Marissa Giustina

Giustina became interested in computing as a child.[1] She was an undergraduate student in mathematics at the Mary Baldwin University, where she had one woman physics teacher, who inspired her to pursue a career in engineering.[1] She moved to the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College for undergraduate and graduate studies, where she was mentored by Lorenza Viola.[1] Her research considered the photoresponse of black silicon below the silicon bandgap.[2] She moved to the University of Vienna in 2010, where she started doctoral research in the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information.[3] As part of her research, she developed an experiment to demonstrate quantum entanglement.[4] The equipment was based at the Hofburg Palance, and generated entangled pairs of photons which were coupled into glass fibres that were carried to measurement stations. The measurement stations included a random number generator to choose which orientation to measure the photon polarization in, and superconducting detectors to determine whether the photons had arrived. Her research provided validation for quantum entanglement.[4] The extraordinary detection sensitivity and spatial separation between the pair of detectors were enough to make the result a definitive proof of entanglement.[4] Her research on loophole-free texting of Bell experiments was recognized with the Paul Ehrenfest Best Paper Award.[5][6]

Giustina joined the Google Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab in 2016.[7] She develops quantum computers,[8][9][10] which store information in a compressed form using quantum states. Her quantum computers are based on nonlinear superconducting elements, which comprise a Josephson junction integrated as a non-linear element.[1] This type of circuit operates at frequencies close to 5 GHz and produces two discrete states (0 and 1) as well as superpositions of states.[1] She is working to improve the functionality of quantum processors and attempting overcome decoherence.[1]

Giustina serves on the advisory board of the United States Department of Energy National Quantum Initiative Advisory Committee.[11] In 2020, she was selected as one of Fortune's 40 Under 40,[12] and in 2021 she was listed in the Future Tech Awards Future 50.[13]

In 2021, Giustina took part in Homeward Bound, an Australian leadership program.[14]

• Marissa Giustina; Marijn A M Versteegh; Sören Wengerowsky; et al. (16 December 2015). "Significant-Loophole-Free Test of Bell's Theorem with Entangled Photons". Physical Review Letters. 115 (25): 250401. arXiv:1511.03190. doi:10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.115.250401. ISSN 0031-9007. PMID 26722905. Wikidata Q50744887.
• Frank Arute; Kunal Arya; Ryan Babbush; et al. (23 October 2019). "Quantum supremacy using a programmable superconducting processor". Nature. 574 (7779): 505–510. arXiv:1910.11333. doi:10.1038/S41586-019-1666-5. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 31645734. Wikidata Q78878570.
• Marissa Giustina; Alexandra Mech; Sven Ramelow; et al. (14 April 2013). "Bell violation using entangled photons without the fair-sampling assumption". Nature. 497 (7448): 227–230. arXiv:1212.0533. doi:10.1038/NATURE12012. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 23584590. Wikidata Q46601665.