Dr. Heike Riel is IBM Fellow, Head of Science & Technology and Lead of IBM Research Quantum Europe & Africa. She leads the Science of Quantum & Information Technologies department aiming to create scientific and technological breakthroughs in Quantum Computing and Technologies, Physics of Artificial Intelligence, Nanoscience and Nanotechnology and to explore new directions to computing. She is a distinguished expert in semiconductor electronic and optoelectronic devices, nanotechnology and nanosciences and focuses her research on advancing the frontiers of information technology through the physical sciences.