Behind the Scenes with Talena Huff
Taleana shares her personal insights with FutureCite on how watching Carl Sagan at a very young age set her on her future career pathway:
- “I guess you could say I am a long-time fan of science. I loved it even when I was little and wanted to be a physicist from a young age. Knowing the intimate details of the “how’s” and “why’s” about the world and being able to make predictions based on that hard data is always something I enjoyed. As a kid I used to disassemble my toys and various household electronics, much to my parent’s frustration I’m sure. This progressed to larger more complex things, as I became older and more knowledgeable. A favourite hobby of mine today is still doing mechanics on my lifted old Jeep. This all gave me that foundational confidence to know that not only could I delve into the finer workings of things, but I could use what I learned to tackle complex problems.”
About Taleana Huff
Taleana is a Nanoelectronics Development Scientist at Quantum Silicon Inc where she works with colleagues, consultants, academic researchers, and customers to conceive, develop, track and improve atom-scale electronic circuits and devices. She also brings her experience at NASA where she operated the International Space Station Agricultural Camera with applications toward optimizing crop yields using IR reflectometry.
Taleana is also a PhD Candidate at the University of Alberta (U of A) focusing on building and characterizing silicon atom-scale, ultra low power electronics for beyond Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) electronics and quantum applications. She also holds a Master of Science in Condensed Matter and Physics, U of A, and a Bachelors of Astro Physics, University of North Dakota.
About Quantum Silicon
The Quantum Silicon is a privately held company based in Alberta. The company’s approach harnesses electrons in collections of silicon atoms to represent, transmit, and create information. Their process does not use electric current. The result is a new generation of computing circuits that are tiny, fast, and cool. Using this approach, QSi creates classical computing devices, quantum computing devices, and hybrid classical/quantum devices tailored to solve previously intractable problems.
