From Lander, Wyoming, To Quantum Computing, And All The Cool Quantum Stuff at Infleqtion

Chris Wood is the Chief Technology Officer at Infleqtion and oversees all technology areas as well as the critical transitions from Research to Engineering to Product. He has extensive familiarity with rugged, field-proven mil-spec solid-state lasers, Telcordia-qualified lasers, Photonic Integrated Circuits, and optical fabrication and coatings from previous jobs at Insight LiDAR, KMLabs (Partial acquisitions by Thorlabs), Coherent Technologies (acquired by Lockheed Martin), Precision Photonics Corporation (acquired by IDEX corp.), ILX Lightwave, and Network Photonics.

Prior roles as VP/GM at Insight LiDAR, CTO at KMLabs, and Director of Business Development at Precision Photonics provide the foundation for guiding new product release and technology strategy for Infleqtion. He has managed over 15 SBIR programs, completed the lead optical scientist role on a rapid, ~$60M flagship demonstration program for LM Space Systems Company, and led three product teams to SPIE Prism Award finalist spots. After completing a BS in Physics from the University of Wyoming, Dr. Wood became a graduate student at CU-Boulder under the direction of Dr. Carl Wieman (2001 Physics Nobel Laureate). This work involved many high-performance lasers to study extremely small parity-violating atomic effects, culminating in the 1998 Award for Outstanding Doctoral Thesis in Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics by the American Physical Society. He then received a National Research Council post-doctoral fellowship position with Dr. David Wineland at the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) in Boulder (2012 Physics Nobel Laureate).  

In industry, Dr. Wood has lived and worked with 7 different business models through the years, is widely known and participates in multiple laser industry committees and conferences. His position at Infleqtion provides a natural way to leverage this unique combination of technical skills, project management, and business development.