Nina Brandl
Main quest: simulate quantum circuits
Side quest: everything else that happens to need doing
What I do
I am a computer scientist in a department full of physicists, and that shapes how I look at quantum computing. A physicist sees nature that has to be understood. I see a system that has to be simulated efficiently, and my main quest is building software that does that on ordinary computers.
For most circuits this is hopeless, because a quantum system of any reasonable size has more possible states than anyone could ever write down. But one slightly restricted class, the Clifford circuits, allows fancy shortcuts that make fast simulation possible. My tools use those shortcuts on large systems, and they also handle qudits, which are quantum building blocks that hold more than just 0 and 1. Clifford circuits also sit at the heart of most quantum error correction schemes, so running them quickly matters.
People can then try out their experiments on a laptop before booking real hardware, and check whether a real device does what it promises.
My side quests range from teaching to supervising students, they include public talks, and a quantum escape room workshop I designed for school classes. Additionally, every once in a while I take on some graphic design tasks like these posters here, and honestly I enjoy those the most. I am always looking for new ways to turn presentations into immersive, engaging experiences rather than just another PowerPoint presentation. Most days all of these tasks seem to happen at once, and I always feel like I am forgetting something.
Why it matters
Real quantum computers are rare and hard to work with, so it is far better to test a program on an ordinary laptop first. A mistake found on a laptop costs a few hours; the same mistake on a real quantum computer wastes an entire experiment. Quantum error correction, which catches and repairs those errors, turns an interesting machine into a genuinely useful one.
Research helps nobody if it stays hidden in a lab. It has to be taught and explained, and students need the chance to try it themselves. Many people think quantum computing is impossible to understand, but usually that means we have not explained it well enough. It is a big task to show that you do not need a physics PhD to work in this field, but only some curiosity for quantum magic.