Our Keynote Speakers
Speakers
Dame Wendy Hall
Dame Wendy Hall
Dame Wendy Hall is a British computer scientist and Regius Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton, and an Executive Director of the Web Science Institute.
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Karmela Padavic-Callaghan
Karmela Padavic-Callaghan
Karmela Padavic-Callaghan is a science writer reporting on physics, materials science and quantum technology. Karmela earned a PhD in theoretical condensed matter physics and atomic, molecular and optical physics from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Their research has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including Physical Review Letters and New Journal of Physics. Before joining New Scientist, Karmela was an assistant professor at Bard High School Early College in New York City, where they taught high school and college courses in physics and mathematics. Karmela’s freelance writing has been featured in Wired, Scientific American, Slate, MIT Technology Review, Quanta Magazine and Physics World. Their first book, the physics memoir Entangled States: A Life According to Quantum Physics was published in May 2026 by Beacon Press.
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Anna Tatarzak
Anna Tatarzak
Anna Tatarczak is a Senior Principal Scientist and Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff in the Office of the CTO at Coherent Corp. in Santa Clara, CA.
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Elham Kashefi
Elham Kashefi
Kashefi has pioneered transdisciplinary research on quantum computing technology, from formal foundations to industrial use-case delivery. She co-founded the fields of secure quantum cloud computing and quantum verification. Her research integrates software (simulation, modelling, verification) across diverse hardware platforms, delivering certifiable impact in quantum computing (machine learning, cryptanalysis) and quantum networks (quantum cryptography). As NQCC Chief Scientist, she provides academic leadership to the UK quantum program. A global community leader, she champions the quantum application ecosystem through roles in UK Hubs and conference steering committees (QIP, QCTiP), and numerous advisory positions. She is committed to talent development, EDI, and responsible innovation. Recipient of EPSRC Advanced and Established Career Fellowships, the French Margaret Intrapreneur Award (2021), and elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2024).
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Carmen Palacios-Berraquero
Carmen Palacios-Berraquero
Carmen is the Founder and Chief Executive of Nu Quantum, the leading quantum entanglement company, which recently raised a £8.5M pre-Series A from leading VCs including Amadeus Capital, IQ Capital, and the National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF). She is an award-winning quantum physicist and inventor, author of several high-impact research papers and a book based on her doctoral research. Prior to founding Nu Quantum, Carmen earned her PhD in physics at the University of Cambridge and undergraduate at Imperial College London. She also serves on the Technical Advisory Board of the UK’s National Quantum Computing Centre and is Cofounder and Director of UKQuantum, the UK’s quantum industry group.
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Alexei Bylinskii
Alexei Bylinskii
Alexei Bylinski is an experimental physicist, quantum engineer and product developer at QuEra.
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Andy Grant
Andy Grant
Andy Grant is the Director of Supercomputing and Artificial Intelligence for the Higher Education and Research sector in the EMEA region at NVIDIA. He is responsible for driving the company's business activities in this market. His career in scientific computing spans more than three decades, having held similar positions at SIG/Cray, IBM, and Atos/Eviden. At the latter, he was responsible for leading and coordinating activities within the EuroHPC project, including the Vega supercomputer in Slovenia, pre-exascale systems in Spain and Italy, and the exascale system in Germany.
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Ben Bloom
Ben Bloom
Ben Bloom is Founder & CTO of Atom Computing, a company building highly scalable, gate-based quantum computers with atomic arrays of optically-trapped neutral atoms, empowering researchers and companies to achieve unprecedented breakthroughs.
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Accelerating the timeline to quantum utility for good.
