Vice president of software
ColdQuanta
When Pranav Gokhale finished his doctorate in just three years, it was the fastest anyone had earned a Ph.D. in computer science at the University of Chicago.
He followed it up by launching a startup, Super.tech, which was acquired after just two years.
Gokhale is a star in quantum computing, the idea of ​​harnessing the properties of quantum physics to the next massive leap in performance as traditional computing hardware approaches the physical limitations of microelectronics.
“He’s by far the most productive grad student I’ve had in 25 years,” says U of C professor Fred Chong, Gokhale’s Ph.D. Adviser and co-founder of Super.tech, now a unit of Boulder, Colo.-based ColdQuanta. “He won three best-paper awards. Most students don’t win one.”
Super.tech built software that can be used to write quantum programs in any type of source language, which could speed up the development of quantum applications. It also makes software used to benchmark various quantum computing systems, as well as algorithms for quantum computing. Among its customers are Argonne and Lawrence Berkeley national laboratories.