Julien Gacon
Research Scientist, Quantum Computing at IBM
Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Summary
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Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolJulien Gacon is a research scientist in quantum computing at IBM based in Zurich, with 11 years of engineering and research experience bridging computational physics, quantum algorithms, and open-source software. He holds top-tier degrees from ETH Zurich and is pursuing a PhD at EPFL, combining rigorous numerical methods with practical C++ and Python tooling for large-scale scientific problems. At IBM he has progressed from intern to research scientist, contributing core features to Qiskit—adding quantum gates, compiler-level improvements, and algorithmic integrations across Qiskit Nature, Machine Learning, Optimization and Tutorials. His work repeatedly focuses on refactoring, algorithm adaptation, and production-quality implementations that make advanced variational circuits and quantum estimation methods usable in practice. Comfortable with both low-level circuit engineering and higher-level ML/statistics, he brings a rare mix of theoretical depth and pragmatic software craftsmanship that accelerates the quantum software stack.
11 years of coding experience
4 years of employment as a software developer
Bachelor of Science - ETH BSc, Computational Science and Engineering, 5.28 out of 6, Bachelor of Science - ETH BSc, Computational Science and Engineering, 5.28 out of 6 at ETH ZurichPhysics, 5.56 out of 6, Physics, 5.56 out of 6 at Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule ZürichPhysics & Astronomy, A-, Physics & Astronomy, A- at The University of British ColumbiaDoctor of Philosophy - PhD, Physics, Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, Physics at EPFLMaster of Science - ETH MSc, Computational Science and Engineering, 5.67 out of 6, Master of Science - ETH MSc, Computational Science and Engineering, 5.67 out of 6 at ETH Zürich
German, French, English, Spanish, Russian
Stackoverflow
1reputation
0reached
0answers
0questions
Github Skills (23)
algorithm10
algorithms10
github10
python10
optimizers10
testing10
user-manual10
machine-learning10
optimisation10
quantum-computing10
jupyter-notebook10
qiskit10
optimization10
back-end-development9
scipy9
Programming languages (8)
Github contributions (5)
Qiskit/qiskit
Apr 2019 - Jan 2023
Qiskit is an open-source SDK for working with quantum computers at the level of extended quantum circuits, operators, and primitives.
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer & Quantum Computing Engineer
Back-end Developer & Quantum Computing EngineerContributions:3107 reviews, 226 commits, 595 PRs in 3 years 9 months
Contributions summary:Julien made significant contributions to the Qiskit library by implementing or modifying fundamental elements of quantum circuits. Their work focused on the addition of new quantum gates, particularly those involving controlled operations, such as the ``C3SXGate`` and ``RCCXGate``, and the handling of parameters. Furthermore, the user improved the structure of the code and the handling of edge cases for various arithmetic circuits and qubit management while also updating their corresponding documentation. Their contributions are directly related to the core functionalities of the library.
qiskitsource-sdkquantum-computingsdkquantum-programming-language
qiskit-community/qiskit-aqua
Apr 2019 - Jul 2021
Quantum Algorithms & Applications (**DEPRECATED** since April 2021 - see readme for more info)
Role in this project:Backend Developer
Backend DeveloperContributions:146 reviews, 274 commits, 119 PRs in 2 years 3 months
Contributions summary:Julien's commits focus on implementing methods for maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) in the context of a quantum amplitude estimation algorithm. They developed the functionality to compute log-likelihoods, implement the MLE method, and compute confidence intervals using both Fisher information and likelihood ratios. Their contributions also include testing these methods and implementing diagnostics modes to analyze results from the quantum amplitude estimation.
quantum-algorithmsqiskit-aquaquantum-computing
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