Q-SFDP 2026

Dr. Akshay Naik

Associate Professor, Centre for Nano Science and Engineering (CeNSE)

Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru

PhD, University of Maryland, College Park, USA

Chief Guest, Valedictory

Dr. Akshay Naik is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Nano Science and Engineering, IISc Bengaluru, where he has been since 2011. His research is on nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS), sensing and microfabricated devices for precision measurement and emerging quantum technologies. He received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park (2006), and was a postdoctoral scholar and then research engineer at Caltech (2006–11).

Dr. Prashanth Upadhya

Director, Wadhwani-IISc Innovation Center

Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru · Adjunct Faculty, Raman Research Institute

PhD, University of Cambridge, UK

Inaugurator

Dr. Prashanth Upadhya is the Director of the Wadhwani-IISc Innovation Center, IISc Bengaluru, and Adjunct Faculty at the Raman Research Institute, Bengaluru. He works on advancing India's quantum technology ecosystem through research and industry collaboration.

Prof. T. S. Mahesh

Professor and Chair, Department of Physics

Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune

PhD, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru

History of quantum computing; NMR quantum computing

Prof. T. S. Mahesh is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Physics at IISER Pune, where he leads the NMR Quantum Information Processing group. His research uses nuclear spins for quantum information processing, quantum control (including optimal control and AI-assisted methods) and quantum simulation. He received his PhD from IISc Bengaluru (2003), was a postdoctoral researcher at MIT (2003–05) and a Humboldt Fellow at TU Dortmund (2005–07), and received the DST Swarnajayanti Fellowship in 2014.

Dr. Saptarishi Chaudhuri

Professor, Light and Matter Physics

Raman Research Institute (RRI), Bengaluru

PhD, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai

Lead PI, National Quantum Mission

Neutral atom quantum computing

Prof. Saptarishi Chaudhuri is a Professor of Light and Matter Physics at the Raman Research Institute (RRI), Bengaluru, and the Lead Investigator of the National Quantum Mission project "Quantum Computing with Neutral Atoms, Trapped Ions and Related Hybrid Systems" in the DST–NQM Hub for Quantum Computing at IISc. The project brings together eight investigators from seven institutions and is building a rubidium neutral-atom quantum computer of more than 400 qubits, a 50-qubit trapped calcium-ion quantum computer and a hybrid analog–digital prototype. At RRI he leads the QuMiX (Quantum Mixtures) Lab, working on laser cooling of sodium–potassium mixtures, Rydberg atoms in optical tweezers, spin-noise spectroscopy and atomic magnetometry; his group has measured rubidium Rydberg levels up to n = 124. He has built several research labs at RRI, including the first Bose–Einstein condensate in India. He received his PhD from TIFR, Mumbai, and did postdoctoral research at LKB (École Normale Supérieure, Paris), LENS (Florence) and the Centre for Quantum Technologies (National University of Singapore).

Prof. Baladitya Suri

Associate Professor, Department of Instrumentation and Applied Physics

Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru

PhD, University of Maryland, College Park, USA

Investigator, National Quantum Mission

Superconducting quantum computing

Prof. Baladitya Suri is an Associate Professor in the Department of Instrumentation and Applied Physics, IISc Bengaluru, and an investigator in the National Quantum Mission project "Quantum Computers with Superconducting Qubits", led by Prof. R. Vijayaraghavan (TIFR). His group works on quantum information and computation with superconducting circuits: circuit quantum electrodynamics, quantum acoustics with surface phonons, and microwave single-photon sources and detectors. He holds a B.Tech in Engineering Physics from IIT Madras (2006) and a PhD from the University of Maryland, College Park (2015), and was a postdoctoral researcher in the Quantum Technologies Laboratory at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden (2015–18), before joining IISc in 2018.

Dr. Dhinakaran Vinayagamurthy

Manager, IBM Quantum India · Quantum Innovation Centers Lead, India & Singapore

IBM Research India

PhD, University of Waterloo, Canada

IBM Quantum Platform overview

Dr. Dhinakaran Vinayagamurthy is Manager of IBM Quantum India and leads IBM's Quantum Innovation Centers in India and Singapore. He is the engagement manager for the IIT Madras–IBM Quantum partnership and an IBM Quantum Senior Ambassador. His research covers quantum error mitigation, cryptography and security. He received his PhD from the University of Waterloo, Canada.

Dr. Debasmita Bhoumik

Research Scientist, Qiskit SDK team, IBM Quantum

IBM India Research Lab

PhD, Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Kolkata

Running jobs on real quantum computers; practical mini project

Dr. Debasmita Bhoumik is a Research Scientist in the Qiskit SDK team at the IBM India Research Lab. Her PhD from the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, was on errors in discrete quantum circuits, and her work spans quantum error correction, quantum machine learning and the Qiskit software stack. She regularly runs hands-on Qiskit workshops for students and faculty.

Prof. R Prabhu

Associate Professor of Physics · Dean (Student Welfare)

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Dharwad

PhD, Kuvempu University, Karnataka

Measurement, phase & interference; basics of quantum information theory

Prof. R. Prabhu is an Associate Professor of Physics and Dean (Students' Welfare) at IIT Dharwad. He works on quantum correlations and quantum communication, continuous-variable and many-body quantum systems, and relativistic quantum information. He received his PhD from Kuvempu University (2010), was a postdoctoral fellow (2010–12) and DST INSPIRE Faculty (2012–16) at the Harish-Chandra Research Institute, spent 2015–16 with the Atom-Chip group at Ben-Gurion University, Israel, and was at IIT Patna before joining IIT Dharwad. He was an Associate of the Indian Academy of Sciences (2015–18).

Dr. Subeesh T.

Assistant Professor (Sr. Gd.), Centre for Computational Engineering and Networking (CEN)

Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore

PhD, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai

Entanglement, superdense coding & teleportation; Shor's algorithm

Dr. T. Subeesh obtained his Masters degree in Physics from Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai. He received his PhD from Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai for his work on Phase Properties of Radiation Fields. His areas of research include Theoretical Quantum Optics and Biomedical Instrumentation.

Dr. Praveen Parthasarathi

Assistant Professor, Department of Physics

Dr H N National College of Engineering, Bengaluru

PhD, Bangalore University

Optics demonstrations: wave plates, diffraction & interference

Dr. Praveen Parthasarathi is an Assistant Professor of Physics at Dr H N National College of Engineering, Bengaluru, with 16 years' experience in soft condensed matter physics and applied optics, including a postdoctoral position (2021) in Cellular Biophysics at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK.

Dr. Anoop Thomas

Assistant Professor of Physics

Moodlakatte Institute of Technology (MIT), Kundapura

PhD, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru

Co-organiser

Polarization, Malus' law, interference and laser demonstrations (Day 1 optics lab)

Dr. Anoop Thomas is an Assistant Professor of Physics at MIT Kundapura, working in condensed matter physics and materials science.

Lokesh

Independent IT Consultant

Hands-on sessions

Lokesh is an independent IT consultant with more than two decades of IT experience, having worked for organisations in the fields of Life Sciences, Capital Markets and Healthcare. He is exploring Quantum Computing and Emerging Technologies.

Prof. K T Satyajith

Director, IMJ Institute of Research (IMJIR) · Professor of Physics, MIT

IMJIR & Moodlakatte Institute of Technology (MIT), Kundapura

PhD, Bangalore University

Organiser

Optics experiments, mathematical foundations, trapped-ion quantum computing

Prof. K T Satyajith's research areas are: ion and electron trapping, laser cooling and precision spectroscopy. He is setting up an ion-trap based quantum computing set-up at IMJIR.

Dr. C. M. Chandrashekar

Associate Professor, Department of Electronic Systems Engineering

Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru

PhD, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics / University of Waterloo, Canada

Lead PI, National Quantum Mission

Photonic quantum computing

Dr. C. M. Chandrashekar is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electronic Systems Engineering at IISc Bengaluru, where he leads the Quantum Optics & Quantum Information group, and the Lead Investigator of the National Quantum Mission project on programmable photonic quantum computing with qubits encoded in different degrees of freedom of a photon, which targets a portable 6-qubit processor and a 48-qubit processor on the cloud. In 2025 his group showed universal quantum gates and a six-qubit entangled state made from just two photons, using photonic quantum walks (Physical Review Applied). He is internationally known for his work on quantum walks, quantum simulation and quantum foundations. A Rhodes Scholar (M.Sc. by Research, University of Oxford), he received his PhD from the Perimeter Institute and University of Waterloo in 2009 and a Ramanujan Fellowship in 2015, and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, India, in 2023.