[DECODE Quantum] Meeting with Wilhelm Kaenders - Toptica
Welcome to the 83rd episode of Decode Quantum, the quantum podcast where we like to get in depth in quantum science and technology, this time with Wilhelm Kaenders, the president and CTO of Toptica. Wilhelm Kaenders is the co-founder of Toptica, because he had one other co-founder. He is now its president and CTO. The company is a worldwide leader in lasers used in mostly the academic world, but also in some parts of the industry. Wilhelm did his PhD in quantum physics at the Institute of Quantum Optics in Hanover, in the group of Dieter Meschede. He was behind the technology of the group of Theodor Hänsch at the Max Planck Institute, who became the laureate of the Nobel Prize in physics exactly 20 years ago, 2005. He pioneered the business of tunable diode laser technology and contributed to the development of the technology of the optical frequency comb. He created Toptica in 1998, which is probably one of the oldest companies in the enabling tech for quantum technology. https://www.oezratty.net/wordpress/2025/decode-quantum-with-wilhelm-kaenders-from-toptica
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1:02:38
[DECODE Quantum] Meeting with Chris Ballance - Oxford Ionics
Welcome to the 82th episode of Decode Quantum, this time, with Chris Ballance, the cofounder and CEO of Oxford Ionics. Chris Ballance is the cofounder and CEO of Oxford Ionics since its inception in 2019. His cofounder is Tom Harty who is the company’s CTO. Before that, he was a senior researcher at Oxford University, where he did his PhD between 2010 and 2015. Transcript : https://www.oezratty.net/wordpress/2025/decode-quantum-with-chris-ballance-from-oxford-ionics
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1:03:55
[DECODE Quantum] Meeting with Mathieu Munsch - Qnami
Welcome to this 81st episode of Decode Quantum, or interviews around the world about quantum. Fanny Bouton andOlivier Ezratty were with Mathieu Munsch from QNAMI, the CEO. Mathieu Munsch is the CEO and co-founder of QNAMI, a Swiss startup located in Basel, specializing in NV-center quantum sensors. Born in France, he was first trained in optics semiconductors and spintronics before turning to research in quantum physics. After obtaining his PhD at the Institut Néel in Grenoble, he continued his postdoctoral work on the manipulation and detection of quantum dot single spins, particularly quantum dot single spins. At the University of Basel, he launched Qnami in 2017 to commercialize sensors that perform very high-resolution magnetic imaging.Full transcript: https://www.oezratty.net/wordpress/2025/decode-quantum-with-mathieu-munsch-from-qnami/
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55:39
[DECODE Quantum] Meeting with Chris Langer - Quantinuum
Welcome to the 80th episode of the Decode Quantum podcast series. We are this time with Chris Langer from Quantinuum. This is one of the leading companies using trapped ions for the creation of quantum computers. Our guest Chris Langer is a Fellow at Quantinuum. He is their chair of the Technical Board and an advisor to the President and COO. Chris has a PhD in physics obtained in 2006 at the University of Colorado on trapped ions quantum computing under the supervision of David Wineland, Nobel laureate in physics in 2012, who was a guest of this very podcast in July 2024. Chris is a key contributor to the development of Quantinuum’s hardware. Before joining Quantinuum (which was then initially Honeywell Quantum Systems) in 2016, Chris worked for 10 years at Lockheed Martin on various projects in the aerospace domain. Full transcript: https://www.oezratty.net/wordpress/2025/decode-quantum-with-chris-langer-from-quantinuum/
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[DECODE Quantum] Meeting with Nick Farina & Johannes Pollanen - EeroQ
Welcome to the 79th episode of “Decode Quantum”. We continue our “international episodes”, this times with the cofounders of the US startup EeroQ, Nick Farina and Johannes Pollanen, which aims to create qubits with electron spins, electrons being shielded from controlling electronic circuits by a layer of superfluid helium. This is the only company doing this. Nick Farina is the CEO and co-founder of EeroQ in 2017. Beforehand, he worked as an business angel investor, and an entrepreneur, launching multiple tech startups (GiftedHire for online job search, Voltage Digital a digital agency, JetZet providing itinerary management tools to business travelers). He’s the one bringing business acumen to the company. He is also a Quantum Computing Governance Member at the World Economic Forum since 2021. In 2000-2003, he was a caddie at a golf club (Biltmore Country Club) where he spent summers watching people cheat at golf and lament their losses in tech stocks. Johannes Pollanen is a co-founder and the Chief Science Officer of EeroQ. He is a researcher from Michigan State University (MSU) where he holds the Cowen chair of Distinguished Chair in Experimental Physics. He is also Associate Director of the MSU Center for Quantum Computing Science and Engineering. He runs the Laboratory for Hybrid Quantum Systems, which is focused on hybrid quantum technologies involving superconducting qubits, superfluids, trapped electrons, and other condensed matter systems. He developed the EeroQ electrons on superfluid helium architecture. He did his PhD at Northwestern University with Bill Halperin and contributed to the discovery of new quantum phases in superfluid helium-3, which influenced his later work in designing quantum computing platforms. He then was a post-doc at Caltech, with Jim Eisenstein, working on exotic many-body states in ultra-clean semiconductor systems.And as usual the transcript : https://www.oezratty.net/wordpress/2025/decode-quantum-with-nick-farina-and-johannes-pollanen-from-eeroq
DECODE QUANTUM is a show hosted by Fanny Bouton, Olivier Ezratty. We are hearing from key players in quantum technology in order to better understand the issues and impacts on society.
DECODE QUANTUM est une émission animée par Fanny Bouton, Olivier Ezratty. Nous recevons les acteurs clés du quantique afin de mieux en comprendre les enjeux et impacts sur la société.