Edward Farhi is a professor of physics and the director of the Center for Theoretical Physics at MIT. He is a lapsed particle physicist hoping to return to his roots when data from experiments offers new insight into how the world really works. Meanwhile he works on quantum computation, primarily focusing on algorithm design. He started collaborating with Sam in high school and with Jeffrey at MIT.

Jeffrey Goldstone, after 25 years at Cambridge University and 30 at MIT, is now Professor of Physics Emeritus. He worked on many-body theory and in the prehistoric eras of the standard model and string theory. He has been helping Eddie and Sam search for quantum algorithms for the last 10 years.

Sam Gutmann crosses the river (from the math department at Northeastern University) to work with Eddie and Jeffrey.