Britton Plourde, professor of physics, was quoted in a Scientific American article titled, What’s a Qubit? 3 Ways Scientists Build Quantum Computers. A professor at Syracuse University since 2005, Plourde is a leading expert in quantum computing, the field in which researchers are working to develop new computers capable of generating solutions to complex problems that are impossible to solve on the best conventional computers today. While classic computers store and process information using bits, quantum computers use qubits, which allows researchers to explore myriad solutions to a problem simultaneously instead of one at a time.