Dr. Steven Rayan is the founder and director of the Centre for Quantum Topology and Its Applications (quanTA) at the University of Saskatchewan in western Canada. After completing his doctoral work at Oxford and postdoctoral work at Toronto, Dr. Rayan took up a professorship in Mathematics at Saskatchewan in 2016. Since then, he has been a key contributor to the development of the quantum ecosystem in the west of Canada, especially in the Prairies. His research interests include quantum computing and quantum materials. Working in a variety of collaborations, including numerous academic-industry ones, Dr. Rayan is helping to advance the development of quantum algorithms for real-world use cases in human health research, the energy sector, and agriculture.

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Superpower:

My superpower is using mathematics, especially pure mathematics, to dissect a quantum program and potentially make it better (or at least not make it worse). Related to this, some of the magic I can bring is knowing when two different-looking quantum solutions are secretly the same. Participants can ask me any questions! If I can't answer them, I'll find someone who can.

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