PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Hartmut Neven

Hartmut Neven is a researcher whose work connects machine learning with quantum computing. He earned a robotics Ph.D. in 1996, later became a research professor at USC, and started computer-vision companies; Google acquired Neven Vision in 2006. At Google, he co-founded Project Glass and Quantum AI, and his teams moved from early quantum image-recognition algorithms to visual-recognition competitions and the Sycamore and Willow processors. In 2026, his group expanded its research to neutral-atom computing.

Now at
Google
Works
204
Citations
18,776
h-index
61

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 14 October 2026.

Photo of Hartmut Neven

Timeline

  1. 1996

    A robotics doctorate

    He earns a Ph.D. with a thesis on dynamics for vision-guided autonomous mobile robots, then becomes a research professor in computer science and theoretical neuroscience at the University of Southern California.

  2. 2006

    A vision company joins Google

    Before joining Google, he starts two computer-vision companies. Google acquires the second, Neven Vision, in 2006; it launches face login, face filters and visual search for mobile phones.

  3. 2007–2008

    Learning on quantum hardware

    He implements the first machine-learning and image-recognition algorithms on a quantum computer in 2007. A 2008 paper with Geordie Rose and William G. Macready formulates image recognition as a QUBO problem for D-Wave adiabatic processors.

  4. 2011–2012

    From Glass to Quantum AI

    At Google, he co-founds Project Glass, and his team builds its first prototype in 2011. He founds Google Quantum AI in 2012.

  5. 2014

    A win at ImageNet

    His teams win visual-recognition competitions in face, object and text recognition, including ImageNet for objects in 2014.

  6. 2019

    A Sycamore milestone

    Google's Sycamore chip completes a computation in 200 seconds that would take the world's fastest supercomputer 10,000 years.

  7. December 2024

    Willow works below threshold

    Willow reaches below-threshold surface-code error correction, a milestone in a challenge pursued for almost 30 years.

  8. March 2026

    Adding neutral atoms

    He announces Google Quantum AI's expansion into neutral-atom quantum computing alongside superconducting research.

Sources and credits

Photo: Quantum Computing Guy, via Wikimedia Commons. License: CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: commons.wikimedia.org. Cropped to a square and resized. Ask us to remove or replace this photo.

  1. Hartmut Neven research.google. Checked 14 October 2026.
  2. Hartmut Neven Profile Page xp-org-b7gmcyfwbjeyfcaj.westus-01.azurewebsites.net. Checked 14 October 2026.
  3. [0804.4457] Image recognition with an adiabatic quantum computer I. Mapping to quadratic unconstrained binary optimization arxiv.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  4. Meet Willow, our state-of-the-art quantum chip blog.google. Checked 14 October 2026.
  5. Computing takes a quantum leap forward blog.google. Checked 14 October 2026.
  6. Quantum error correction below the surface code threshold nature.com. Checked 14 October 2026.
  7. Google Quantum AI to include neutral atom computing blog.google. Checked 14 October 2026.