“There is going to be a lot of change over the next 20–30 years, and the most important thing is going to be our ability to change.”
Meeting Dr. Stephanie Simmons is to marvel at her intellectual horsepower while simultaneously appreciating her humility and dogged determination. As an Oxford-trained PhD physicist, Dr. Simmons is a leader at the frontiers of technology, having founded the groundbreaking quantum computing company Photonic Inc. According to technology enthusiasts, quantum computing will revolutionize many industries, with exponential impact across pharma, biotech, energy, finance, logistics, and cybersecurity. Simmons’ Vancouver-based company is at the forefront of this work, with a Microsoft partnership and major investments from RBC, Telus, and the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation, which manages roughly $250 billion in pensions and savings on behalf of public institutions.
According to Dr. Simmons, she is living her dream. “I fell in love with quantum computing at the age of 16,” she says, reflecting on her pre-Internet, pre-cellphone years in Waterloo, when she first learned that quantum computing could teleport information and potentially change history. Despite her early fascination with the field, Stephanie’s path to becoming a leading technology entrepreneur was far from linear. She notes that her high school art teacher thought she would pursue the arts, while her math teacher believed she would pursue mathematics.
Her math teacher was partly right. Simmons went on to pursue a degree in pure mathematics and mathematical physics at the University of Waterloo, followed by a PhD at Oxford and postdoctoral work in quantum computing systems. Yet despite this rigorous academic trajectory, she describes her journey as circuitous and admits that deciding where to focus was not always easy. Ultimately, quantum computing seemed to bring together her varied interests.
“I’ve always had interests across different disciplines, art, math, computing, and quantum ended up being a field where all of those ways of thinking actually help.”
Dr. Simmons describes herself as a “Venn diagram human,” someone who can move across disciplines and speak multiple technical languages. As a woman in deep tech, she is a minority in her field. She believes this difference can be an advantage. Not fitting the dominant mold encourages her to question the status quo and bring a healthy skepticism to widely held assumptions. In her view, this mindset often fuels innovation.
“Any minority in a majority-dominated industry naturally questions the assumptions that everyone else takes for granted,” she says.
As a leader in deep tech, Dr. Simmons also speaks about the importance of skills that are sometimes dismissed as “soft.” In her view, these skills are actually a superpower, allowing her to build a high-functioning culture within a traditionally individualistic industry. Technical fields often reward individual brilliance without teaching or evaluating collaboration. In the AI era, and in deep tech more broadly, she believes human collaboration will become an increasingly important multiplier of performance. Excelling in the hard sciences alone will not be enough in a world where social intelligence and the ability to build strong teams will matter just as much.
She credits determination and perseverance as critical to her success, explaining, “Talent is just your starting point. Work ethic is how quickly you can climb.”
Some of Dr. Simmons’ most compelling advice centers on self-belief. She notes that far too many people hold themselves back with self-limiting labels such as “I’m not a tech person.” According to Simmons, many people stop themselves before they even begin, rather than allowing themselves to learn step by step.
“The brain is a learning machine,” she says. “People are capable of far more than they assume. People self-limit way too much. Everything is intimidating until it’s boring.”
This growth mindset is deeply ingrained in her approach to life and work, and it is a message she shares widely with others.
Looking ahead, Dr. Simmons is excited not only about Photonic’s potential to drive technological change, but also about the broader transformation underway. She believes adaptability will be one of the most important skills of the future.
“There is going to be a lot of change over the next 20–30 years, and the most important thing will be our ability to change.”
It is this human resilience, combined with creativity and collaboration, that will help us thrive in a world we may barely recognize a decade from now, and one that Dr. Simmons herself will help shape.