Twelve early-career quantum researchers have been awarded the 2025 Boeing Quantum Creators Prize for work that moves the field of quantum information science and engineering in new directions. The program, which began in 2021 and expanded in 2023 thanks to a commitment from Boeing, is designed to recognize promising researchers whose work contributes new ideas to a fast-growing field that has the potential to revolutionize technology and society.
The 51 Boeing Quantum Creators who were honored in 2024, 2023, 2022, and 2021 have gone on to fellowships, research scientist roles at companies such as IBM and Google Quantum AI, and faculty positions at a variety of schools, including the University of California, Berkeley; Yale University; Stanford University; New York University; the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC); and Williams College. Last year, six previous winners shared how the prize has advanced their work.
The 2025 winners will receive a trophy, and, for those legally eligible, a $3,500 monetary prize, as well as the opportunity to present their work at this year’s Chicago Quantum Summit on November 3 and 4.
2025 Boeing Quantum Creators Prize Winners
- Seokjin Bae is a postdoctoral researcher at UIUC working with Professor Vidya Madhavan. He earned his PhD from the University of Maryland in Professor Steven Anlage’s group. He has developed an ultrafast scanning tunneling microscope and has been investigating ultrafast light-matter interaction at atomic scale in quantum materials.
- Margarita Davydova is a Burke postdoctoral fellow at the California Institution of Technology (Caltech). Her recent work explores physics-inspired approaches to fault-tolerant quantum computation, quantum error correction, and robust dynamical phases of matter. Davydova earned her PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
- Uma Girish is a postdoctoral research scientist at Columbia University hosted by Professor Henry Yuen. She received her PhD from Princeton University advised by Professor Ran Raz. Her research focuses on the interplay between quantum computing, quantum complexity theory, and the analysis of Boolean functions.
- Connor Holland is a graduate student working with Lawrence Cheuk at Princeton. During his PhD, he helped develop a new quantum science platform utilizing individual polar molecules trapped in reconfigurable optical tweezer arrays. He is broadly interested in leveraging the rich internal structure provided by multi-level quantum systems — such as molecules — to extend the capabilities of near-term quantum simulators.
- Guanhao Huang is a Swiss National Science Foundation Postdoc Mobility Fellow and Aramont Fellow in Professor Marko Lončar’s group at Harvard University. His research develops ultralow-loss diamond nanomechanical platforms for quantum sensing and tabletop tests of gravity. He received his PhD in Physics from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne with Professor Tobias Kippenberg, where he demonstrated room-temperature quantum optomechanics and advanced integrated free-electron quantum optics.
- Barbara Maria Latacz is a junior research scientist at CERN. Since 2020, she has been a member of the BASE Collaboration, working in Professor Stefan Ulmer’s group on the development of new quantum-limited technologies for measuring the antiproton magnetic moment. Prior to joining BASE, she completed her PhD in 2019 within the GBAR Collaboration, where her research focused on antihydrogen production.
- Francesco Anna Mele is a PhD student at the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa, Italy, supervised by Vittorio Giovannetti and co-supervised by Ludovico Lami. His research interests include all aspects of quantum information and computation, with particular expertise in continuous-variable systems, quantum learning theory, and quantum Shannon theory.
- Josephine Meyer received her PhD in Physics Education Research from the University of Colorado Boulder in May 2025 specializing in the teaching and learning of quantum computing and quantum information science more broadly. She is an internationally recognized advocate for the responsible development of quantum technologies and the integration of holistic, research-based pedagogies in the Quantum 2.0 classroom from the beginning.
- Hong Qiao is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Chicago, where he earned his PhD in Quantum Science and Engineering under the supervision of Professor Andrew Cleland. His research focuses on developing hybrid quantum computing platforms that integrate acoustic phonons with superconducting qubits.
- Rhine Samajdar is a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University. His research lies at the interface of quantum information science and condensed matter physics. Samajdar earned his PhD from Harvard University in 2022, working on quantum simulation with neutral atom arrays.
- Mehmet Tuna Uysal is a postdoctoral researcher at MIT working with Professor Vladan Vuletic. He received his PhD from Princeton University in Professor Jeff Thompson’s group in 2025. His work explores photonic interfaces for atomic systems and entanglement generation with solid-state qubits for quantum network applications.
- Chuankun Zhang recently completed his PhD at JILA/University of Colorado, Boulder with Jun Ye. Using a custom-developed VUV frequency comb, he demonstrated quantum-state-resolved thorium-229 nuclear spectroscopy to realize a solid-state optical clock. Now an IQIM postdoc at Caltech with Andrei Faraon, he is focused on crystalline platforms hosting narrow resonances for precision metrology and quantum technologies.
Purchase a ticket for the 2025 Chicago Quantum Summit: https://whova.com/portal/registration/2qOszmV50Ty8Uh0lAWyH/3hfauzr9