechnology (LCN) at UCL, where he worked on novel focused-ion-beam techniques as a means of realising low-dissipation nanowire circuits.

In 2014, Jonathan received a PhD in Physics from Royal Holloway University of London (RHUL). For his PhD, Jonathan worked between NPL and RHUL to develop new readout methods for superconducting resonators based upon frequency-metrology techniques.

Outside of the lab, Jonathan enjoys walking his dog and homebaking.

Kaitlyn joins OQC with a long career in hospitality having managed pubs, events and cafes in Canada and the UK. With a customer service centred mindset, managing a team to deliver the best in class was the driver to further her education with Avado to complete a qualification in HR. Kaitlyn is passionate about helping others and is focused on extracting the best out of everyone in our ever growing team.

Outside of the office, long walks through the countryside or coast are the ideal Sunday or making travel plans to see more of the world. A foodie at heart and artist by boredom, cooking and ongoing drawings occupy most of her free time outside of work and studying.

Richard is Lead Technical Operations steering the delivery of OQC projects to the correct quality, on time and within budget to the satisfaction of all of our stakeholders.

Richard is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer and has a wealth of experience delivering complex projects into production from small teams to large scale assembly lines at various international locations. In addition, he has worked within the areas of Supplier Quality, Lean Manufacturing and Manufacturing Engineering. He was elected a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 2013.

Richard enjoys an active family life, as well as running, hiking and caring for his beloved Land Rover Defender. Also enjoying watching Rugby and Motorsport with friends when time permits.

Harry joined OQC as a junior software engineer and is part of a team of physicists and software engineers that are developing a range of outstanding, cutting-edge software solutions for quantum computing applications.

After finishing his PhD at the University of Manchester in a magnetic nanotechnology/spintronics based subject, he then began a one year post-doctoral research fellowship dedicated to developing the most promising aspects of his PhD research. The impactful application of physics and nanotechnology to the world has always been a great interest and this, coupled with his skills in software engineering/computer programming and fascination of quantum physics, made a position in the software team of OQC the ideal opportunity to further progress his career.

In his free time, Harry is an eager hiker with a great interest in exploring the outdoors and travelling. He also enjoys socialising with friends, reading and trying out new recipes from his various cook-books.

Steve joined OQC as a Purchase Ledger Assistant to support and strengthen a busy Accounts Department. He started working in a top 100 accountancy firm in Oxford 7 years ago and has worked in 2 more Oxfordshire accountants in this time. Steve is passionate about providing clarity to financial systems and has an affinity for digital accounting platforms.

Outside of the office; Steve is a huge sports fan, following 5 different sports. Steve's ideal weekend is a long walk in the countryside whilst frantically trying to keep up to date on the results of the weekend's sports

As Nanofabrication Engineer at OQC, Yashwanth is a part of the Quantum Hardware team focused on facilitating the development of OQC’s quantum processor. He is involved in chip design, fabrication and characterisation of superconducting qubits for quantum computing.

Prior to joining OQC, Yashwanth received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from University of Leuven and IMEC in Belgium, where he worked on the development of 2D materials based tunnelling transistors for future electronic applications. He specialises in evaluating device performance and integration of novel materials for future CMOS technology. His current research interests include Quantum based Semiconductor and Superconductor technologies.

Outside of the office, Yashwanth plays the keyboard and composes music in Indian and contemporary genres. He also enjoys going to the gym and loves spending his off-days doing long hikes.

Peter Oakley is a hardware design engineer with a background in PCB design and RTL firmware development. As OQC’s Lead Control Systems, Peter’s current focus is on the design and development of a novel quantum computing control system capable of multi-platform synchronisation, low latency feedback and upwards scalability. Peter is concerned with both the physical hardware and the FPGA firmware.

Prior to joining OQC, Peter worked for multi-national, blue-chip organisations including ARM, Imagination Technologies and Ensilica and has led multiple COTS products from the ground up, including an ATX motherboard and an extended temperature, rugged SATA controller.

Peter has contributed in the development of multiple large scale, SOC products including a spectrography based gas detector, fingerprint recognition system and a radar-based, MIMO system for autonomous vehicles. Peter has also designed various IP products from the ground up, including a novel, power-aware SPI controller, an I2C controller, a memory controller and a parametrically scalable IIR filter.

Peter has a range of extracurricular qualifications in FPGA design, verification and RF engineering. In his spare time, Peter enjoys rock-climbing and producing music.

Gioele carried out his PhD project at University College London and was part of their Delivering Quantum Technologies centre for doctoral training. During his time there, he focused on simulating and testing high-coherence superconducting qubits for quantum annealing applications, coming up with a new way of finding an effective qubit description of a general superconducting circuit.

Gioele joined OQC as quantum engineer and is working with the quantum hardware team on advancing the capabilities of current quantum processing units.

Originally from Italy, in his spare time Gioele enjoys experimenting new cuisines (both by cooking and eating!), going for walks in the London parks and spending time with his friends and with his inseparable cat Gina.

Nicki Taylor joined OQC as an Executive Assistant to provide key administrative and business support to the Executive team.

Before joining OQC, Nicki spent the last few years working in children’s social care, supporting young adults who had previously been looked after; offering advice and support to develop their independent skills and help them successfully transition into adulthood.

Outside of the office, you can find Nicki at a coffee shop; walking her dog or redecorating her first home.

Tasnimul carried out his PhD research work at Aalto University in Finland. For his PhD project, he has worked with superconducting quantum circuits with graphene based
Josephson junctions. The research was part of a Marie-Curie European Training Network in Quantum Optomechanics.

Tasnimul joined OQC as Quantum Engineer and is now part of the Quantum R&D team, working towards solutions for scalable and error-free quantum computing.

Outside of work, Tasnimul enjoys watching football and cricket and is an avid Manchester United fan. Occasionally, he also enjoys travelling in Europe and watching movies.

Owen has joined OQC as our Lead Software Engineer, responsible for the software components integral to the operation of the quantum computing systems.

Owen worked as part of a software consultancy for 14 years prior to joining OQC. For more than a decade, Owen has built and managed scientific software as part of international collaborations. Most recently, Owen has worked with the European Spallation Source under construction in Sweden.

When not looking after his young children, Owen can be found building and riding bikes.

As a member of the Quantum Systems team, Darren is primarily responsible for working on the deployment of OQC’s advanced cryogenic quantum systems.

Darren graduated from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth with a BSc in Physics with Planetary and Space Physics and a PhD in the field of cryogenic instrumentation. He has since worked internationally with a focus on astrophysics instrumentation for submillimeter and far-infrared astronomy and has contributed hardware to space flight missions that include JWST-MIRI, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Herschel Space Telescope. Prior to OQC, Darren worked as a Technologist for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, USA. From there, he developed cryogenic heterodyne receivers and RF components for future ground, air and space deployments.

In his spare time, Darren enjoys spending time with his family as well as working on a classic car, flying gliders, travelling and designing/building various maker projects.

Ilona joined OQC as a Finance Assistant to support a busy and growing Accounts Department. Her finance adventure began 6 years ago while working for an Entertainment Transport company where she was managing the day-to-day accounts operations.
Passionate about personal development, in her free time she enjoys fitness and trying out new healthy recipes.
Ilona always puts the precious moments with her family first. She loves travelling to nice sunny places where she can fully relax, discover local cuisine and see all the beautiful places that the world has to offer.

Bryn has joined OQC as a Senior Quantum Engineer, part of the hardware team developing new quantum processing units.

Bryn has worked for 10 years as an academic researcher specialising in experimental quantum optics and quantum information science. He received his PhD from the University of Bristol, working on optical quantum computing with fibre-optic sources of entangled photons, before going on to postdoctoral positions at the University of Sydney and Oxford University, working on single photon sources, frequency converters, and circuits based on silicon photonic chips. Immediately prior to joining OQC Bryn held a Marie Skłodowska Curie fellowship at Imperial College London.

In his spare time, Bryn occasionally enjoys guitars, painting, and the gym, but more often good food, watching films, and his cat.

Phil has joined the OQC Classical Hardware team as a FPGA developer and is looking forward to adding capacity to the team.
Prior to Joining OQC Phil has worked designing FPGA for Test and Measurement applications (Broadcast and Ethernet), Worked for a FPGA Vendor and experienced the full lifecycle of system design covering software, networking and FPGA design in the finance industry. Most recently he was operating his own FPGA consulting business.
When not spending time with his family, or tinkering under a kit car, Phil enjoys Bouldering and getting out on a XC Mountain bike.

John Dumbell has worked on a wide variety of systems from highly-scalable web applications to SAT solvers and fuzzers, but has always had a deep fascination with complicated problems. That's what encouraged him to join OQC to help build a quantum compiler and try to bring about the future just a little bit sooner.

In his off time he runs various TTRPG games and plays piano (badly, for now).

Waqas is part of OQC's quantum hardware team. As Quantum RF Engineer, Waqas is responsible for bridging the gap between the quantum field and the RF field. In his role, he is involved in the designing, assembling and testing of RF and quantum circuits for quantum processing.

Prior to joining OQC, Waqas had a purely RF background. He worked on a number of projects; which included two with the European Space Agency (developing a Ka-band ground terminal communication system for tracking LEO & MEO satellites and a Ka-band communication system for automotive vehicles) and a project with McLaren (developing a 5G communication system for car & rail networks).

Waqas has a BEng (Hons) in Electronic Engineering and a PhD in RF & Electromagnetics — both from the University of Westminster in London. He and his research group also contributed to developing techniques for using Graphene as an RF switch. During his PhD, he gained first-hand knowledge of the design, fabrication and test of antennas and filters — and many life skills and experiences.

Outside work, Waqas enjoys a wide range of activities. These span from indoor ones (reading, violin and building things) to outdoors ones (travelling and most outdoor sports). He aims to be a violinist and a tennis ace one day — and daydreams playing in Wimbledon finals.

Richard completed his PhD at the University of Southampton, in the area of cryogenic nuclear magnetic resonance and superconductivity, specifically studying the physics of type-II superconductors. His PhD group also developed RF pulse sequences for control of ensemble nuclear spin-systems. This combination allowed Rich to develop experience in both low temperature experimental physics, as well as optimising the control of qubit-like nuclear spin systems through recoupling/decoupling methodologies. He also designed and tested new pulse sequences for the control of these qubit-like systems for optimal signal intensity.

He then went onto a postdoc at UC Berkeley, working on methodologies for nuclear spin hyperpolarisation. During this time he gained skills in instrument control and anticrossing physics between nuclear and electron spins. His postdoc in Berkeley included engineering of RF transmission lines and significant amounts of RF pulse engineering using AWGs. During this time he also worked on his own python framework to simulate the quantum mechanics of nuclear-electron spin interactions.

Then slightly shifting fields, he did another postdoc at the University of Cologne in the area of cQED on topological insulators towards Majorana quantum computing. Rich began at the start of a new venture into cQED in this lab, so had significant exposure to RF engineering for Transmon qubits from the ground up. He also worked heavily on design, simulation, fabrication and measurement of various iterations of superconducting CPW resonators. This included DC/RF hybrid devices as well as high magnetic field compatible designs. Throughout this experience he developed his own python package for mask generation of superconducting CPW designs with Andreev qubits.

In his spare time Richard is bouldering, multi-day hiking or reading.

Mya has an academic background in Environmental Science, though she has spent most of her career largely within the fashion and retail industry. Within this industry you will have been able to find Mya working across numerous roles, from Store Manager to Wholesaler or Brand management to Business development, to name a few. She has spent her more recent years across other industries such as Tech and Education in the majority of the assistant roles which exist in the office environment.

Mya loves animals, nature and dancing. In her spare time she learns about the world of metaphysics and enjoys designing and creating crystal jewellery for healing purposes. Mya is also regularly involved in volunteering with charities.

As a DevOps Engineer, Tom is helping build out our Quantum Computing as a Service platform, adding reliability, automation and best practices.

Before joining OQC Tom has worked at both startups and large enterprise companies, building and improving platforms, web applications and APIs. More recently adopting modern DevOps methods to automate cloud infrastructure build and software integration/delivery.

Outside of work Tom brews beer in his garden, plays the drums and likes to run occasionally.

Will joined OQC as a Junior Mechanical Design Engineer to support the Technical Operations team develop and implement ideas and solutions.

Before joining OQC, Will studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Surrey and enjoys experimenting with mechanisms and optimising systems.

In his spare time he loves swimming and being outdoors, and is passionate about whitewater kayaking - spending as much time as possible travelling around the country chasing rain with friends.

Gillian has joined OQC to provide support for the operations team.

Her background is varied, ranging from Executive Assistant in a Pharmaceutical testing company to helping coordinate a project to improve Physics Research capacity in Sub Saharan Africa and teaching RE, Psychology and Anthropology in secondary schools.

Outside of work Gillian enjoys long walks in the countryside, trying new places to eat and she spent much of the pandemic returning to university to gain a Masters in Creative Enterprise.

Gavin works in OQC's Quantum Systems team, where he develops, measures, and deploys the quantum processing units (QPUs) in our superconducting quantum computers.

Prior to joining OQC, Gavin completed his PhD in Quantum Technology jointly between UCL's London Centre for Nanotechnology and the National Physical Laboratory (NPL). His research focused mainly on using superconducting resonators to measure coherence properties of electron spin resonance transitions in rare-earth doped crystals, with his experience in fabrication, cryogenics, and superconducting devices. More recently he has been designing and simulating RF devices to improve the sensitivity of lateral flow tests.

When not dealing with quantum hardware, Gavin's hobbies include hiking, home-brewing, and hoarding board games.

Charles joined OQC as an Operations Specialist. His responsibilities are to optimise our day-to-day business operations with a view to streamline our internal processes and boost project delivery.

Charles has a wealth of experience in optimising operations within the UK manufacturing industry, delivering process improvements, developing strategy and deploying key results and coaching programmes. In addition, he has worked in Manufacturing Engineering, Logistics & Facilities Management delivering complex projects.

Charles likes to mountain bike or run in the hills with his family and dog. Also he enjoys the occasional cold water sea swim, yoga and is passionate about skiing.

Chris has joined OQC as a Laboratory Technician and will be part of the technical team assisting with laboratory expansion as OQC develops.

Chris has over 20 years’ experience in manufacturing and maintenance within a variety of industries including chemical vapour deposition (CVD) and the defence sector, but primarily in the subsea oil and gas industry where he initially assembled subsea hydraulic hardware before progressing on to hydraulic systems pressure testing and flushing, which involved verifying hydraulic system cleanliness using fluid particle analysis equipment for witnessing client inspectors. Later, Chris progressed on to the role of Product Support Engineer where he focused on production quality notifications in SAP, SOP creation and became a technical advisor for the vendor NCR team.

In his spare time, Chris can mostly be found renovating his house. But he has been known to properly relax sometimes and likes to spend time with family, game on the PC he built, cycle, or listen to music on his hi-fi.

Ray joined OQC as a Senior FPGA Engineer for the Control Systems Team to seek challenges in a new field.

He started his career in electronics before moving into ASIC design for mobile phones at Nokia, for consumer electronics at LSI Logic, FPGA's for storage systems at Hitachi and most lately for broadcast video products.

In his spare time Ray will most likely be playing, coaching or refereeing volleyball, walking through the countryside or hiking up some mountains.
Otherwise DIY and home automation will be a major time sink, and probably some more volleyball!

As a nanofabrication engineer, Rob is part of the Quantum Materials and Devices team. He is involved in nanofabrication and design in addition to device characterisation.

Prior to joining OQC, Rob was undertaking a PhD at the University of Bath where he was creating III-N nanostructures to house site-controlled quantum dots. He has experience nanopatterning and dry etching along with SEM and AFM characterisation. He also has experience in MOVPE crystallographic epitaxial growth.

Outside of work Rob enjoys watching football, working out and walking his dog. He also likes reading books and watching films.

Kevin joined OQC as a Nanofabrication Engineer, drawing on his experience as a Research Associate with the University of Glasgow and a Research Fellow with the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, SEDD division.

His area of expertise covers the use of semiconductors in device applications, with particular experience in the fabrication of field effect transistors, experimental test structures and process development. His published work ranges from demonstrations of novel surface transfer doping, to device characterisation and development of atomic layer etching. Notably, Kevin’s work has advanced the use of diamond as a next-generation semiconductor material for high-frequency and high-power devices. While with the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, he fabricated cutting-edge diamond field effect transistors which utilised the surface transfer doping effect developed at Glasgow.

Kevin enjoys a good, comfy chair. He is an avid gamer, owns too many books, and likes to bake for others.

Deepali has joined OQC as a Purchasing Assistant. She did her post-graduation in advertising & public relations, and has largely worked in the Media and Publication industry. Deepali has 8+ years of experience in the field of procurement, travel management and business analysis. She has been involved in procurement of a vast range of product categories, such as: office equipment, IT hardware, Travel and customised promotional merchandise. She also enjoys working on new & challenging assignments.

In her free time Deepali loves to workout, catch up with friends and spend time with family. She also loves cooking for friends and family, and loves travelling to explore new places.

Tom Joined OQC as a quantum engineer in the Quantum Materials and Devices team.

Before this Tom worked at the National Physical Laboratory in the Quantum Information Processing department his work included modelling, fabricating and measuring superconducting devices. He has a PhD from Royal Holloway University of London which was supported by the National Physical Laboratory where he focused on developing a multi-mode model of superconducting travelling wave amplifiers.

Outside of work Tom enjoys a long dog walk followed by a country pub. Tom also enjoys cooking, football, rugby and watching various e-sports.

Antonio joined OQC as Electronics Test and Deployment Engineer.

He has a degree in electronics Engineering, and a background in networking. Before OQC, Antonio was a test manager working in the electronic manufacturing and services industry, bringing efficiency to all process.

In his free time he is always tinkering running his own electronics projects, and also enjoys the nature and all outdoor activities like walking in the forest and riding the bike, but fishing is his main passion. Originally, Antonio is from Venezuela.

Renuka did her PhD in the field of nanophotonics from the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) and University of Genova. She worked with structured metal-insulator-metal nanocavities and studied their optical behavior. She fabricated micro and nano periodic structures with different lithographic tools and characterized them with SEM, AFM and ellipsometer. Prior to that, she received her master's degree in Solid State Technology from Indian Institute of Science and Technology (IIST) where she worked with Thin film transistors based on reduced graphene oxide.

Apart from studies, Renuka loves listening to music (no singing, horrible at that she says), going on hikes and travelling around to explore new places and cultures.

Andrew is one of our lab technicians.

Andrew has 15 years of previous experience calibrating a range of building service instrumentation as part of a multi faceted organization refining building energy efficiency.

Andrew is the drummer in the Reading based band The Clever Hans who are currently writing their third album. Andrew is also a novelist having published his first novel "The Equilibrium of Eternity's Playground" in 2018 and is currently writing his second. Andrew is a keen cyclist and can often be found on a Sunday afternoon ascending the best of Berkshire and Oxfordshire's category four hills.

Waseem is part of our Control Systems team.
After completing his master’s degree at the University of Sheffield, he spent more than 3 years in the aerospace and Satcom industry as an RF/system design engineer. There he was involved in designing the RF system for the satellite ground stations (that operate between UHF and Q/V frequency bands) down to component level. He also work on designing/developing VHF/UHF ground-to-air communication systems for the airports to communicate with aircrafts.

In his free time, Waseem enjoys reading and playing with his children.

Having a varied career in mainly Engineering-based roles and attempting to start various small businesses, Connor returned to University to study Computer Science at the University of Kent. This pivotal change in career came from a natural love of problem solving, puzzles, education and curiosity. Things that Connor noticed had been constants in every aspect of his life from a young age and what initially drove him towards Engineering. However, after gaining valuable experiences and developing a better sense of self-awareness, he realised that his skills and interests naturally leant themselves towards Computer Science. It was at University that Connor discovered Quantum Computing and became absolutely fascinated by alternative models of computation. From this point onwards he took every opportunity he could to study and incorporate Quantum Computing into every project and module that he could and even lead to the creation of a small first-person video game designed to help better understand Quantum formalisms and Quantum gate transformations. Connor then based his third year research project on the amalgamation of Quantum Machine Learning, Quantum Cognition and Quantum Brain Theories, where he analysed current research in these fields and proposed a Quantum Mind State hypothesis.

After finishing University and gaining a First Class Honours Degree in Computer Science Connor was given (the amazing - his words!) opportunity of working for OQC as a Junior Software Engineer and joining the incredible team we have assembled.

In his spare time Connor loves walks in the countryside, visiting National Trust locations and is also an avid film buff. After moving to Reading from Kent, Connor aims to take the opportunity of a fresh start to incorporate more exercise into his daily life, however, this may conflict with his love of a good beer.

Travers completed his Physics BSc at the University of Salford. After this, he started his PhD in trapped-ion quantum computing and networking in the ITCM group at the University of Sussex. Here, he has published papers reporting the best known Hong-Ou-Mandel visibility numbers for a trapped ion system, as well as the first practical demonstration of time-bin encoding with the same system.
Travers has joined OQC as a Quantum Engineer and is working with the quantum systems team.

The majority of his spare time is dedicated to raising his amazing family. Any other time is spent messing with classical computers, playing games or very occasionally snooker.

Ryan joined OQC as a Systems Deployment Engineer, working closely with the quantum engineers.

Ryan has an interest in physics and engineering and was previously performing research at Loughborough University in building energy and building systems.

In his spare time, Rya enjoys reading, video games and sci-fi movies.

Before joining OQC, Lee studied Product Design and has worked in a variety of design related roles, including Data Capture, Reliability and Mechanical Design.

Away from work he enjoys spending time in nature, from hiking up the mountains to kayaking down waterfalls. He also loves discovering new cultures and learning about living sustainably.

James completed his PhD in Physics at the University of Oxford, in the group of Peter Leek. He worked on the design, simulation, and measurement of novel coaxial qubits, specialising in multi-mode coaxial transmons for quantum computing and sensing applications. He joins OQC as a Quantum Engineer, working in the Quantum Research and Development team.

Outside of work, James enjoys baking, rowing on the Thames in Oxford (albeit slowly these days), and spending time with his cat.

Boris is a quantum engineer working in the Quantum Research and Development team. He works on quantum processors design, develops solutions for scaling the quantum devices and reducing errors in physical systems.

Boris completed his PhD in the Ketterle group at MIT in 2019. He worked on experiments with Bose-Einstein condensate in optical lattices and studied physics of periodically driven atoms. After earning his PhD Boris decided to warm his experiments up from nano-Kelvin to milli-Kelvin temperatures and switch from cold atoms to “artificial” atoms - superconducting qubits. He moved to the UK and worked as postdoctoral researcher in the Leek lab at the University of Oxford, developing novel coaxial qubits and their applications to quantum computing.

Outside of the world of qubits Boris enjoys reading and cycling in the countryside, exploring the local history of Oxfordshire.

Anirban was born in and grew up in Kolkata, India and graduated with my Bachelors in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering in India in 2014. During these years, he developed a keen interest in learning more about RF and Microwaves which inspired him to pursue a Masters in Electrical Engineering from The University of Texas at Dallas in the US, in which he heavily focused on studying and understanding concepts such as RF Circuit and Systems Design, Antennas and Wave Propagation and the design of LNAs and Power Amplifiers.

Anirban worked as a part of organizations in different locations the US namely North Carolina and Colorado where he was been involved in the design of Antenna Arrays for base stations and components for radiometer receivers such as orthomode transducers, axial antennas, filters and multiplexers. A strong desire to further grow his RF knowledge and a keen interest to apply it in the field of Quantum Computing is what inspired him to want to be a part of OQC.

As for his hobbies, Anirban loves watching football and is a die hard fan of Arsenal Football Club, who he's supported for 19 years. He also loves trying out food from different cultures and travelling, especially going on random road trips. He is also an avid gamer.

Apoorva joined OQC as a Quantum Engineer in the Quantum Systems team. She obtained my PhD in 2022 from Heidelberg University, Germany. Her expertise and interest in the field of quantum computing stems from the experimental cold-atom platform. Her experiment was designed to quantum simulate fundamental concepts in High Energy Physics, where Apoorva explored the regime of spin interactions between different kinds of atoms and the dynamics involved therein.

Apart from scientific research, she hasa strong appetite for reading, and outdoor activities such as hiking, cycling, and running. Apoorva travels often, and writes about her experiences in a little blog.

Ken completed his PhD at the University of Manitoba (the coldest university in North America) in 1994. The focus was on imaging artefacts in Atomic Force Microscopy of thin
films. He also has a MSc from the University of Alberta on sputtered indium nitride thin films.

Ken has worked in industry and academia developing MEMS and Microfludic devices. In the late 1990’s he was the founding director of the University of Alberta nanoFab, the first open access micro and nanofabrication facility in Canada.

In his spare time he plans on visiting lesser known interesting places in Europe and in the winter, the normal tourist spots North Americans go to.

Will completed his Masters in Physics at Manchester University focusing on theoretical physics and a project on fabricating nanofluid devices. Before joining OQC he did an internship at Quandela on conducting error correcting using machine learning techniques.

In his spare time Will enjoys listening and making music.

Boris is involved in the simulation, design, fabrication, and measurements of superconducting quantum devices. For more than 30 years he specialised in both theory and experiments of the Josephson effects, superconducting devices/SQUIDs and their applications.

Boris graduated from the University of Bucharest in Romania, received his PhD in theoretical physics from JINR, Dubna in Russia, and his German Habilitation in experimental physics at Tuebingen University in Germany. From 1996 until 1998 he was a Humboldt Fellow at the Forschungszentrum Juelich in Germany working in the SQUID group.

Prior to joining OQC, Boris worked as a Senior Lecturer at Loughborough University, before that, as an Assistant Professor at Tuebingen University, and a postdoctoral researcher at Augsburg University. Between 2015 and 2020, Boris was an Executive Board Member of the Superconductor Science and Technology, IoP journal.

In his spare time, Boris enjoys playing tennis and skiing.

Amber joined OQC as a junior software engineer to combine her two passions of quantum computing and developing software. After completing a masters in physics at Royal Holloway she worked in the world of software development for a year but ultimately decided that she missed the physics elements of her degree.

She joined OQC to explore the vast new possibilities that combining classical coding with quantum computing affords to the world, and to really get stuck into her interests.
She has a passion for the physics of superconducting qubits and the unique coding challenges they create.

When she’s not coding for OQC you may still find Amber coding her own projects, making and playing video games. If she’s not in front of a computer screen you may find her fencing or lost in a good book. On the rare occasion you find her outside she’ll be hiking through the woods with her film camera or taking long exposure pictures of the stars of Europe and watching movies.

Rodrigo joined OQC as an Algorithm Developer as part of the RD team. His job is to be the bridge that connects the software team with the hardware team
and find the best quantum algorithms for the best quantum computer (OQC’s computer, of course).

After finishing his M.Sc. in Physics, where he worked with quantum state discrimination, he wanted to explore new frontiers and started a Ph.D. in Com-
puter Science at Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. During his Ph.D., he mainly worked with Continuous-time Quantum Walks and was interested in the
information transport properties of weighted graphs. In the middle of his Ph.D., he saw the quantum computing industry rising and devoted part of his time to
understanding what is so special about it. Now, he is ready to make an impact at OQC!

Outside of work, you can always find him at the gym, traveling, or trying a new cuisine. As a retired amateur player of Dota2, he also enjoys watching competitive Dota2 and CS:GO.

As a DevOps Engineer Kristian is part of the team that glues infrastructure and software together, providing reliability and automation. Coming from a Cybersecurity background he will ensure we are keeping in line with best practices as we develop our Quantum Computing service in the cloud.

In his spare time, Kristian will be looking after his pet dog and parrots and learning new languages!

Gerald is OQC’s Partnerships Lead and is responsible for leading OQC’s commercial growth through strategic partnerships with the world’s largest private and public sector organisations as they progress towards a quantum enabled future.

Prior to joining Europe’s leading quantum computing company, Gerald was a Director at the UK Prime Minister’s Office and Cabinet Office responsible for leading and scaling an innovative government-to-government communications, digital and data business across more than 50 countries in EMEA, APAC and the Americas.

Gerald has spent more than 15 years delivering strategy and technology solutions for clients across a range of industries, including life sciences, financial services, logistics, energy and defence at leading consulting firms including Accenture and PwC.

Gerald is excited to build on his extensive experience to bring OQC’s Quantum Computing-as-a-Service (QCaaS) platform to market supporting the extraordinary mission to put quantum computing in the hands of humanity to solve the world’s most challenging problems.

Gerald holds two master’s degrees in economics and public policy and business and management including from the London School of Economics.

Jake has joined the software team at OQC to help create innovative software solutions to power the quantum future. Before joining OQC Jake worked as a software engineer in the financial industry. He is excited to be back and involved in the quantum technologies space given his background in the area. Jake studied for his PhD at University College London as part of the centre for doctoral training in Delivering Quantum Technologies. His research focused on quantum sensing applications of highly-excited states of atoms. He has always enjoyed programming, and is passionate about the ever increasing role that software plays in the research and development of scientific ideas. Jake is keen to help in OQC’s mission to not only build quantum computers but make them accessible to everyone.

When not coding Jake enjoys a number of hobbies such as strength sports, climbing, football, cycling and hiking. He likes to believe he has better vision than Kevin de Bruyne on a 5-a-side pitch and spends far more time researching and buying bike components than actually riding his bike.

Anna joins OQC having previously worked as a fully qualified primary school teacher in Kent, teaching Year 5 and 6 pupils, providing them with support and care and giving them the tools they needed to grow into well rounded young adults. Anna left her teaching career a year ago and has since worked as a Sales Consultant, in the health and fitness industry. Anna has recognised her passion to serve and support others, and brings a great set of organisational skills to the OQC team.

In her spare time, Anna spends a few hours a week strength training at the gym to keeping her strong both mentally and physically, enjoys long walks in the countryside and loves a visit to the North Norfolk coast for windy beach walks and cosy nights in.

Daryl joined the Technical Operations team to help facilitate and steer OQC projects and ensure the unique objectives are defined and achieved to the satisfaction of our stakeholders. Daryl comes from a mechanical design and product development background. He has designed and delivered various engineering and NPD projects to market, including electric vehicles and more recently equipment for the financial services sector. He has worked in all phases of the product life-cycle and has a keen interest in lean manufacturing and continuous improvement.

Outside of work, he enjoys travelling to new places around the world, experiencing different cultures and gaining new perspectives. You may also find him keeping active on the squash court, cycling or attempting to learn the piano.

James joined OQC as a Senior Software Engineer, responsible for building software components critical to Quantum computers cloud and client systems.
James joins OQC having worked as part of the software services and consultancy field for 16 years. Previously as a Technology Lead at Infosys, he has built enterprise applications for major telecom companies and led development teams in the US and UK. Most recently, James has worked with the National Quantum Computing Centre developing controls systems for Quantum Computer labs. James has passion for optimization & automation enabling developers to efficiently build high quality softwares, he also has keen interest to lead by example and mentor team members.

When not working, James enjoys Latin music, strong coffee and hiking around Reading river trails.

Sandy has more than 30 years experience in IT, with a focus on network and information security. He spent more than 20 years working for a globally managed security services provider.
Prior to working in IT, Sandy worked for a UK Meteorological provider, which is why he is always looking at the sky!
In his spare time, Sandy is a keen SCUBA diver. He enjoys tinkering with technology and finding applications for his single board computers. He takes long walks in the country at weekends, preferably stopping at a nice country pub for refreshments.

Pulling together a lifetime's experience of talent acquisition, wellness and business process/coaching experience to bring mindful and kind yet sustainable people solutions to the business environment. Cathy Richardson is passionate about people's careers and their progress at work, alongside a keen interest in helping organisations to grow and be successful.

She joins OQC as an industry recognised Talent Manager and Specialist Recruiter with extensive global recruitment experience in the technology and engineering sectors. Her expertise lies in building high performing teams, creating robust recruitment and onboarding processes that ensure employee retention and the positive development of individuals to achieve their career goals.

Cathy is also a fully qualified senior yoga teacher and yoga therapist. Meditation training, conflict resolution, positive communication and self-care are key topics for her. When not engaging with the world of work, she spends lots of time on her yoga mat, hiking and backpacking in interesting and remote locations, and playing with her growing brood of grandchildren.

George is a Quantum Engineer in OQC’s Quantum Systems team, working on the measurement and deployment of our superconducting quantum processors.

Prior to joining OQC George was part of the Quantum Metrology Institute at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), working across the Quantum Information Processing group and the Quantum Material and Sensors group. In this role George worked on multiple research projects collaborating with various universities and national measurement institutes. George’s work at NPL centred around the design, fabrication and measurement of superconducting devices, such as travelling wave parametric amplifiers for quantum limited microwave signal detection and nanoscale Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices (nanoSQUIDs) for single particle metrology and sensing.

George received his PhD in physics from Royal Holloway University of London, in collaboration with the National Physical laboratory in 2019 for work on nonlinear superconducting circuits for quantum technologies and weak signal detection.

In his spare time George enjoys cooking (another kind of science), kayaking and long scenic walks

Alex joined OQC as a Junior DevOps Engineer and is part of a team that is helping to build a Quantum Computing platform using the best DevOps practices.

Before joining OQC, Alex completed his Masters Degree in Physics from the University of Nottingham. He enjoyed studying large cosmological phenomena like inflation down the quantum realm of nuclear magnetic resonance imaging. He then decided to explore the world of IT by working in Cloud Operations and OpenShift engineering for the UK public and private sectors. Alex was part of teams that monitored and ensured a large multi-cloud infrastructure remained operational as well as deployment and maintenance of OpenShift clusters. After missing the world of physics since University, Alex is looking to combine his two biggest passions together by ensuring Quantum computing services remain operational and secure in the cloud.

In his spare time, you may find Alex being a DIY enthusiast and renovating at home. If time permits, you may find him watching Rugby and F1 at the weekend or enjoying a relaxing video game.

Michelle joins the OQC Operations team, following a career in education, as an Examinations Officer and Work-Related Learning coordinator. During her time in the education sector, Michelle has developed a varied skill set, which she is delighted to bring to the OCQ team. Michelle is process driven and strives to see a project through to completion with enthusiasm and efficiency.

Michelle’s free time is enjoyed with her family and three dogs. Most weekends are spent walking in the local countryside or on the beaches of North Devon. Michelle also enjoys holidays abroad, preferably somewhere warm and sunny where she can relax on a sun-lounger whilst reading a good crime novel.

Barry has joined OQC as the Stock Controller to help manage the many materials required for our Quantum Computers, as well as the driver of our bespoke minibus service for our amazing team.

Barry comes from a 24 year career in the British Army. His experiences, values and standards that he has gained from being part of the Army along with his level 6 diploma in Leadership & Management has proved to be a great asset to the team in helping OQC execute our milestones.

Away from OQC, Barry enjoys keeping fit by going to the gym, visiting family and friends, studying for the Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate and learning about advancements in technology, space and AI.

Before starting at OQC Jacob worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Nanophysics group at Royal Holloway, University of London. During his time there he was involved in research on Coherent Quantum Phase Slips in nanowires. Jacob also performed measurements on various qubit types in order to help develop technologies including an absolute at source power meter and a single photon source.

Jacob received his PhD from RHUL working in the Quantum Devices group where he performed numerical simulations and measurements on arrays of coupled RF SQUIDs.

In his spare time Jacob enjoys playing the piano and going for long walks.

Ben is a quantum information theorist, receiving his PhD in Physics at Queen’s University Belfast. Ben has researched topics from entanglement characteristics in open quantum systems - including hybrid opto-mechanical and spin chain systems - to quantum non-demolition measurement schemes and quantum phase transitions in cold atom settings.

Previously, Ben was also a Data Scientist in the Government Statistical Service. More recently, Ben has worked on quantum algorithms and quantum error correction at Riverlane

Luke joins OQC as a Junior Network Infrastructure Engineer. He has 6 years experience in the IT and Telecoms industry spending the last 4 years at Vodafone.

In his spare time he likes to play cricket and golf. He also helps out at the local scout group making sure to pass on as many skills as possible to the younger generation. You will often find him at the weekend on an adventures to places all over the UK and Europe.

Shannon is a Marketing and Communications assistant here at OQC. Her role involves managing the company's social media accounts, creating engaging content, and helping organise events.

Prior to moving to marketing, she had been developing her communication and promotional skills working in sales within the leisure industry. That involved selling memberships, dealing with customer enquiries, and helping develop new ideas to boost customer acquisition and engagement.

Shannon has completed her Level 3 in the Fundamentals of Digital Marketing with CIM and is continuing to go on to complete a Level 4, Marketing Executive, Apprenticeship.

In her spare time, she enjoys going to the gym, spending time with her dog and rewatching Harry Potter.

On 18 October 2020, our beloved colleague Phil Smith passed away.

This is an unexpected and incommensurate loss. We miss him, his kindness, his wit and his work ethics deeply, and he will be forever remembered.

Phil had joined OQC in July 2018, when it was only three of us. Phil was more than just OQC’s VP Software; he was an incredible team leader, mentor and friend. He was immensely proud of his team and work at OQC, and we will endeavour to make Phil proud in everything we do.

To celebrate his achievements and honour his memory we are supporting Phil’s chosen charities: the Brompton Fountain and Julia’s House, dedicated to the well being of children and their families.
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/philrsmith
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/philrsmith2