Heh, wow. Microsoft must want this guy really bad:
The Dutch quantum computer expert and professor at Delft Technical University, Leo Kouwenberg, has been hired by Microsoft. But instead of coming to work everyday, work will come to him. He will keep teaching at the Delft University, and Microsoft is going to build a quantum computer lab in our university for him to do research at.
Currently, the professor does his research in an already existing quantum lab at the university, of which he is one of the founders, and which curently sees over a hundred scientists and technicians doing fundamental research on the building blocks of quantum computers.
Damn, building a whole new lab just to employ one guy. Makes sense though, Delft University is where the breakthroughs were and are being made.
With Trump as head of state, we should be wary of industrial espionage though.. /sarcasm
EDIT: together with Kouwenberg, Microsoft also hires the Danish phycisist Charles Marcus. Marcus and Kouwenberg have been working for years, doing research mainly into so called 'topological quantumbits', which are less susceptible to discturbance than ordinary quantum bits.
Kouwenberg was the first, a few years ago, to realize superconductive nano wires, which would be very suitable for topological quantum bits. Marcus is working on something similar.
Kouwenberg says even he himself is somewhat surprised by his career step. "I started work here as a student. I never thought that what we did would ever be of use for anything at all"
EDIT: hmm. perhaps Microsoft wants to upgrade Deep Mind to a quantum network and would rather it be across the atlantic so they can nuke it when it awakens