Spreading the Word About Quantum Computing
Senior Quantum Evangelist
Mark Jackson is a man on a mission. As Quantinuum’s senior quantum evangelist, Mark’s job is to create awareness and understanding about quantum computing and its world-changing potential. Based in New York, Mark holds a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Columbia University with a background in mathematical modeling and computational physics. In 2017 he joined Cambridge Quantum, which combined with Honeywell Quantum Solutions to form Quantinuum in 2021. He has an academic background and remains an adjunct faculty member at Singularity University. He sat down earlier this month to talk about his unique job and the future of quantum computing.
Senior Quantum Evangelist is such a unique title. What does your job entail?
A lot of my job is speaking at conferences, doing interviews, participating in podcasts, and posting on social media. I focus on creating awareness and excitement for quantum computing, letting people know what we do at Quantinuum, and educating them about the ways this amazing technology will help solve complex problems and improve people’s lives.
Most people just don’t know much about quantum computing, or they have misunderstandings or reservations about the technology and its potential impact on society.
Half the people don’t believe quantum computers really exist yet. They think it’s some sort of science fiction idea that we’ve cooked up and, if it happens at all, it’ll be 20 years from now. They just can’t believe we have these computers today. The other half think quantum computers are just really fast computers. They believe we can take all our existing software and run it on a quantum computer, and it will be a million times faster. Neither is true, and it’s my job to educate people about what quantum computers can actually do to make the world better.
Over the past few years my role at Quantinuum has evolved a bit, and about a year ago they changed my title to “evangelist.” Technically, I’m now the “senior evangelist” because we recently added several other people to the team, which will help us do an even better job of spreading the word.
How will the use of quantum computers benefit society?
We anticipate we’re only 3–5 years away from being able to do things on a quantum computer that are truly valuable to society. That time will pass very quickly, which is why we’re encouraging companies to work with us right now to develop projects so that in a few years, when technology catches up, they’ll be in a good position to take advantage of opportunities.
The two nearest-term commercial applications for quantum computers are in chemistry and optimization, such as supply chain and logistics.
In chemistry, we have known the equations for 100 years. If you give me a molecule, I know exactly what the molecule is made of — I know how many electrons, protons and neutrons are in it, and I know the equations governing all their interactions. But, solving those equations and actually figuring out the behavior of the molecule is very difficult because, as a molecule gets bigger, there are so many interactions that tracking them quickly overwhelms a conventional computer. Quantum computers are expected to one day solve these chemical equations easier and faster.
For example, pharmaceutical companies could use this technology to design medicine. Right now, there is a lot of guesswork in developing a drug. Scientists can do a little preliminary work on a computer, but then they must synthesize a lot of trial drugs followed by testing on humans.
Developing drugs this way is expensive, time consuming, and risky. In general, it takes about 10 years and $1 billion dollars to bring a drug to market. It would be ideal if scientists could do more work on a computer up front, which will save time and money and be less risky for patients.
Additionally, quantum computing will be invaluable for the machine-learning industry. Artificial intelligence is used everywhere. Your Netflix recommendations use AI machine-learning, and while this may not be lifechanging, advanced autopilot technology on an airplane or in a driverless car will be. Quantum computers one day could have the power, speed, and capacity to take machine-learning to a whole new level.
How did you end up working for Quantinuum?
I started hearing about quantum computing in 2017 and thought it sounded amazing. This field of study didn’t even exist when I was a student.
My background is in theoretical physics. For 15 years I worked in string theory and cosmology. Several years ago, I decided to leave academia and pursue other interests. I was very fortunate to be introduced to Ilyas Khan, founder of Cambridge Quantum and now CEO of Quantinuum, and he asked me to join the team about five years ago.
I was the first American hire at Cambridge Quantum, which was then a small start-up company with only about 30 people. The organization was comprised of all scientists until I joined. I was the first person to be hired whose main objective was business development.
Why is your job as an evangelist important to Quantinuum?
We can have the most amazing technology in the world, but if no one knows about it, then it doesn’t do anyone much good. There is a lot of misunderstanding and unfamiliarity that surrounds this industry currently, which is why my job of creating awareness is so important.
I get to talk to university students and researchers and let them know we have software they can use for free to help them code better. I am very lucky to have an academic background in physics because when I speak at these universities, the professors sometimes let me take over the class for a day. I don’t think they would grant the same access to a salesperson. I love to talk about the cool things we have done and are doing with these students and share ways we can partner and collaborate both now and in the future.
We want to build our hiring pipeline with the smartest and most creative young minds available. Hiring is a top priority, and job candidates may not know there are such amazing job opportunities at Quantinuum and throughout this exciting industry.
How has the industry changed in the last five years?
When I started, there were 8–10 credible quantum computing startups, including us. We were all pretty small with just a few dozen employees at the time.
Now, it seems like there’s a new company forming, a new investment, or a technical breakthrough in hardware or software every week. There are quantum information sciences degrees and programs in college now including quantum computing and closely related sciences. It’s dizzying to keep up with everything.
Today, there are roughly 400 quantum companies, building quantum products all over the world. Companies are also increasing in size. Our company currently has 400 employees, but we’re hiring like crazy and anticipate adding 200 people in 2022.
The U.S. government also is investing. During the last administration, they had a Quantum Initiative Act (QIA) where $1.2 billion was allocated for quantum funding. Other countries also are investing. China, for example, has spent at least $30 billion in quantum technology over the last few years.
About Quantinuum
Quantinuum, the world’s largest integrated quantum company, pioneers powerful quantum computers and advanced software solutions. Quantinuum’s technology drives breakthroughs in materials discovery, cybersecurity, and next-gen quantum AI. With over 500 employees, including 370+ scientists and engineers, Quantinuum leads the quantum computing revolution across continents.
- Quantinuum continues its progress toward fault-tolerant quantum computing, with a series of peer-reviewed breakthroughs in fault-tolerant operations.
- Our progress is not only scientific; it is commercial. By improving logical-qubit reliability and encoding efficiency, Quantinuum is reducing the resource overhead required to scale its quantum computers toward commercially useful workloads.
- These results were achieved on commercial Quantinuum hardware, reinforcing that our architecture is not just setting new standards, but building a practical foundation for customers, partners, and researchers preparing for the fault-tolerant era.
Fault-tolerant quantum computing is the threshold the industry must cross before quantum computers can solve the hardest, highest-value problems with confidence. To be commercially useful at scale, the question is not simply who can build more qubits. It is who can build reliable, efficient, scalable systems that reduce technical risk and accelerate the path to commercial usefulness.
Quantinuum is progressing on that path.
Last year, in partnership with Microsoft, we published a breakthrough in logical computing, demonstrating logical qubits that outperformed their physical counterparts by a factor of 800. We are proud to announce that this work is now being published in Nature, one of the most highly regarded scientific journals in the world.
This work highlights our leading fidelities, as shown in Table 1:
Since then, we’ve accelerated our efforts to reach large-scale fault tolerance and advanced what we believe to be the core building blocks of fault-tolerant quantum computing, from logical-qubit teleportation and multiple error-correction breakthroughs to one of the first meaningful computations using logical qubits. Importantly, these results were achieved on commercial Quantinuum hardware, demonstrating not just scientific progress, but a practical and efficient path toward scalable, customer-ready fault tolerance.
A Recap of Our Recent Technical Progress
Since the work with Microsoft, we achieved a milestone years ahead of schedule, demonstrating high-fidelity teleportation of a logical qubit, which was published in Science, one of the world’s most prestigious journals. Later, we beat our own record in this crucial fault tolerance milestone, thanks to continued improvements to our System Model H2’s fidelity.
Then, a series of results demonstrating more error-correcting milestones (and codes):
- Better than physical results in a high-rate non-local code,
- First-ever demonstration of a single-shot error correcting code (which significantly reduces resource requirements) in 4 dimensions
- Extending qubit lifetimes by 10x with a concatenated code
- Observed fault-tolerance thresholds with concatenated codes
- High fidelity magic states and a fully fault tolerant universal gate set in two different papers
Recently, we topped ourselves yet again by performing one of the first meaningful computations with logical qubits – exploring key questions in materials and magnetism, using logical qubits with better error rates than their physical counterparts. This result also includes a leading “encoding rate” squeezing 48 logical qubits out of just 98 physical qubits, emphasizing how our architecture helps to support large scale fault tolerance without enormous resource costs.
It is worth noting that all these results were achieved on our commercial hardware, not on one-off laboratory test-stands – reflecting the performance that we are able to deliver to our customers.
We also did crucial theoretical work, exploring new options for error correction that can reduce resource requirements, time to solution, and shorten the timeline to large scale fault tolerance.
Commercial Implications and the Road Ahead
We believe the commercial implication is clear: Quantinuum is reducing the uncertainty around the path to fault-tolerant quantum computing. Our architecture, hardware fidelity, full-stack control, and error-correction progress are converging into a practical roadmap for systems that can support valuable scientific and commercial workloads.
For those evaluating when quantum computing will become strategically relevant, we believe the signal is also increasingly clear: the fault-tolerant era is no longer a distant concept. It is becoming an engineering reality, and Quantinuum is leading the way.
- University of Southern Denmark (SDU) to use Quantinuum Helios, supported by the Danish e-Infrastructure Consortium (DeiC)
- Access to Helios enables SDU to test and refine fault-tolerant algorithms and error-correction codes under realistic hardware conditions
- The collaboration supports at a scale of 48 logical qubits, positioning Denmark at the forefront of scalable, practical quantum computing
- Researchers exploring the scientific foundations for future development of applications in fields including pharmaceuticals, finance, and defense
Progress in quantum computing is measured by hardware advances plus the algorithms and quantum error-correction codes that turn quantum systems into useful computational tools.
Thanks to recent hardware advances, researchers are increasingly sharpening their tools to probe the performance of quantum algorithms and understand how they behave in realistic conditions – where stability, system architecture and algorithm design all shape performance.
A new Denmark-based collaboration between the University of Southern Denmark (SDU), Quantinuum, and the Danish e-Infrastructure Consortium (DeiC) will utilize Quantinuum Helios. Researchers at the SDU’s Centre for Quantum Mathematics, led by Jørgen Ellegaard Andersen, will use Helios to pursue research into topological quantum computing.
Their work could help explain how and why successful quantum algorithms perform as they do, informing the development of high-performance algorithms suited to emerging quantum systems. They’re exploring the scientific foundations that support future quantum applications across areas including pharmaceuticals, finance, and defense.
“We are thrilled to gain access to Quantinuum’s high-fidelity Helios system. This collaboration gives us a unique opportunity to test the limits of our algorithms and evaluate system performance, while advancing fundamental research and laying the foundation for future applications.”
— Professor Jørgen Ellegaard Andersen, Director of the Centre for Quantum Mathematics at University of Southern Denmark
Why topological methods matter
Topological quantum computing is an area of research that connects quantum computation with deep mathematical structures. It includes the study of error correcting codes known as surface codes that encode quantum information in the global properties of systems of logical qubits.
The research team will explore how these codes behave, and how they may support the development of fault-tolerant quantum algorithms in practical implementations under realistic conditions.
This distinction between theory and practical implementation matters. In theory, topological approaches offer a rich framework for designing algorithms and error-correcting codes. In practice, researchers need to understand how those ideas perform when implemented on real systems, where questions of noise, stability, overhead, and scaling become central. The collaboration will allow the SDU team to investigate these questions directly.
New ways to benchmark quantum processors
Beyond individual algorithms and codes, the research will also develop tools for benchmarking quantum processors. The goal is to develop new ways to characterize fidelity and stability in regimes that can be difficult to access.
The team will also explore hybrid quantum–classical approaches, including machine-learning techniques assisted by quantum hardware, to study the mathematical structures at the heart of topological quantum computing. This work reflects a broader field of research in which quantum and classical methods are used together, each contributing to parts of a computational problem.
Strengthening Denmark’s quantum ecosystem
The collaboration reflects the growing role of national quantum infrastructure in supporting research and talent development. Denmark has a long tradition of scientific innovation, and this collaboration is intended to support the country’s continued development in quantum technology.
The initiative is supported by DeiC, which played a central role in securing funding and enabling access to Quantinuum’s systems. DeiC has been assigned a particular role in developing and coordinating quantum infrastructure initiatives for the benefit of universities and industry, operating without its own commercial, sectoral, or geographical interests. This includes securing dedicated access to quantum computers, producing advisory services and supporting the development of new talent in the Danish quantum sector.
“DeiC’s special effort to secure funding and access for this research initiative is rooted in our organization’s role in relation to the Danish Government’s strategy for quantum technology.”
— Henrik Navntoft Sønderskov, Head of Quantum at Danish e-Infrastructure Consortium
This collaboration promises to accelerate the development of practical algorithms. It is grounded in fundamental science – but its focus is practical: discovering and testing mathematical approaches to topological quantum computing that can be implemented, evaluated, and improved on real quantum hardware.
That work requires both theoretical insight and access to a system such as Helios capable of supporting meaningful scientific work.
This month, Quantinuum welcomed its global user community to the first-ever Q-Net Connect, an annual forum designed to spark collaboration, share insights, and accelerate innovation across our full-stack quantum computing platforms. Over two days, users came together not only to learn from one another, but to build the relationships and momentum that we believe will help define the next chapter of quantum computing.
Q-Net Connect 2026 drew over 170 attendees from around the world to Denver, Colorado, including representatives from commercial enterprises and startups, academia and research institutions, and the public sector and non-profits - all users of Quantinuum systems.
The program was packed with inspiring keynotes, technical tracks, and customer presentations. Attendees heard from leaders at Quantinuum, as well as our partners at NVIDIA, JPMorganChase and BlueQubit; professors from the University of New Mexico, the University of Nottingham and Harvard University; national labs, including NIST, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory; and other distinguished guests from across the global quantum ecosystem.
Congratulations to Q-Net Connect 2026 Award Recipients!
The mission of the Quantinuum Q-Net user community is to create a space for shared learning, collaboration and connection for those who adopt Quantinuum’s hardware, software and middleware platform. At this year’s Q-Net Connect, we awarded four organizations who made notable efforts to champion this effort.
- JPMorganChase received the ‘Guppy Adopter Award’ for their exemplary adoption of our quantum programming language, Guppy, in their research workflows.
- Phasecraft, a UK and US-based quantum algorithms startup, received the ‘Rising Star’ award for demonstrating exceptional early impact and advancing science using Quantinuum hardware, which they published in a December 2025 paper.
- Qedma, a quantum software startup, received the ‘Startup Partner Engagement’ award for their sustained engagement with Quantinuum platforms dating back to our first commercially deployed quantum computer, H1.
- Anna Dalmasso from the University of Nottingham received our ‘New Student Award’ for her impressive debut project on Quantinuum hardware and for delivering outstanding results as a new Q-Net student user.
Congratulations, again, and thank you to everyone who contributed to the success of the first Q-Net Connect!
Become a Q-Net Member
Q-Net offers year‑round support through user access, developer tools, documentation, trainings, webinars, and events. Members enjoy many exclusive benefits, including being the first to hear about exclusive content, publications and promotional offers.
By joining the community, you will be invited to exclusive gatherings to hear about the latest breakthroughs and connect with industry experts driving quantum innovation. Members also get access to Q‑Net Connect recordings and stay connected for future community updates.