By day, Isabella Martinez helps Booz Allen’s clients understand how they can use quantum computing-based solutions to solve problems that were once thought unsolvable. By night, she works on writing her book—the second entry in an independently published series of young adult-oriented magical realist novels.
Fantasy novelist and quantum technologist may seem like two very different roles for one person to fill, but both require certain qualities that Isabella possesses in spades: vision, imagination, and an innate understanding of that liminal space where possibility and reality intermingle.
“We help our clients understand what quantum can do today,” she says, “but we also help them look to the future so they are ready for when the next generation of quantum capabilities arrives.”
Booz Allen clients aren’t the only ones Isabella helps envision the future a little more clearly. In her role as a mentor, she’s helping the next generation of women and people of color see themselves as future leaders in science and business. “There are not many young women, particularly people of color, who can say that they have had a hand in building a research group at a major consulting company,” she says. “Through the support of my managers, mentors, sponsors, and colleagues, I have had the opportunity to do that and more. I take the confidence and skills learned from that and apply it to my mentorship and other volunteering work.”
We recently had a chance to interview Isabella to learn more about her job and what makes her tick.
