Bio
Dr. Ashlyn Burch is an experimental quantum research scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, working closely with both the Quantum Computing and Sensing group and the Quantum Communications and Networking group. She received a B.S. degree in physics from Georgia College and State University in 2015 and then her M.S. in 2017 and her Ph.D. in physics in 2020 from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In December 2020, she joined Sandia National Laboratories as a postdoctoral appointee before being converted to a Senior Member of the Technical Staff in early 2023. During that time, she worked as an operator of the ion trap testbed. During her time at SNL and ORNL, she remains deeply engaged in quantum workforce development by leading and participating in a wide range of quantum education outreach initiatives. Her current research interests include the development of distributed, hybrid quantum computing and the integration of trapped ion architectures into heterogeneous quantum networking systems.