As quantum technologies receive increasing attention (read: investment!), many people are excited at the prospect of working at a company exploring this dynamic and evolving technology. But they might be put off by the fact that these solutions are based on quantum mechanics.

The truth is that you do not need a PhD in condensed matter physics to work in quantum. Keep in mind that all the major players are companies looking to generate attributable revenue. As a result, they need talent across a range of disciplines - just like any other successful business.

Wide range of opportunities

While there will of course be scientists driving technological aspects of the portfolio, there is also a need for executives who know how to run a company and manage a P&L. Many CEOs at leading quantum companies today have worked in senior executive roles at tech companies, some were management consultants, others were involved in investment banking or worked for VC firms.

Business development is key to the success of all these companies. Someone must take the products or services to a client, be able to explain the business value and get them to open their checkbook.

Don’t forget human computer interface. People who understand UX design are strategically important. How do you turn it on? How big are the buttons? What colors are they? What broadly understood nomenclature should be used to identify them?

Just as critical are talented people to build and support all kinds of necessary supportive technologies: optical tables, lasers, dilution refrigerators, wiring harnesses. These are the “picks and shovels” of the quantum economy, but they are critical to its success.

Marketing, PR and communications are required in every successful business. Quantum is no different. Talented writers are needed not only to tell the story of the company and the team, but to be able to clarify the business value in order to attract clients, investors and employees.

As quantum continues to impact a broad spectrum of organizations on a global scale, policy and regulatory conversations are becoming increasingly critical. People with experience in how technologies are governed, especially when addressing questions about ITAR and dual-use aspects of quantum technologies.

And last but not least - management consulting roles. All the major consulting firms - McKinsey, Accenture, Deloitte, KPMG - all have teams working with Enterprise clients to develop long-term strategic plans, helping them understand how quantum technologies will impact their business models in the next 5-10 years.

Myriad sources for knowledge acquisition

What if you are curious and want to learn more about the emerging quantum economy? The good news is that myriad sources exist for acquiring quantum-related knowledge. Many universities, as well as online providers, are offering quantum curricula, degrees, and training to help prepare and orient the evolving quantum workforce.

Prestigious academic institutions like MIT and the University of Oxford offer online courses geared towards executives, explaining the meta-concepts behind quantum technologies and how they are driving new business models and disrupting existing ones. These range from a two-day online hands-on program to more extended offerings, all designed to make executives “quantum fluent.”

The Complete Quantum Computing Course for Beginners on Coursera provides an entry-level solution. It provides a terrific initial orientation perfect for journalists, PR talent, and even people interested in policy and regulatory issues.

The quantum training and recruiting firm QURECA offers tailored online training in quantum technologies, including “Quantum for Everyone 2.0”. This course introduces quantum computing principles without requiring a mathematical or physics background.

Other entry-level courses include Q-CTRL’s Black Opal and IBM’s Basics of quantum information.

If you are looking for more intermediate to advanced courseware, you might check out these courses:

• Quantum Machine Learning (University of Toronto)

• Quantum Mechanics & Computation (Class Central)

• D-Wave - Quantum Programming Core 

• Amazon Braket - Quantum Application Development.

Keep in mind this is just a partial list. Do a Google Search or use your favorite GenAI tool to find other options. There are many out there and more being offered every day!

Bottom line: if you are interested in contributing to the quantum economy, look for job opportunities at quantum companies where your unique skills and experience are needed.

Quantum is here. Join in!

IMAGE SOURCE: Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg

A recent Bloomberg article described how major metropolitan hubs like New York and Los Angeles are laying the groundwork for a revolutionary shift toward urban air mobility.

The piece describes how city planners are designing the necessary infrastructure and regulatory frameworks to accommodate electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles.

Integrating vertiports into the existing cityscape has broad career implications as we transition from traditional ground transport to a sophisticated three-dimensional transit network.

Based on the shift toward electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) technology, here are a few of the new career paths emerging:

• Vertiport Architects: Designers specialized in integrating landing hubs and high-capacity charging infrastructure into dense urban environments.

• Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Planners: City officials who map out “aerial highways” and manage low-altitude flight corridors.

• Intermodal Logistics Managers: Specialists who ensure smooth transitions for passengers moving between air taxis and ground transit, such as subways or buses.

• High-Voltage Powertrain Technicians: Specialized mechanics for solid-state or high-density lithium-ion battery systems and electric motors.

• Vertiport Systems Command: Personnel managing ground-side infrastructure and real-time turnaround logistics.

• Autonomous Fleet Data Analysts: Engineers focused on predictive maintenance, edge computing for flight paths, and battery health telemetry.

• Remote Flight Safety Monitors: Licensed operators overseeing semi-autonomous operations in compliance with FAA standards.

• Zoning and Regulatory Policy Experts: Navigating the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) in NYC and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in LA for novel flight corridors.

The transition to Urban Air Mobility is a fundamental restructuring of urban infrastructure and labor. Public-private CAPEX sharing will be needed to modernize electrical grids and repurpose urban real estate; NYC and LA are pioneering a new asset class. The transition moves beyond novelty, serving as a critical tool for metropolitan resilience and economic throughput in the 21st century.

The next set of jobs that don’t exist yet is coming!

IMAGE SOURCE: Yale University

Yale’s Artificial Leaf Converts CO2 Directly Into Methanol Fuel

Yale University researchers have engineered a standalone solar-powered device that converts CO2 and water into liquid methanol fuel using only sunlight. The system, built on cobalt phthalocyanine-carbon nanotube catalysts and silicon micropillar photoelectrodes, outperforms prior artificial leaf designs in methanol conversion efficiency.

Artificial “leaf” devices that turn sunlight, water, and CO₂ directly into methanol fuel could create whole new job families at the intersection of energy, chemistry, data, and climate strategy.

And as with any transformative technology, there will be a need for translators. Artificial‑photosynthesis transition advisors will guide airlines, shipping firms, and heavy industry through the switch from fossil fuels to methanol made from captured CO₂.

Education systems will respond with new programs, creating solar‑fuel curriculum designers who craft courses that blend chemistry, climate science, and energy economics for the next generation of technicians and engineers.

As these systems scale, new roles are likely to include:

• Designing and operating large “artificial‑leaf farms”

• Optimizing solar‑to‑fuel processes

• Planning green‑methanol logistics networks for industry and transport

• New regulatory and financial careers focused on verifying carbon circularity and integrating synthetic fuels into climate accounting and policy

• Specialists in catalyst discovery, AI‑driven reaction optimization, and hybrid solar‑chemical operations to keep vast fleets of devices efficient and safe

Breakthroughs like the artificial leaf don’t just decarbonize existing jobs; they create entirely new categories of work. For students and mid‑career professionals alike, this is a signal: the future of work will include building, operating, regulating, and explaining technologies that, like plants, turn sunlight and air into the fuels that power our lives.

Together, these roles show how artificial photosynthesis could open entirely new career paths.

IMAGE SOURCE: Post Quantum

Welcome to Quantum Cryptography 101

Pop quiz #1: Who created RSA encryption, and why is it called that?

ANSWER: RSA encryption was developed by Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Leonard Adleman in 1977 at MIT. The algorithm’s name—RSA—comes from the initials of their surnames.

Pop quiz #2: Who created Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC)?

ANSWER: Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) was co-invented independently in 1985 by Neal Koblitz, a mathematician at the University of Washington, and Victor Miller, a researcher at IBM.

Pop quiz #3: Who came up with an algorithm that could shatter both these approaches?

ANSWER: Peter Shor at MIT in 1994. He published an algorithm that, in theory, could shatter the encryption protecting every bank transaction, every government military secret, every pharma drug formula, every private message on the Internet.

Back then, the world barely noticed. How could you possibly create a quantum computer? Yawn…

Fast forward.

The Biden administration issued a directive in July 2024 requiring all U.S. government agencies to develop a strategy for moving to post-quantum cryptography, or PQC.

Quantum expert Michele Mosca (founder of evolutionQ and co-author of the Global Risk Institute’s Quantum Threat Timeline Report) estimates there is a 1-in-3 chance that Q-Day—the point at which a quantum computer can break classical public-key cryptography—will arrive before 2035.

Google recently set an internal deadline of 2029 to completely migrate to post-quantum cryptography (PQC) and protect all its systems from Cryptographically Relevant Quantum Computers (CRQCs).

Ready to stop wondering how safe your mission-critical data really is?

Join us in Boston at Quantum.Tech World June 25 and 26 to hear how thought leaders are planning to mitigate the “harvest now, decrypt later” threat.

I’m moderating a Quantum Security track where leading experts in the field will discuss this looming crisis. You can sign up for a free Visitor Pass here. I would be delighted to have you attend as my guest.

World-class practitioners from a range of verticals will be sharing their insights, strategies, challenges, and real-world solutions, including:

· Peter Shor, Professor of Applied Mathematics, MIT (yes, that Peter Shor)

· Rich Baich, SVP and CISO, AT&T

· Michael Elmore, SVP and Global CISO, GlaxoSmithKline

· Peter Bordow, SVP & Distinguished Engineer, PQC/Quantum Systems Leader, Wells Fargo

· Dr. Adrian Stanger, Senior Cryptographic Authority, NSA

· Dr. Lily Chen, Manager, Cryptographic Technology Group, NIST

· Manfred Rieck, Chief Expert Quantum Tech, Deutsche Bahn (DB Systel)

My track will also include talks and panels with leaders from EY, Walmart, Port of Rotterdam, KPMG, Thales, Citi, JP Morgan and PwC.

The time is now to focus on protecting your data from the moment when cryptographically relevant quantum computers can crack current RSA and ECC encryption protocols.

I look forward to seeing you in Boston. Get ready for many more Pop Quiz answers!

#PostQuantumCryptography #QuantumSecurity #PQC #CISO #CyberSecurity #QuantumTech #QDay

Too many people think that you need to have a PhD in condensed matter physics to work in quantum!

Given that quantum companies are businesses looking to generate attributable revenue, talent across a range of disciplines is needed to make the business successful.

The good news is that more and more places to acquire quantum-related skills. Many universities, as well as online providers, are offering quantum curricula, degrees, and training to help prepare and orient the evolving quantum workforce.

Prestigious academic institutions like MIT and the University of Oxford are offering online courses geared towards executives to explain the meta-concepts behind quantum technologies and how they are driving new business models and disrupting existing ones. These range from a two-day online hands-on program to more extended offerings, all designed to make executives “quantum-fluent.”

But what about catering to the needs of talent in non-science disciplines?

The Complete Quantum Computing Course for Beginners on Coursera provides this kind of solution. Terrific initial orientation perfect for journalists, PR talent, and even people interested in policy and regulatory issues – all of which are needed to drive a successful quantum business model.

QURECA offers tailored online training in quantum technologies, including “Quantum for Everyone 2.0”. This course introduces quantum computing principles without requiring a mathematical or physics background.

Other entry-level courses include Q-CTRL’s Black Opal and IBM’s Basics of quantum information.

Intermediate to advanced courseware includes Quantum Machine Learning (University of Toronto), and Quantum Mechanics & Computation (edX). For aspiring programmers, D-Wave offers Quantum Programming Core and there is Amazon Braket Quantum Application Development.

The takeaway? There are lots of opportunities for talented people interested in playing a role in building the quantum economy. I encourage you to explore and get involved.

Quantum is here. Join us!

To learn more about quantum training and workforce trending, join me in Boston June 25 and 26 at Quantum.Tech World - you can sign up here.

#QuantumTech #QuantumComputing #QuantumClocksAnd Sensors #QuantumNetworks #QuantumWorkforce #QuantumInformationScience

I arrived Stateside late Friday night after a remarkable week in London working as an MC and panel moderator at The Economist Impact’s AI for CFOs and AI and Business Innovation Summit - back-to-back brain food for two action-packed days.

These weren’t theoretical reflections. These were shared examples of AI in action.

Conversations focused on how AI is being deployed in a business context - from automating historically mundane run-of-the-mill tasks to using a few lines of text to create interactive, incredibly life-like avatars that can see you and speak to you.

There was too much incredible content to cover in a single post, but here are highlights to get you thinking:

🚀 From Busywork to Breakthroughs

One of the clearest signals? AI is rapidly eliminating the grind.

Patric Somlo, SVP Corporate Finance at Lonza outlined how AI is redefining transactional finance. Lonza is one of the world’s largest contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs), dedicated to serving the healthcare industry.

Patric shared guidance on how they are using AI to automate and improve the performance of comparatively mundane tasks, including:

• Report to Report – AI does checks, anomalies, and posting proposals

• Source to Pay – AI delivers matching, alerts, and classification

• Order to Cash – AI provides billing support, payment matching, and dispute triage

But the shift isn’t just efficiency—it’s also roles. Patric sees finance teams evolving from a group of individual people with specialized skills to an “Agent Orchestrator” managing fleets of agents with roles such as Master Data Agent, Control Agent, and Balance Sheet Reconciliation A shared the importance of managing credentials and access for agents. My random thought was, at some point, will one of them ask to sign up for the Employee Stock Purchase Plan?

Jens Wilhelm Meyer, VP Finance and Controlling at Bosch, is accelerating invoice processing with PISA (Payable Invoice Scan App), turning a traditionally slow process into a streamlined, AI-powered workflow.

🎯 Marketing at the Speed of Culture

In media and retail, AI is collapsing content creation timelines—and driving sales by exploiting cultural moments.

Matthias Haase, VP Content Solutions at Zalando, a leading retailer of clothing, accessories and shoes, described their focus on closing the “Relevance Gap” in order to win business from GenZ, the 18-24 market. They’ve slashed content creation from 4 weeks to 4 days—listening to cultural signals in real time and instantly creating content that reflects the moment.

And then there’s the next frontier: interactive AI humans.

Platforms like Tavus are enabling avatars that can see you, respond to you, and engage like a real person. I tested one—it commented on my sweater and even noticed the calendar hanging on the wall next to my desk. Slightly eerie. But completely real.

Possible use cases might include:

• Customer support

• Coaching and tutoring

• Personal assistants

• Healthcare (think virtual nurses)

• Legal prep

Tools like Synthesia move video production out of the studio and into your office. A prompt like “Create a short, friendly onboarding welcome video for a new team member” delivers a studio-quality video in minutes.

🌍 Governance: The Race to Set the Rules

As with any bleeding-edge technology, regulatory issues are chasing the front-runners.

Oliver Patel Head of Enterprise AI Governance at AstraZeneca highlighted how global AI policies are rapidly taking shape. While the EU AI Act positions Europe well to monitor and manage the social, cultural, and business aspects of AI, it pales in comparison to what China has done. They have created four distinct regulatory frameworks covering everything from algorithms to synthetic content labeling.

Other countries that have published sovereign AI regulations include Italy, El Salvador, Peru, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea.

Bottom line: AI innovation is happening globally—but so is regulation. And it’s evolving just as fast.

🌐 AI Steps Into the Physical World

Perhaps the most brain-bending session came from Victor Adrian Prisacariu, Professor of AI at Oxford and Chief Scientist at Niantic, in his talk titled “Will navigating the real world power the next wave of AI?” - basically, AI in a physical instantiation.

Imagine this:

• AI that looks at your surroundings and tells you whether your stroller fits through a gate—before you get there

• Robots navigating hazardous environments (like nuclear reactors) autonomously

This is AI moving beyond screens—into space, context, and real-world decision-making.

⚠️ The Challenges Are Real

Hurdles are everywhere:

• Accuracy and trust (yes, hallucinations are still a thing)

• Risk management across organizations and supply chains

• Employees showing up with multiple AI tools and subscriptions

Kevin Novak, General Partner & Founder at Rackhouse Venture Capital, even asked the room: “Is anyone building hallucination insurance?” Half joke. Half business opportunity.

💡 Final Takeaways

A few ideas that stuck with me:

• Strategy still comes first—AI is an enabler, not the answer

• Humans remain the decision-makers: “Okay, we’re going to go with this approach.”

• AI doesn’t care what business you are in-it is vertical, discipline, and geography agnostic.

• AI solutions often emerge from engineering applications and make their way up the value chain.

• SaaS is being reinvented—pricing is shifting from licenses to consumption (tokens, APIs, compute)

⚡ The Big Picture

AI isn’t one thing—it’s a fast-moving constellation of capabilities, use cases, and opportunities.

The leaders aren’t just experimenting—they’re operationalizing AI across the business, from finance to marketing to customer experience.

I encourage you to review the agenda for these two days and connect with the thought leaders driving real-world AI applications from a C-suite perspective.

Lots going on. Lots to learn. Exciting times!

P.S. - Shout out to Caitlin Mehta and Helen Ponsford for producing another amazing event!

Image source: Shutterstock

When Max Planck and Niels Bohr were developing quantum mechanics in Berlin and Copenhagen over a hundred years ago, they probably never imagined their findings would radically reshape how new medicines are discovered and developed.

But their work provided a mathematical understanding of chemical bonds, reaction pathways, and the behavior of electrons in molecules, all of which are key aspects of pharmaceutical science.

Fast forward to 2026, and leading global pharma companies are exploring ways to apply quantum principles in real-world business settings. Labs around the world are developing quantum approaches to transform traditional processes around drug development and drug discovery.

Tom Mihaljevic, M.D., the Cleveland Clinic’s CEO, described the impact this way. “This technology holds tremendous promise in revolutionizing healthcare and expediting progress toward new cares, cures and solutions for patients. Quantum and other advanced computing technologies will help researchers tackle historic scientific bottlenecks and potentially find new treatments for patients with diseases like cancer, Alzheimer’s and diabetes.”

Today, pharmaceutical companies face a long, complex, and highly regulated process to develop drugs and establish safety and efficacy. It’s a process that can take, on average, more than 10 years and cost billions of dollars.

But quantum computers have the potential to change all that. Even with today’s noisy, intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices, pharma companies and their partners are developing quantum-enhanced approaches. As hardware scales and error correction improves, R&D timelines will shorten, costs will decrease, and the likelihood of identifying safe, effective medicines will increase. Plus, it will enable researchers to tackle problems that are essentially intractable today.

Classical + quantum

The actual implementation will be a hybrid model. Typical workflows will leverage established HPC infrastructure for bulk data management and processing and quantum processors (QPUs) for high-accuracy, quantum-mechanical molecular simulations. This hybrid approach, often orchestrated through platforms such as NVIDIA’s CUDA-Q, enables quantum algorithms to solve complex, niche problems while significantly speeding up early-stage research.

Current studies have shown that these hybrid compute environments can match or modestly outperform purely classical baselines on specific benchmarks. Performance will certainly increase as quantum hardware improves.

Many real-world collaborations are already demonstrating the power of hybrid quantum-classical computing environments in pharma applications.

Here are a few examples in no particular order:

1. Biogen–Accenture–1QBit: Biogen worked with Accenture Labs and 1QBit to build a quantum‑enabled molecular comparison tool for early‑stage drug design, focused on complex neurological diseases.

2. IonQ–AstraZeneca–AWS–NVIDIA: Quantum‑accelerated catalytic route design - using IonQ’s Forte QPU, NVIDIA’s CUDA‑Q, and AWS (Braket + ParallelCluster) AstraZeneca achieved a 20× speedup in time‑to‑solution versus prior approaches, while maintaining high accuracy for key chemical pathways and activation energies.

3. Roche and Quantinuum entered into a multi‑year collaboration to apply next‑generation quantum algorithms for early‑stage drug discovery, including Alzheimer’s‑related targets.

4. Boehringer Ingelheim partnered with Google to apply quantum algorithms to simulate and analyze disease mechanism-related molecules

5. Pfizer is using quantum‑physics‑based AI (via XtalPi) to develop an enhanced platform to better understand their rapidly expanding small-molecule chemical space. The goal is to develop accurate predictive tools with significantly improved throughput.

6. IBM Quantum is collaborating with biotech firms such as Moderna and Algorithmiq to explore quantum-assisted molecular simulations, protein/RNA folding, and other complex tasks that strain classical computers

7. Merck Group is working with Amgen, Deloitte, and QuEra Computing to explore a novel approach—quantum reservoir computing (QRC)—to better handle small-data scenarios for molecular property prediction. This has broader applications, such as improving biomarker detection.

8. Cleveland Clinic uses IBM’s hybrid quantum–classical methods to run more accurate molecular energy calculations for drug‑relevant molecules.

9. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is using D‑Wave’s quantum‑hybrid solvers for sequence design, fragment linking, and other life‑science optimization tasks.

10. Algorithmiq has developed quantum algorithms specifically for life sciences and drug discovery, collaborating with IBM and other partners to apply quantum simulation to complex molecular problems.

Many quantum companies recognize the tremendous potential impact of this technology and are going to market with pharma-specific offerings, including:

• Quantinuum’s InQuanto is a proprietary state-of-the-art Python platform that leverages a range of quantum hardware to accelerate quantum computational chemistry research.

• QCWare’s Promethium provides an advanced molecular simulation platform that enables easier identification of target molecules, accelerating drug development and reducing costs.

• POLARISqb has been utilizing D-Wave’s quantum computer and AI to find optimized molecules, enabling the screening of large chemical libraries (10^30 possibilities) in days, hundreds of times faster than traditional methods.

• Qubit Pharmaceuticals and Aqemia represent a wave of quantum‑native or quantum‑enhanced drug discovery startups building platforms based on quantum chemistry and AI.

What disease will be relegated to history via quantum?

Applying quantum to pharma is still in the early stages. But what started as an abstract attempt to explain puzzling lab experiments a century ago has grown into a practical toolkit. Quantum is poised to significantly accelerate how the pharmaceutical industry designs and tests the next generation of medicines, to make us healthier and safer in the future!

Thanks to Niels and Max.

Please join me at Quantum.Tech World in Boston June 25 and 26, 2026. Several amazing thought leaders in the quantum pharma will be sharing updates, including

• Lara Jehi, MD, MHCDS Chief Research Information Officer, Cleveland Clinic

• Brian Martin Chief AI Product Owner, Senior Research Fellow, AbbVie,

• Marti Head, Associate Vice President, Center for Research Acceleration by Digital Innovation, Amgen,

• Zoran Krunic Senior Manager, Data Science, Research & Development Amgen

• Christine Bakan, Group VP, Roche

You can check out the complete agenda here and sign up here.

NOTE: For deeper insight into who is leading the charge in quantum and pharma, The Quantum Insider and HorizonX Consulting’s Quantum Innovation Index – Life Sciences ranks and rates over 30 life sciences organizations based on workforce capabilities, R&D investment, and strategic partnerships.

Hard to believe that we are coming to the end of the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology. What an amazing twelve months!

The Quantum.Tech team has been working with experts and thought leaders to analyze and reflect on breakthroughs and ongoing challenges in the development and deployment of quantum solutions at scale.

To close out 2025, I want to share a few articles of interest to the quantum community.

• Hype vs. Pragmatism: The focus is moving from hype to evidence: measurable outcomes, pilots, and production-ready systems. Check out this perspective from Laurence Coldicott, Senior Content Director, Quantum.Tech World

• Is there a single quantum breakthrough that would create the most significant real-world impact if it arrived tomorrow? The excitement around applications like next-generation drug discovery, new materials development, deeper insight into biology, and the simplification of complex logistical and optimization problems is palpable. Read the views of several experts on possible impacts.

• Developing a quantum-ready workforce is critical to the successful application of quantum technologies. The need for multidisciplinary technology talent spanning computer science, chip fabrication, and systems engineering is not slowing down. At the same time, talented people are needed in other business-related disciplines: sales, UX design, policy and regulatory experience, PR/Comms/marketing. Here is terrific insight on how to address this challenge.

• I wrote a piece titled Crossing the Value Rubicon – Quantum Sensors Have Arrived — describing a range of real-world applications where quantum is delivering commercial results today in navigation, imaging, industrial inspection, and healthcare.

I want to give you a heads-up about the first State of the Industry Survey.

Quantum.Tech World 2026 is partnering with The Quantum Insider to capture a unique, point-in-time view of the quantum technology landscape. Don’t miss an opportunity to share your perspective on the quantum ecosystem as it stands today. Plus, by participating, you will get early access to exclusive survey findings.

Click here to share your insights.

I am looking forward to more exciting quantum adventures in 2026! Hope to see you in June at Quantum.Tech World in Boston!

#DeepTech #Innovation #QuantumSensing #EmergingTech #FutureOfTech #Quantumcomputing #QuantumTech #QuantumInnovation #HPC #AI #QuantumRevolution #IYQ2025 #Cryptography

Will Lee [https://www.willlee.com/] was the bass player on #DavidLetterman's late-night TV show for over 30 years. He continues to perform all over the world, and, luckily for me, he often plays at a tiny, albeit legendary, club in #GreenwichVillage called #TheBitterEnd.

Living in the woodburbs of Connecticut, I can easily drive down to Stamford, jump on Metro-North, and roll into Grand Central in about an hour. Wrestle my way through the crowds to get to the #6 heading downtown, step out of the subway onto the platform at Bleecker Street, and stroll three blocks west to the gig.

On Tuesday, the band was Oz Noy [https://www.oznoy.com/] and Joe Bonamassa [https://jbonamassa.com/], two extraordinary guitar players. Stephen Ferrone on drums. He played in #TomPetty’s band for many years and was also in the Average White Band.

Needless to say, the music was fantastic!

Will is the Einstein of the electric bass - simply an amazing player. Groove. Sound. Chops. Creativity. Versatility. Every time I hear him, he does five things I have never heard him do before. Every. Time. I always learn something new from him.

We have been friends for over fifty years. We first met in Dayton, Ohio, in the 70s when he was on the road with #HoraceSilver, and I was playing with McKendree Spring.

The takeaway is that it is essential to identify leaders and stay connected to them, regardless of discipline. Music, technology, philosophy, et al. It is exhilarating, intimidating, depressing, stimulating, and humiliating - all at the same time. But always a pleasure to be inspired by people who are masters.

While tremendous progress is being made in quantum computing and quantum networking, quantum sensors are delivering value now. As the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology winds down, we definitely have a win.

Years of research and experimentation have moved quantum sensing out of the lab and into real-world commercial applications, making it arguably the first quantum technology to demonstrate a clear, measurable advantage over classical systems. Applicability is being shown across biomedical, geophysical, industrial, and defense domains. Companies like Q-CTRL, SBQuantum, QuantumDiamonds, and SandboxAQ are transforming experimental prototypes into rugged, scalable products.

Here are sectors where quantum sensing gained traction in 2025.

Navigation & Defense

Heightened concerns over GPS jamming and spoofing have accelerated the focus on quantum-based navigation and detection.

• Q-CTRL has delivered AI-powered quantum magnetometers offering 50× better navigation accuracy than leading classical inertial systems. Their “Ironstone Opal“ solution measures subtle variations in the Earth’s magnetic field, enabling navigation in environments where GPS is unreliable, jammed, or unavailable. Q-CTRL’s system has been flight-tested and validated on various aircraft, and DARPA is now funding the development of an ultra-ruggedized version suitable for demanding military and commercial operations.

• Aquark & the British Navy are trialing AQLock, which uses cold-atom atomic clocks to strengthen Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT), enabling navigation and synchronization in environments where satellite signals are unavailable or compromised, such as underwater or in conflict zones.

• SandboxAQ joined the DoW’s DIU Transition of Quantum Sensing (TQS) program, advancing magnetic anomaly navigation. Their efforts focus on rapidly developing and testing advanced Magnetic Anomaly Navigation (MagNav) technologies for the U.S. military’s use in autonomous systems.

• Lockheed Martin & Q-CTRL are building QuINS, a quantum-enabled inertial navigation system that leverages the combined strengths of Q-CTRL and AOSense, using high-performance quantum sensors in Position, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) applications.

Space & Geophysical Applications

Quantum sensors are unlocking new ways to observe Earth and space.

• NASA is building a Quantum Gravity Gradiometer for a planned space test in 2030. It will provide ultra-precise gravity maps for observing petroleum reserves, fresh water supplies, and even help better understand fundamental physics.

• SBQuantum secured several contracts from the European Space Agency (ESA) to deploy diamond magnetometers on small satellites to detect subsurface anomalies, such as tunnels or submarines.

• Q-CTRL & USGS are collaborating on quantum gravity sensing for monitoring underground water and other resources.

• Delta g has developed a gravity-sensing platform for subsurface imaging and environmental monitoring, including detecting sinkholes and mapping old mining locations. They are building “Google Maps for the Underground.”

Semiconductor & Industrial Applications

Quantum metrology is beginning to reshape semiconductor fabrication and materials inspection.

• QuantumDiamonds has created a diamond-based quantum microscope capable of ultra-high-resolution for defect detection—vital for both current chip fabs and future quantum-chip manufacturing.

• Bosch Quantum Sensing and Element Six are focused on making quantum sensors so small they could fit on a chip, creating compact, robust devices suitable for mass production. Diamond quantum sensors have potential applications in automotive, industrial, and consumer markets.

• PROMISE is developing NV-center imaging sensors for industrial inspection that operate without vacuum systems, cryogenics, or magnetic shielding. Companies exploring relevant use cases include Graphenea Semiconductor, Airbus, and MagnetFab.

• Qnami’s ProteusQ is the first scanning NV (nitrogen-vacancy) microscope for analyzing magnetic materials at the atomic scale. Researchers can directly observe the most subtle properties of samples and the effects of microscopic changes in the design and fabrication processes.

Medical & Healthcare Advances

Quantum sensors are delivering breakthroughs in brain imaging, diagnostics, and biomarker detection.

• Cerca Magnetics developed a wearable, 3D-printable quantum MEG device that improves childhood epilepsy detection and could be applied to help identify dementia and Alzheimer’s.

• Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia’s national science and innovation agency, is using a patented quantum sensing technology to detect ferritin in blood serum and for concussion diagnostics. Early deployments will support the 2032 Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Across a range of applications and settings, quantum sensing has become a quantum technology that delivers broad, immediate commercial impact. And as this technology is more widely deployed and learnings are incorporated, it has the potential to deliver even greater value in 2026 and beyond.

I am excited to witness the next phase of quantum sensing applications in the years ahead

.

Way back in the Cro-Magnon days of quantum events, around 2020, you could get away with describing its benefits in somewhat amorphous, if not quasi-esoteric, terms. It was the Wild West then, but we were all enthralled and along for the adventurous ride.

Fast forward to the waning days of 2025. People have waited patiently, but they are now ready to hear details about real-world applications and verified case studies. While the wide-eyed press was gushing over capabilities like “achieving quantum supremacy” and solving NP-hard problems, event attendees wanted to know, “Is there a pony in here? Will this technology help me generate attributable revenue and/or improve productivity?”

Keep in mind that all businesses go to market in a vertical. That is the lens through which they view the world. That is how they identify addressable opportunities and pain points. That is the context in which they hope to apply quantum solutions.

Quantum.Tech Europe 2025 has completely redesigned its upcoming event in Rotterdam to address this shift in focus.

Three top industry-specific conversations will be a focus: quantum and defense, quantum and pharma, and quantum and finance.

In addition, there will be panels and speakers sharing insights into the range of challenges and opportunities across numerous verticals, including shipping and logistics, transportation, telecommunications, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), aerospace and defense, and energy.

I hope you can join me in Rotterdam for this exciting event, September 29 through October 1. Take advantage of the opportunity to hear from pioneering thought leaders and practitioners. You might meet your next investor, executive hire, business partner, employee, or supply chain participant.

I look forward to seeing you there for three days of thought-provoking interaction.

Maybe you are one of the lucky recent grads who landed a job in a large corporation. If so, I want to give you some advice, having toiled in the bowels of one of these businesses for a decade and a half. I worked at IBM for fifteen years!

First of all - big picture perspective - these gigantic global companies with hundreds of thousands of worker bees in a geographically distributed workforce - e.g. dinosaurs - are being transformed. Their models will be reconfigured and may be unrecognizable in the next 10 years. They simply cannot be nimble enough to change and adapt as quickly as is required in the evolving borderless economic paradigm.

Here are six tips to keep you sane at a large traditional company:

1. Sip the Kool-Aid.

Big companies influence employee behavior in both evident and pernicious ways. Salary and perks are the typical superficial levers. But one of the subtle ways they do it is with Corporate Kool-Aid, e.g., proselytizing that their company is the most highly regarded and valuable on the planet - that their magnanimity and portfolio contribute disproportionately to creating good in the world or more importantly to them, delivering value at an inestimable level.

It’s nonsense. They need to keep stockholders and The Street happy - end of story. Swap out the logo and the slogan and they all have the same objectives. Ignore the culture behind the curtain.

That said - learn what you can about the company’s products and services and their history. It will help you to keep in perspective the Kool-Aid you’ll be asked to swallow at the next 10 places you work.

2. Always be looking for your next job.

As soon as you land and start to feel settled in, start thinking seriously about what you will do next. Don’t get too comfortable.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics says that today’s learners will have 8-10 jobs by the time they are 38. Not because they get fired. But because there are lots of creative and interesting opportunities available in the workplace.

The rate and pace at which the business landscape is changing empowers employees. As big corporations scramble to keep up with smaller, more innovative competitors and job security becomes a thing of the past - use it to your advantage.

Work across disciplines and geographies. Gain skills and make contacts that you can use broadly and in other settings.

3. Stay away from manager politics.

Try not to get involved in petty issues that clearly represent someone’s power struggle. Too many managers still focus on patronizing their superiors - “managing up” in corporate parlance - rather than encouraging their team members to explore, innovate and grow.

All too often the only thing they know how to do is work at a specific company in a specific department. Keep your head down, learn what you can, stay out of the line of fire - while still doing a great job. Let them sort it out.

4. Don’t worship the execs.

If someone is acting like a jerk, they are a jerk. Unfortunately, some corporate leaders have risen to a senior rank by intimidating and berating people over the course of many years. Do what they ask within reason, but if a request feels weird, they probably have an ulterior motive.

Some act superior simply because they need to be perceived as the smartest person in the room. Others just have poor people skills. There are lots of reasons for annoying executive behavior.

I worked for a manager who was a totally overbearing, belligerent micromanager. Our team’s fantasy solution was to get her a puppy to try to distract her.

Don’t ever take any of it personally or try to reason with these kinds of execs. It will only be frustrating and is not worth your time. Hopefully, they will get moved into a new role out of your organization sooner rather than later.

5. Get close to the admins.

They run the show. They are the ones in the trenches, day after day. They know where the bodies are buried, and they can magically manipulate a calendar to squeeze in a last-minute meeting with an exec.

They can warn you about whom to avoid and when. Without a doubt, they are your best allies. Befriend them. Give them gifts. Stay close to them.

6. Be gentle with the lifers.

These people are from another era. Many started before the Internet or social media. They have learned how to obey the rules and stay between the lines, have mastered gaming the system in order to get an acceptable annual performance review. They excel at making long lists, assigning tasks and checking off the boxes, accepting accolades when they were little involved or blaming others for any failures on their part.

Odds are you may be forced to engage with some of them but don't take anything they say too seriously. Most of them are on their way out and just biding their time until they reach *The 30* - the number of years of service after which they can retire and disappear.

To be fair, some may go on to do something interesting after they leave the company but the odds are very low.

Hope this helps. Let me know what your experiences are. Hang in there! Connect with me on LinkedIn and please keep me posted!

More detail and backstory in my new book → Improvising Careers: Succeed at jobs that don’t exist yet. You can order your copy on the Barnes and Noble website.