Jessica Pointing

Jessica Pointing has engaged in quantum computing research at Stanford University, Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is currently a PhD student specializing in quantum computing at Stanford University and has been awarded the Knight-Hennessy Fellowship. She completed her Bachelors degree in Physics and Computer Science, with high honors and as a member of the academic honors society Phi Beta Kappa, from Harvard University after spending her first two years of university studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

She founded the Stanford Quantum Computing Association and the Harvard College Quantum Computing Association. Jessica was the audience-voted winner for the Quantum Matters Science Communication Competition. Jessica has been invited to speak about quantum computing at conferences internationally, including IBM’s annual conference, Oracle’s Code One conference, and as a panelist at the Forbes CIO Summit.

Jessica has interned as a software engineer at Google, management consultant at McKinsey and Company, investment banker at Goldman Sachs, and strategist at Morgan Stanley. She is the founder and editor-in-chief of Optimize Guide, a blog about life optimization and founded the Now Know Organization, which received funding from Google to teach technology to young people.

Jessica was selected for the Forbes 30 under 30 list in the Science category. Jessica won the IBM Q Quantum Computing Award for winning, with a team, IBM's first quantum computing hackathon. She was also a prize-winner at the Creative Destruction Lab quantum computing hackathon. She has been awarded the McKinsey Women's Impact Award, MIT Award for Distinguished Achievement in Leadership, and has been named a Google Anita Borg Scholar and John Harvard Scholar for being in the top 5% of the class at Harvard. She is also a Microsoft Scholar, Palantir Scholar, Adobe Research Scholar, Morgan Stanley Scholar, Goldman Sachs Scholar, Neo Scholar, Society of Women Engineers Scholar and Society of Geophysicists Scholar.