Khadijeh Sona Najafi

I attribute my success to resilience. It's about just pushing forward slowly and not giving up, especially when things get hard and tough. Being resilient is the core of being able to go through a lot of hard moments, but also the success moments. You need to be resilient to both of them, not just one, because you don't want to completely lose yourself if things go too well for you either. You can get distracted when things are going great, so resilience keeps you grounded and moving forward no matter what challenges or successes come your way.

The best career advice I've received is to focus on your strengths and use all the adversity or obstacles that you face as a force to push yourself forward. Instead of letting challenges hold you back, you transform them into motivation that propels you ahead. This mindset has helped me tremendously throughout my career, turning what could have been roadblocks into stepping stones for growth and achievement.

My advice to young women entering this industry is to just believe in themselves. Understand that sometimes it looks like the people higher than us who are the most successful had it easy, or even at their current stage they don't struggle anymore. But from what I have seen, everyone struggles to be there. It's just going to be in one form or another as you go up the ladder. The struggles don't disappear, they just change shape. Knowing that will help younger women to be resilient and keep pushing and going forward, because you realize that struggle is part of everyone's journey, no matter how successful they appear.

The opportunities in quantum computing are enormous because it's going to change the whole computing industry. It's a completely new way of computation that can affect pharmaceutical discovery, help us with ending our dependence on old energy sources and building new energy resources, and designing more smart materials. It's definitely going to impact the life of all human beings, which is why it's such a big industry right now. In terms of challenges, there are significant engineering and technical challenges to push the technology to the point where all of this can happen. It's about building and advancing quantum computers, which is a very challenging task that can take years. There are quantum computers out there currently and the technology is improving, but it requires a lot of money and government spending. It's not something you can just do in a small corner lab, it requires huge technology and resources.

The most important values to me are treating people the same whether they are below me or above me in the hierarchy. I always take care of both groups equally. Some people, when they go up in their careers, completely forget about the people under them, but I think that's wrong. Being honest is crucial to me. Giving back to the community is another core value I hold, especially as an immigrant. I really cherish what we have in the United States and don't take it for granted. I do my best to return what I've been given in many different ways, whether through community involvement or volunteer work. This commitment to giving back is a value I really try my best to keep and honor.