Government Prepares for a Post-Quantum Future

Celia Merzbacher is the Director of the Quantum Economic Development Consortium (QED-C).

Bassam Al-Khalidi is the Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer at Axiad and a 20+ year veteran of identity and access management. He has led large-scale deployments of phishing-resistant authentication, CAC/PIV smart cards, and PKI across US federal, healthcare, and enterprise environments. His work centers on ICAM modernization, designing FICAM-aligned architectures, credential lifecycle automation and PQC that operationalize Zero Trust. A practitioner at heart, Bassam bridges policy and engineering, helping agencies and fortune-class enterprises meet Zero Trust framework while simplifying day-to-day operations. He regularly advises security teams on building resilient trust infrastructures for users, devices, and workloads in hybrid cloud.

The Honorable Kirsten A. Davies was sworn in as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the Department of War (DoW) on December 23, 2025, following her presidential nomination and U.S. Senate confirmation. As the principal advisor to the Secretary of War on all matters relating to information management, information technology, cybersecurity, and information assurance, her core mission is to accelerate decision advantage for the warfighter and ensure America’s technological superiority.

As CIO, Ms. Davies exercises enterprise-wide leadership over the Department’s information technology and cybersecurity strategy, budget, and execution. She is responsible for ensuring the resilience and operational effectiveness of the digital infrastructure that underpins warfighting, readiness, and strategic deterrence. Her authority extends to modernizing legacy environments and strengthening cyber resilience against a contested threat landscape. Her mandate includes oversight of critical capabilities such as C4 systems, position, navigation, and timing, and electromagnetic spectrum management. Furthermore, she exercises authority, direction, and control on behalf of the Secretary of War over the strategic direction of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), the NSA’s Cyber Security Directorate (CSD) Information System Security Program (ISSP), and the Department of War Cyber Crime Center (DC3).

Ms. Davies brings nearly two decades of executive leadership experience at the intersection of cybersecurity, enterprise technology, and large-scale organizational transformation. Prior to her federal service, she served as Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for Unilever, where she led global cyber resilience for one of the world’s largest consumer goods enterprises. Her distinguished career includes technology and cyber roles at The Estée Lauder Companies, Barclays-Africa Group, Hewlett Packard Enterprises, and Siemens. Across these roles, she built high-performing teams to defend complex global operations—from manufacturing and supply chains to financial networks—against advanced persistent cyber threats.

In addition to her corporate leadership, Ms. Davies is the founder of the Institute for Cyber, a nonprofit organization dedicated to citizen safety and security in the digital universe. Ms. Davies holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Politics and Government from the University of Puget Sound. She has pursued advanced studies in international law, business, and human rights at John Hopkins University and the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, and holds a professional certification in change management from the Prosci Institute.

Prathibha Rama is a computer engineering and security researcher at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, where she specializes in applied cryptography and emerging technologies. Her research spans classical and advanced cryptographic techniques, including encryption systems, security protocols and modern cryptographic frameworks. Most recently, her work explores the intersection of cryptography and quantum computing, focusing on the challenges and opportunities posed by next-generation computational paradigms. She earned a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering, with a minor in mathematics, and a master’s degree in computer engineering, with a focus on applied cryptography, from the Rochester Institute of Technology.