Wheeler Lecture 2026: 'Mind the Gap in Quantum Computing'

The 2026 Wheeler Lecture will focus on the 'Challenges & Opportunities in Closing the Algorithms-to-Devices Gap in Quantum Computing'.

That's the topic chosen by this year's speaker, Prof Margaret Martonosi, the W. M. Addy ’82 University Professor at Princeton University. Her research area is computer architecture, with contributions to both classical and quantum hardware and software systems.

The Lecture will take place here in-person at 15:00 (BST) on Wednesday 4 November. It is free to attend, but advance registration is required. If you would like to attend, please register here. 

Abstract

"From its initial proposal, Quantum Computing has had captivating potential, and scientists have worked on advancing toward that potential. Quantum Computing has now reached an interesting and important inflection point. The Algorithms-to-Devices gap in Quantum Computing refers to the orders of magnitude difference between the resource quantity/quality needed by Quantum Computing algorithms, and what has been successfully built today.

"Computing research can help Quantum Computing systems close this gap, by develop the crucial intermediate tool flows and hybrid classical-quantum techniques that can move towards practical quantum utility. I will discuss our recent advances in these topic areas, and more broadly advocate for the role that computer scientists must play for Quantum Computing to reach its full potential."

Our speaker

Margaret Martonosi is the W. M. Addy ’82 University Professor at Princeton University, where she has been on the faculty since 1994. Her research area is computer architecture, with contributions to both classical and quantum hardware and software systems. Prof Martonosi is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Fellow of IEEE and ACM. In 2021, she received computer architecture’s highest honour, the ACM/IEEE Eckert-Mauchly Award, for her work in power-efficient computer architecture.

For those who can't attend in-person, this lecture will also be livestreamed.

The Wheeler Lectures

Our annual distinguished lectures are named after David Wheeler, one of the early pioneers of Computer Science. In the late 1940s, David started his PhD in what was then known as the University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory (and subsequently became first the Computer Laboratory and then the Department of Computer Science and Technology.) After graduating in 1951, he then spent time at the University of Illinois before returning to the UK. He continued to work in this Department right up until his death, a decade after he had officially retired. 

David worked on the original EDSAC computer and wrote one of the first computer programs to be stored in a computer's working memory. He pioneered the use of sub-routines and is particularly remembered for his work on data compression.

David was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1981, one of the earliest computer scientists to be so honoured. In October 2003, he was made a Fellow of the Computer History Museum for his invention of the closed subroutine, his architectural contributions to the ILLIAC, the Cambridge Ring, and computer testing.

You can find full details of all our previous Wheeler Lectures here.