Matthew Neeley

Also known as M. Neeley

Matthew Neeley is a physicist on Google's Quantum AI team, which works toward the first useful quantum computer. They earned a physics BS at Stanford in 2004 and a PhD at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2010 in John Martinis's group, and in 2010 were first author of a Nature paper on three-qubit entangled states. After a stint as a staff researcher at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, they joined Nest Labs as a software engineer in 2012 and then moved to Google's Quantum AI team. There they coauthored the 2019 Nature paper on the Sycamore processor and the 2024 Nature paper on below-threshold surface code memories on the Willow processor. In 2025, they coauthored a paper on radiation-induced error bursts in superconducting qubit arrays and developed its software infrastructure with Wojciech Mruczkiewicz.

Now at: Google
Badges: Bridge

Timeline

2004–2010

Physics degrees at Stanford and UCSB

They earn a BS in physics from Stanford University in 2004 and a PhD in physics from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2010. At Santa Barbara they work on superconducting qubits in John Martinis's group.
2009–2010

Photon states and three-qubit entanglement

In 2009, they are among the authors, with John Martinis, of a Nature paper that prepares arbitrary quantum states in an electromagnetic resonator using a superconducting phase qubit. In 2010, they are first author of a Nature paper in which three superconducting phase qubits create and measure GHZ and W entangled states.
By 2012

Lincoln Laboratory and Nest Labs

After graduate school, they work as a staff researcher at MIT Lincoln Laboratory on superconducting qubits and resonators. In 2012, they join Nest Labs as a software engineer.
2017

A blueprint for quantum supremacy

In February 2017, they give a talk at the SQuInT workshop in Baton Rouge titled "Scaling superconducting qubits: Toward a demonstration of quantum supremacy." In September 2017, they are among the authors of the arXiv paper "A blueprint for demonstrating quantum supremacy with superconducting qubits," which uses 9 superconducting qubits to demonstrate a path toward quantum supremacy.
2019

Sycamore and quantum supremacy

In October 2019, they are among the Google AI Quantum authors of the Nature paper on the Sycamore processor. Sycamore takes about 200 seconds to sample a quantum circuit a million times, a task the authors estimate would take a state-of-the-art classical supercomputer approximately 10,000 years.
December 2024

Error correction on Willow

In December 2024, Nature publishes the Google Quantum AI paper "Quantum error correction below the surface code threshold," on whose author list they appear. It presents two below-threshold surface code memories on the Willow processor, including a 101-qubit distance-7 code.
June 2025

Radiation and correlated phase errors

In June 2025, they are among the authors of an arXiv paper on correlated error bursts in a gap-engineered superconducting qubit array. The paper finds that radiation impacts shift qubit frequencies and cause correlated phase errors, and they develop its software infrastructure with Wojciech Mruczkiewicz.
As of October 2026

On Google's Quantum AI team

They work on Google's Quantum AI team, which aims to build the first useful quantum computer. A 2025 paper they co-authored gives their affiliation as Google Quantum AI in Santa Barbara, California.