2021 BIST Conference

Mar Galtés

Journalist & Writer, Corporate Development Officer (Tech Barcelona)

Director of Business Development at TechBarcelona, a private non-profit association that works to reinforce Barcelona as a model of the international digital and technological ecosystem. She worked for more than 20 years as a journalist specialising in economics, with a focus on technology, internet, marketing and new consumer trends. She has a special interest in the stories behind companies, innovation and entrepreneurs. She published the book Aventuras de Emprendedores (Adventures of Entrepreneurs), 57 stories of creativity and courage in business (Libros de Cabecera, 2011). She is also co-author of El Timo de la Superwoman (Planeta, 2010), a mix of humorous novel and journalistic testimony about the difficulties women face in the business world.

Speakers:

Rami Barends

Head of the Peter Grünberg Institute for Functional Quantum Systems

After working several years at Google LLC (USA), on July 2021 professor Rami Barends moved to the Peter Grünberg Institute, at the Jülich Research Centre (Germany) to lead the programme for Functional Quantum Systems. At Google, Rami Barends was involved in developing the hardware for the first quantum computer that is demonstrably superior to a classical supercomputer. Now, he is continuing his work in the laboratories of Forschungszentrum Jülich. The 40-year-old physicist already has plenty of practical experience with quantum systems, most recently as a researcher and project manager in Google’s Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab at the renowned University of California in Santa Barbara. His switch to Jülich also brings the Dutchman closer to his home town of Delft where he completed his doctoral degree after graduating. At Jülich, he now heads the construction of a low-temperature laboratory where among others the quantum computers of the European Quantum Flagship project will be operated. Over the next few years, the physicist, together with his Jülich colleagues and external partners, wants to work on turning applications for quantum computers into a reality as soon as possible and on advancing the development of an experimental quantum processor made in Germany.

Thomas Strohm

Senior Research Scientist (Bosch)

Since 1999, Strohm has been a senior research scientist at Bosch Research in Renningen, where he coordinates quantum technologies. His focus areas are quantum computing and quantum random number generators and he is interested in the foundations of quantum physics and in modelling quantum systems. Quantum technologies is a research activity which is still in an early phase and cooperation with the academic community and public funding initiatives is important. For this reason, he is very active in the European Quantum Flagship, as a member of its coordination office and as a representative of the German industry in its European Quantum Community Network.

Marta Pascual Estarellas

Senior Quantum Engineer (Qilimanjaro Quantum Tech)

Marta is a senior quantum engineer in the theory team at Qilimanjaro in Barcelona. Before that she had an academic position at the Global Research Center for Quantum Information Science at the National Institute of Informatics in Tokyo. She completed her PhD in Physics at the York Centre for Quantum Technologies (University of York, UK). Her previous background spans different fields, with a BSc in Chemistry, an MSc in Physical Chemistry, an inter-university European Master’s in Theoretical Quantum Chemistry and Computational Modelling, and she is currently finishing an Engineer’s Degree in Computer Engineering with a focus on computer architecture and networks.

She is currently interested and working in the design of superconducting-based quantum computer architectures, adiabatic quantum computing algorithms, applications of NISQ analog-based quantum simulations and the compilation and optimization of quantum circuits.

Sebastian Etcheverry

Chief Technology Officer (LuxQuanta)

He currently works as CTO at LuxQuanta Technologies. He has extensive experience in opto-electronics, fiber optic components, quantum key distribution, and quantum cryptography. He completed a PhD in Applied Physics in 2017 at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden, where he worked on optical fibre technology for sensing and light modulation. After his PhD, Etcheverry obtained an international postdoc grant from the Swedish Research Council to work at the Institute of Photonic Science (ICFO). For more than four years, Etcheverry’s work at ICFO focused on developing systems for quantum cryptography based on continuous-variables. Such developments contributed to the creation of the spin-off company LuxQuanta Technologies, launched in May 2021.

Carlos Abellán

Cofounder & CEO (Quside)

Abellan is co-founder and CEO of the startup Quside, a technology spin-off that designs and produces quantum components for any connected device. He is also co-founder and NED of Finboot, a startup that develops blockchain technology for companies. He holds a PhD in Photonics from the Institute of Photonic Sciences in Catalonia (ICFO), where he based his research in the field of quantum technologies applied to cybersecurity and supercomputing. He has published several scientific articles in international journals and conferences, as well as being the inventor of several patents. His research has led to the creation of the new spin-off Quside, which is bringing quantum technologies to the market. His research and entrepreneurship has earned him several awards, including the MIT Europe Innovators Under 35 and the CERCA Premi Pioner.