People
A small lab with long arguments.
Nine people, four disciplines, one shared table. We hire for curiosity and judgment, then give people enough room to disagree with the plan.
Principal Investigator · Co-founder
Amara Okonjo
Principal Investigator & Co-Founder · she/her · since 2019
“A quantum computer is not impressive because it is strange. It is impressive if it changes what a nurse, a grid operator, or a student can do.”
Amara founded Ruqi Lab in 2019 with a stubborn premise: fault-tolerant quantum computing is too important to become a private moat. She leads the lab's work on error-corrected architectures and the simulation of materials that matter for the energy transition.
At Ruqi she is responsible for research direction, scientific integrity, and the lab's public-benefit test: every program must name who benefits, how the results will be published, and what happens if the technology succeeds. She still takes a shift on the dilution refrigerator every month.
Research
Theory, algorithms, sensing, and the questions behind the machine.
Engineering & programs
The cold, fast hardware — and the public work that makes it useful.
How we hire
We would rather train a good colleague than hire a perfect CV.
We look for people who can explain their work to a smart outsider, change their mind in public, and finish things. The lab is small on purpose: everyone sees the whole machine.
Collaborate
The lab is more useful with company.
We host visiting researchers, run joint experiments, and advise public agencies. If your question overlaps ours, we would like to hear it.