Quantum technology has the potential to revolutionise whole fields of computing; from cryptography to molecular ’’s research focuses on quantum computing, algorithms, and complexity theory. He co-developed the area of quantum communication complexity (quantum distributed computing), and demonstrated for the first time that certain communication tasks can be solved (exponentially) more efficient with quantum resources. This showed that quantum computers can not only speed up computations, but also communication – which opened up a whole new application area of quantum information processing. Buhrman co-developed a general method to establish the limitations of quantum computers, and a framework for the study of quantum algorithms, which is now textbook material. In 2001, Harry Buhrman became professor of algorithms, complexity theory, and quantum computing at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and group leader of the Quantum Computing Group at the Center for Mathematics and Informatics (CWI). Buhrman co-founded QuSoft in 2015, a research center for quantum software, for which he is also co-director. During his career, Buhrman obtained various prestigious awards. Buhrman also has a leading role in the national Quantum Software Consortium that was awarded an NWO Gravity grant in 2017.” The event is chaired by award-winning science writer Philip Ball, whose latest book is entitled 'Beyond Weird: Why Everything You Thought You Knew About Quantum Physics Is Different.' The Ri is on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ri_science and Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/royalinstitution and Tumblr: http://ri-science.tumblr.com/ Our editorial policy: http://www.rigb.org/home/editorial-policy Subscribe for the latest science videos: http://bit.ly/RiNewsletter