My path ran through a few different fields — each one I came to because I got curious, stayed a while, and learned to build in it.

Quantum computing — QuEra Computing (present)

At QuEra I work at the intersection of neutral-atom hardware, quantum error correction, and machine learning. I'm most excited about the next generations of our machines, and spend my time actively working to make them real.

Spatial genomics — Zhuang Lab, Harvard

I came into the Zhuang Lab (a pioneer in spatial genomics) as the person who understood the physics and the instruments, and was expected to build the next generation of imaging tools. But I was removed from the biology I was curious about. So, in parallel, I spent time thinking about where the field's methods fell short, and out of that invented MolSeq. Getting there meant learning molecular biology from the bench up — pipetting, PCRs, my own cell cultures and sequencing prep. The work led to a paper and two patent applications. I seriously considered the idea of spinning it into a company, and went through 5050, Engine Blueprint, and Nucleate Activator to test it. In the end the tooling space was crowded — Vizgen, 10x Genomics, and others — and MolSeq didn't offer enough differentiated value to justify it; nor was I drawn to building a therapeutics or diagnostics company around it. So I let the idea go. I count that as one of the more useful things I've learned to do.

Quantum optics and atomic physics — PhD, Harvard (Lukin / Vuletić) 

This is where I started, in quantum optics. I learned to run AMO experiments — keeping lasers, optics, and cold atoms all working at once to get a single result. I worked on making photons interact in ways they normally don't, and on faster ways to read out Rydberg qubits. What I remember most is the people. I was surrounded by strong peers and postdocs, and it was the first time I was really pushed to think creatively and come up with scientific ideas.

Earlier — UC Berkeley

Undergraduate research in physics, including work on squeezed states of light in Josephson parametric amplifiers.