Bio

Dr. Himanshu Thapliyal is an Inaugural Walden and Paula Rhines Endowed Quantum Informatics Professor in the Lyle School of Engineering at Southern Methodist University (SMU), Dallas, Texas, USA. He is a full professor in both the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and the Department of Computer Science (CS) at SMU. His team is one of the winners of the NIH’s Quantum Computing Biomedical Research Innovation Lab. He has been ranked in the top 30 among scientists throughout the world in the field of Computer Hardware and Architecture (Stanford/Elsevier published dataset).  He received the 2019 NSF CAREER Award, the 2020 IEEE-CS TCVLSI Mid-Career Research Achievement Award, and the 2022 IEEE Computer Society Distinguished Contributor Award. In Jan 2025, he was selected as the IEEE Computer Society Distinguished Visitor. He has authored over 200 journal/conference articles with over 7700 citations (h-index of 53), 3 US Patents, and received several Best Paper Awards. He is serving as the Section Editor of the Springer Nature Section on Quantum Computing.

Dr. Sonika Johri is the CEO of Coherent Computing, a company that builds software platforms to utilize the growing power of quantum hardware. She has authored 40+ peer-reviewed publications, with recent research focusing on quantum algorithm demonstrations in generative and discriminative machine learning, chemistry, optimization, and condensed matter physics across various quantum hardware platforms. She has also developed frameworks for quantum benchmarking. Prior to founding Coherent Computing, Dr. Johri was a Principal Researcher at IonQ, where she led a team working on quantum applications R&D for clients ranging from startups to Fortune 500 companies. Dr. Johri holds a PhD in theoretical condensed matter physics from Princeton University.

Dr. Mayfield specializes in integrating artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and medical imaging to advance precision diagnostics and therapeutics. He is the founder of iTheta Biotech, a budding quantum-classical tech startup to develop the future of personalized, prognostic healthcare. A winner of the 2024 NIH NCI/ODSS Quantum Computing Biomedical Challenge and first stage winner of the 2025 NIH NCATS Quantum Computing Challenge, he has pioneered quantum-classical hybrid models, including variational quantum circuits for multiple sclerosis disability prediction and quantum dot-enhanced imaging technologies. He is the only physician published in the Quantum Machine Intelligence journal to date. Dr. Mayfield also serves as Deputy Editor of the RSNA Radiology:AI journal (impact factor of 13.2) where he introduced quantum machine learning to Radiology with Mayo Clinic and IBM Quantum via Tweetorial. He brings interdisciplinary expertise to his leadership in MedTech innovation, with multiple patents pending and a robust publication record in quantum machine learning and spatiotemporal machine learning in medical imaging. Interesting fact: Before medical school, Dr. Mayfield was an Advanced Sommelier with the Court of Master Sommeliers.

Dr. Rafael Sotelo (Senior Member, IEEE) received the Ph.D. degree in engineering from the University of Vigo, Spain, the M.B.A. degree from the Universidad de Montevideo, Uruguay, and the Electrical Engineering degree from the Universidad de la Republica, Uruguay. He is the Dean of Engineering with the Universidad de Montevideo, and a Cofounder and the President of Quantum-South. He has been an Administrative Committee Member at the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society, and a Distinguished Lecturer and Board of Governors Member at the IEEE Consumer Technology Society.

Prof. Enrique Solano obtained his Bachelor and Master degrees in Physics at Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, Perú. He got his PhD in Physics at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He was a researcher at Max-Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, Garching, Germany, and Ludwig-Maximilia University, Munich, Germany. In 2000 he was appointed Professor of Physics at Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, Peru. In 2008, after several years of international research experience, he accepted the prestigious position of Ikerbasque Professor at University of the Basque Country, Bilbao, Spain. Since then, he is director of the international center Quantum Computing and Quantum Technologies (QUTIS). In 2018, he accepted the position of Distinguished Professor of Physics at Shanghai University, Shanghai, China, where he is director of the international center Quantum Artificial Intelligence for Science and Technology (QuArtist). During 2019, he was Chief Scientific Officer in Quantum Technologies at the AI company DeepBlue Technology based in Shanghai, China. During 2020, Prof. Solano was CEO of IQM Germany, where his vision on innovative Co-Design Quantum Computers was used. Since 2021, Prof. Solano is founder and Co-CEO of Kipu Quantum, Munich, Germany, for designing and productizing Multiplatform Modular Co-Design Quantum Computers with the mission of Useful Quantum Computers Now. Prof. Solano is an influential world-class leader and visionary in interdisciplinary fields related to quantum computing, quantum simulation, quantum artificial intelligence, and quantum technologies, where his unique perspectives in arts, science, technology, and entrepreneurship flourish.

Aidan is a PhD student at the University of Western Australia where he earned his Bachelor of Philosophy, majoring in physics and computer science. His research focuses on quantum optimisation algorithms, high-performance computing, and applications to real-world problems.

Laura Gatti holds a Ph.D. in Quantum Computing and currently works as a full-time professor and researcher at the University of Montevideo, where she leads the Quantum Computing area. She is also Co-Founder of Quantum-South, a university spin-off specialized in applying quantum algorithms to complex optimization problems in logistics and air cargo. Her academic and professional work focuses on the design and adaptation of quantum algorithms for large-scale combinatorial optimization, contributing to both cutting-edge research and real-world applications in collaboration with international partners.

Dr. Alberto Marchisio received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Electronic Engineering from Politecnico di Torino, Italy, in 2015 and 2018, respectively. He received his Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from TU Wien, Austria, in 2023. Currently, he is a Research Team Lead at the eBRAIN Lab, NYU Abu Dhabi, UAE. His research interests include hardware and software optimizations for Machine Learning and Quantum Machine Learning, EdgeAI, GenAI, and neuromorphic computing. He co-authored 50+ papers in international conferences/journals, and received several excellence awards

Dr. Yuri Alexeev is a senior quantum algorithm engineer at NVIDIA Corporation and a senior member of the IEEE Society. He has expertise in the development of quantum algorithms using the NVIDIA CUDA-Q framework and GPU-optimized quantum circuit simulators. Before joining NVIDIA, he worked in Argonne Leadership Computing Facility to parallelize and optimize scientific codes for exascale supercomputers and integration of high-performance computing with quantum computing. He completed PhD studies at Iowa State University and contributed to over 100 publications.

Prof. Amlan Chakrabarti is a Full Professor and Director at the A.K. Choudhury School of Information Technology, University of Calcutta, and serves as Adjunct Professor at IIIT Delhi. He was a Postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University, USA and was a Doctoral Researcher at the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. With over two decades of research and teaching experience, Prof. Chakrabarti has made pioneering contributions to Quantum Computing, especially in quantum algorithms, quantum circuit synthesis, and hybrid quantum-classical systems. His team has worked extensively on quantum walks, graph algorithms, quantum error mitigation, and quantum-inspired optimization, and won the IBM Quantum Researchers’ Access Award (2021). He has also played a leading role in developing fault-tolerant quantum logic synthesis and quantum compilers for near-term devices. He has guided 24 Ph.D. scholars, published over 200 research papers, and collaborated with global institutions including Princeton University, CERN, and GSI Helmholtz Laboratory. His recognitions include the DST BOYSCAST Fellowship, JSPS Award, Erasmus Mundus Leaders Award, Hamied Visiting Professorship (Cambridge University), and Fellowships of West Bengal Academy of Science Technology & COMSYS. As a Senior Member of IEEE and ACM, Prof. Chakrabarti actively contributes to professional bodies and national initiatives, including serving as a member of the Technical Expert Group on Quantum Algorithms under India’s National Quantum Mission. His work continues to shape both theory and practice in the global quantum computing community.