faculty

Chris studied quantum computing, and high performance computing, at the University of Southern California, where he graduated with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering, B.S. in Physics, and a M.S. in Physics. During his studies, he came to believe that the reason quantum phenomena seem confusing is that we don’t interact with it, at least on any tangible level that we can consciously understand. This led him to create a game called Quantum Chess, a variant of Chess built on top of a quantum simulation, that gives players the ability to experience quantum phenomena. After running a successful Kickstarter campaign, he continued work on the game, in collaboration with Spiros Michalakis from Caltech’s IQIM, eventually giving it the ability to run on actual quantum computing hardware. This was demonstrated in 2020, when Quantum Chess was run on Google’s Rainbow chip, housed in Santa Barbara.

In an effort to further lessons learned with Quantum Chess, and to challenge the world to think quantum in games, Chris founded the game development studio Quantum Realm Games. Its focus is creating games that incorporate quantum phenomena as a core gameplay mechanic.