Tristan Meunier is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Quobly, where his job is to make sure that the company’s future quantum computer works.
Science, which Tristan has been passionate about since childhood, concerns understanding the world as it is. Technology is more akin to inventing the world that will be. At the intersection lies quantum computing, which, Tristan believes, is about what science can do for society, about seeing the beauty in science’s imprint on the world.
An accomplished experimental physicist internationally-known for his groundbreaking research on the coherent transport and manipulation of spins in quantum dot arrays, Tristan did his PhD at the Laboratoire Kastler Brossel (LKB) of the École Normale Supérieure (ENS) in Paris under the tutelage of Nobel Laureate Serge Haroche followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at TU Delft—a pioneering center for experimental research on spin qubits. This postdoc shaped Tristan’s vision of science as a means of advancing humanity.
A first-time founder, Tristan is discovering a new passion: how to get people with diverse knowledge, skills, and backgrounds working in harmony toward a desired result. Work-life balance is important to Tristan, who appreciates time with family and playing basketball, a sport he has enjoyed since his youth. And the parallel between team sports and managing a startup is not lost on him. Each player has a position, and each position contributes to a win for the team. Beyond Quobly, Tristan is also proud to be part of Grenoble’s broader quantum community—another team whose players know how to work together for the common good.
Following a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant for his research on the coherent control of individual electron spins in semiconductor nanostructures and, later, a Synergy Grant with Maud Vinet and Silvano de Franceschi, Tristan led Grenoble’s quantum spin qubit community at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) before joining Quobly as CTO full-time.
He hopes to see quantum computing make a real difference in biotechnology and drug discovery.
