Dr. Hanhee Paik is the IBM Director of the Quantum Algorithm Centers. In this role, she is responsible for the success of IBM’s major quantum algorithm and application research partnerships with leading institutions worldwide, including RIKEN, the University of Tokyo, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the University of Chicago, Yonsei University, RPI, and MIT. Previously, she served as Head of IBM Quantum Japan, where she established the IBM Quantum Japan team and mission to focus on the development of quantum‑centric supercomputing technologies in collaboration with Japanese partners.

Paik earned her Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Maryland, College Park. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the university’s Laboratory for Physical Sciences (LPS) before moving to Yale University to work with Professors Robert Schoelkopf, 2025 Nobel Laureate Michel Devoret, and Steve Girvin. She later joined IBM to advance quantum processor architectures and quantum computing systems, notably leading the technical team that developed IBM’s first 16-qubit quantum computers, available to the world.

From 2020 to 2022, Paik served as Chief of Staff to Dr. Jay Gambetta, Vice President, IBM Quantum, at the time. Following that role, she led the development of large‑scale global quantum partnerships.

In 2021, Paik was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society for pioneering a novel superconducting qubit architecture that catalyzed the commercialization of superconducting quantum computing and for her significant contributions to advancing quantum computing research across the industry.