This episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast features interviews with two leaders in the race to build practical quantum computers.

Michelle Simmons is director of Australia’s Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology. She talks about how her early work on fabricating solar cells kindled a passion for building electronic devices that she now pursues by leading a research group at the University of New South Wales that is building solid-state quantum computing devices at the atomic scale.

Jelena Vučković is Professor of Electrical Engineering and by courtesy, professor of Applied Physics at Stanford University. There, she leads the Nanoscale and Quantum Photonics Lab and focuses on using impurities in diamond to create quantum devices. Vučković talks about the challenges involved in creating scalable quantum computers and also reflects on the roles that engineers and physicists play in the development of quantum technologies.

Vučković and Simmons are plenary speakers at the Quantum 2020 Virtual Conference, which is being held on 19—22 October.