Erik Lucero '05, PhD | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Distinguished Alumni Award
Apr 11, 2023
Erik designed, built, and operates Google’s Quantum AI campus in Santa Barbara — with the mission to build an error corrected quantum computer for the world to enable humankind to solve problems that would otherwise be impossible. He is one of the scientists on the Google Quantum AI team who demonstrated humanity’s first beyond-classical computation (Nature 2019), recognized as one of the Breakthroughs of the Year. He has two decades of experience in quantum architectures: controlling SQUIDs and qubits at Google, HRL Laboratories, IBM T. J. Watson, the University of California, Santa Barbara, NIST Boulder and the University of Colorado Denver.
Erik has amassed a portfolio of photographs documenting the evolution of quantum processors from single qubit devices to Google’s Sycamore quantum computer. Dr. Lucero engineers quantum systems from the qubit level to the campus level, and is passionate about building a community for all quantum mechanics.
Erik received two bachelor's degrees in: electrical engineering (honors) and applied physics (magna cum laude) from the University of Colorado Denver and a PhD in physics from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He joined Google in 2015.
What Is Quantum Computing? Answers from Erik Lucero of Google