Dr Tom Harty is Co-Founder and CTO of Oxford Ionics, a University of Oxford spinout building the world's most powerful trapped-ion quantum computers using proprietary Electronic Qubit Control technology.

Tom earned an MPhysPhil and DPhil in Atomic and Laser Physics from the University of Oxford, before serving as a research fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and a senior researcher at Oxford.

Tom and his co-founder each set world records in ion-trap qubit performance during their doctoral research, including a record single-qubit gate fidelity of ~99.999%, a scientific pedigree that became the foundation of Oxford Ionics.

As CTO, Tom leads the technical development of Oxford Ionics' groundbreaking platform, which has set global records in single-qubit gate fidelity, two-qubit gate fidelity, and SPAM, and has delivered full-stack quantum systems for national R&D programs in the UK and Germany.

Oxford Ionics raised $48.4M including a Series A round, and in 2025 was acquired by US-listed quantum computing firm IonQ in a landmark deal valued at approximately $1.075 billion, the largest quantum computing acquisition to date.