Host Jason Michael Perry

moderates a special live panel for the

World Trade Center Institute's

AGILE Global Innovation Series, digging into what quantum actually is, why it matters,

and how Maryland became a powerhouse in the global quantum race.

The session opens with remarks from

Jeremy Rosendale,

VP of Membership & Business Development at the World Trade Center Institute,

and Kim Mentzell,

Director of the Office of Strategic Industries at the Maryland Department of Commerce,

where she leads statewide strategy across cybersecurity, aerospace, AI, and quantum.

Jason is joined by three leaders shaping the region’s quantum ecosystem:

John Sawyer of the University of Maryland,

who helped build the Mid-Atlantic Quantum Alliance;

Jessica Ponds,

CFO of Strangeworks and a voice in quantum commercialization; and

Rick Muller,

VP of Quantum Computing at IonQ and former national lab leader.

They break down the fundamentals — qubits, superposition, entanglement — and get into

real-world business use cases, talent and ecosystem development, global competition,

and the looming concept of “Q Day,” when today’s encryption may no longer be secure.

The result is a rare, clear-eyed look at a field that’s equal parts exciting, confusing,

and massively important for the future of industry.

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Special thanks to the team at the World Trade Center Institute.

Thanks to the team at WYPR,

producer Sam Bermas-Dawes, and Myrna Martinez,

Head of Operations and Marketing at PerryLabs.