Creston Herold is a Principal Research Scientist and Head of the Experimental Quantum Computing Branch in the Quantum Systems Division of the CIPHER Lab at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI). He has conducted experiments using both cold neutral atoms and trapped atomic ions. Creston’s early work at GTRI included implementing a few-qubit quantum algorithm in 2016. Recently, he was the principal investigator for the Optimization with Trapped Ion Qubits team under DARPA’s ONISQ program, and he is currently co-PI of the GTRI effort on the IARPA ELQ program. Creston received his B.A. in physics and chemistry from Williams College in 2006 and his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Maryland, where he conducted research in the Joint Quantum Institute before joining GTRI in 2014.