Homeschooled to Harvard: A Quantum Leap

In a way, it was dance that set Abigail McClain Gomez on the path that eventually culminated with a PhD in physics from Harvard’s Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. After participating at 16 in a pre-professional program at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre in New York, she seriously considered returning to the city for college at Fordham University, which had its own partnership with Ailey. But McClain Gomez was as passionate about math and science as she was about dance. 

“Fordham had a degree where you dance and study at Alvin Ailey, and I was considering that, but I didn’t want to only do the arts,” McClain Gomez remembers. “And I think because of the time commitment of dance, a double major wasn’t allowed. So, I auditioned for the dance team at the Georgia Institute of Technology and I was given a contract. I majored in aerospace engineering and, with encouragement from one of my professors, I decided to pursue my love of physics in graduate school and wound up at Harvard.”

A Georgia native homeschooled through high school in a close-knit Southern Baptist community, McClain Gomez graduated from Harvard Griffin GSAS in November 2025. Along the way, she not only continued to perform, but also got married and, shortly before she defended her dissertation, became a parent. She builds on her PhD research today at Fortune 500 firm IBM, where she is part of the effort to make quantum computing a practical reality. 

What we can do with the [quantum computers] we have now, even if they’re noisy, even if they’re not perfect? 
—Abigail McClain Gomez

Great Potential—in Theory 

Conventional computers operate with bits of information that can be one or zero, kind of like a light switch can be in the on or off position. In a quantum computer, however, individual bits—called qubits—are more like dimmer switches. Qubits can be somewhere between one and zero. And by interacting, the “brightness” of one qubit can come to depend on the brightness of another. 

These properties could enable a quantum computer to solve complex problems far more efficiently than conventional computers. With that capacity, the machines could enable the rapid design and development of life-saving drugs, simulate superconducting materials that would revolutionize technology and clean energy, and even offer insight into the underlying structure of space and time.

The challenge is accuracy. The delicate states of qubits make them highly susceptible to unwanted environmental interactions and, therefore, errors.  That’s why many scientists are focused on the development of “fault-tolerant” quantum computers. “Eventually we want the error rates to be very low,” McClain Gomez says. “We’re getting closer, but it’s still a few years in the future.” 

Good Enough

In her research both at Harvard and at IBM, McClain Gomez takes a slightly different approach. “The physicist DiVincenzo came up with a list of criteria you need in order to build a functioning quantum computer,” she explains. “And so I framed my research as, ‘Okay, what if we can’t reach these criteria exactly in this era? What we can do with the devices we have now, even if they’re noisy, even if they’re not perfect?”

McClain Gomez’s first project used machine learning to analyze quantum data and try to reconstruct quantum states from that information—a little like using the shadow cast by a statue to recreate it in three-dimensions. She also looked at distributed quantum computing. Conventional computers can be networked or linked together, vastly increasing their power. The fragility of qubits, however, makes it extremely challenging to transmit or link them. So, McClain Gomez derived an analytical expression to “decide” what information  was distributed to minimize error to see “invisible” quantum data and send approximations from one machine to another—akin to sending a collaborator a picture of a puzzle piece without sending them the actual piece itself.

Abigail’s work showed that the same computations, some more and some less efficient, can be done with systems where we only have global control knobs: one laser for the whole system versus one laser for each operation on each qubit, as the better known models use. The project, really proves a new paradigm which has huge potential impact. 
—Professor of Physics in Residence Susanne Yelin

“When she did her first project, quantum machine learning, not just machine learning from quantum data, was still much in baby shoes,” says Professor of Physics in Residence, Susanne Yelin, McClain Gomez’s PhD advisor. “So Abigail's project really described some potentially novel schemes.” 

One of McClain Gomez’s last projects at Harvard involved QuEra, a Boston-based startup firm founded by, among others, Harvard Professor of Physics Mikhail Lukin and Harvard Griffin GSAS alumnus Takuya Kitagawa. While most quantum computers use charged atoms (ions), QuEra’s use neutral atoms with no charge. McClain Gomez was part of the effort to use the natural evolution of a system in time to enable quantum machines to perform universal computation—the “holy grail” of quantum computing.

“Digital quantum computers need extremely fine-tuned control of every single qubit,” Yelin says. “Abigail’s work showed that the same computations, some more and some less efficient, can be done with systems where we only have global control knobs: one laser for the whole system versus one laser for each operation on each qubit, as the better-known models use. The project really proves a new paradigm which has huge potential impact.” 

Today, McClain Gomez continues this work in the Kendall Square office of computer giant IBM, serving as an interface between the company’s quantum computing platforms and scientists at leading institutions around the world. Unlike QuEra, IBM uses superconducting qubits cooled to near absolute zero, which do not require lasers and are manufactured in much the same way as computer chips. Dr. Pedro Rivero, global technical lead and manager at IBM Research's quantum algorithm engineering division, says McClain Gomez’s work bridges the gap between a nuanced technical understanding of quantum computing platforms and their practical application across diverse scientific domains.

“Abigail collaborates with an elite cohort of researchers and engineers to develop the methodologies that will expand quantum computing’s role as an indispensable tool for scientific discovery,” Rivero says. “By identifying high-impact applications and pushing the operational limits of current hardware, she is helping to establish the 'proof-of-value' necessary to make quantum computing a practical reality. This progress is a critical catalyst for the broader ecosystem—demonstrating tangible societal impact secures the continued investment and development funding required to ensure the quantum industry becomes both sustainable and commercially profitable.” 

By identifying high-impact applications and pushing the operational limits of current hardware, she is helping to establish the 'proof-of-value' necessary to make quantum computing a practical reality. 
—Dr. Pedro Rivero, IBM

Tech Family

McClain Gomez’s path to the pinnacle of quantum computing may be unusual, but it’s not necessarily surprising. Her father, an architect and graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology, encouraged his children to love math and science and to follow their curiosity. Her eldest brother—one of four—got his PhD in aerospace engineering from Georgia Tech, a goal McClain Gomez set for herself at an early age. “When my brother got his PhD, I think I always had that in my mind. ‘Okay, I need to go to graduate school and study,’” she says.

Taught by her mother through pre-school and much of elementary school, McClain Gomez had the freedom to learn and explore on her own as well. “My mom would teach things like spelling, and we would read a lot for history, go on field trips, so to speak,” she says. “For science, I remember really just reading textbooks, and math especially—I would work through textbooks. Occasionally, I’d have video lectures that I would watch.”

From fifth grade through much of high school, McClain Gomez attended classes at homeschool co-ops. The groups often met at a church, a function of homeschooling’s popularity in the Southern Baptist community of which her family was a part. McClain Gomez says that her social circle may have been smaller than those of other young people her age, but she didn’t feel isolated. “I loved high school. I really enjoyed my time. I had good friends through church and drama and dance and all of those things.”  

McClain Gomez had enjoyed her studies in physics, but thought that teaching would be her only professional option if she got a degree in the subject. So, she majored in aerospace engineering, as her brother had. “But after my first year, I did the intro physics class as part of the core requirements, and I ended up adding physics as a secondary major,” she says. “It took five years, but I got two degrees." 

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Abigail McClain Gomez while on the dance team at Georgia Tech.

Finding Hope in Cambridge

Harvard had not been on McClain Gomez’s radar when considering colleges. Then, an influential professor asked her to drop by his office after class one day. “He basically sat me down and said that I had to go to grad school, I needed to get a PhD, and I should either go to Harvard, MIT, or Caltech. I ended up applying to those three schools, and that’s how I ended up at Harvard in the end.”

Given McClain Gomez’s Baptist upbringing and Harvard’s reputation as a bastion of secularism, one might have expected her to feel out of place during her years at school. But she says the congregation at Cambridge’s Hope Fellowship Church made her feel welcome—and even gave her the chance to connect again with her love of performance.

“I was fortunate to find a very good church up here that I enjoy being part of,” she says. “I serve in the band on Sunday mornings sometimes, so I get to play piano and sing. It has been a huge, important part of my community and support system all through graduate school and today.”

That community expanded by one shortly before McClain Gomez defended her dissertation in July 2025 when she gave birth to her daughter, Josephine, named after the Georgia Tech professor who urged her to get a PhD. She says her advisor, Susanne Yelin, couldn’t have been more supportive of her desire for a family. 

“In the summer of 2024, I was interning for IBM in New York,” McClain Gomez remembers. “I came up to Harvard for a visit, and that’s when I had to tell Susanne, "You know, oh, I’m actually three months pregnant, due in January." She was just excited, over the moon, and happy for me. She had lots of stories to share about her own experience of pregnancy.”

While there may have been moments during her Harvard Griffin GSAS experience when she wouldn’t have volunteered information about her background—particularly her religious life—McClain Gomez says she never felt excluded on campus. The topic of religion doesn’t usually come up in the physics community. And even if it does, she sees no conflict between science and faith. 

“Our understanding of nature is so fragile,” she says. “It’s always changing. To say that something you’ve discovered is at odds with the Creator, that’s really us putting God in a box, right?”