Barak Bussel

Board Chair

MS ’93, MBA ’95

Barak Bussel is a serial entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist. Focused on harnessing scientific innovation into transformative technologies for the advancement of humanity, Barak is managing partner of venture capital firm 7i Capital, which he founded to invest in leading early-stage companies in areas of global impact including quantum computing, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, semiconductors, robotics, clean energy, and space.

A physicist by training, Barak is Chairman of UCLA’s multidisciplinary Center for Quantum Science & Engineering. Barak helped spearhead the recent creation of the UCLA Quantum Innovation Hub, a cornerstone of the university’s massive new billion-dollar Research Park. The Quantum Innovation Hub is advancing the state of the art in quantum information science & technology to help tackle some of global society’s grandest challenges in energy, food scarcity, and climate change. Alongside the California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy in life sciences, the Hub aims to become one of the world’s premier quantum ecosystems.

For more than two decades, Barak has also been a managing partner at Third Wave Ventures, a Los Angeles-based venture capital firm. From 2016 through 2019, he served as president of Third Wave’s photonics portfolio company, which developed cutting-edge chips for applications ranging from augmented reality to renewable energy. Earlier in his career, Barak was on the board of early machine vision pioneer Neven Vision until its subsequent acquisition by Google.

Barak holds an MS in Theoretical Physics from UCLA and an MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School. He also holds a BS degree in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics from Harvey Mudd College. Barak previously gave the commencement address at the UCLA Physics & Astronomy graduation. He is fluent in Hebrew and conversant in Mandarin.

David Chang

BS '90, MS '92, PhD '98

David Chang is a triple Bruin, completing his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in physics from UCLA. He has worked at HRL Laboratories in Malibu, CA (formerly Hughes Research Laboratories) since graduation and is currently the department manager of the Microsystems Group, specializing in high performance MEMS sensor research and development.

Omar Hurricane

MS '92, PhD '94

Omar Hurricane completed a BS Summa Cum Laude in physics and applied mathematics from Metropolitan State University of Denver in 1990 and his MS and Ph.D. in physics from UCLA in 1992 and 1994, respectively. Hurricane is Chief Scientist for the inertial confinement fusion (ICF) program at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a Fellow of the American Physical Society, and the recipient of the American Nuclear Society 2021 Edward Teller Award for his “visionary scientific insights and leadership of National Ignition Facility (NIF) experiments resulting in the achievement of fuel gain, an alpha-heating-dominated plasma, and a burning plasma.” Prior to Lawrence Livermore, he worked as a postdoc at the UCLA Institute of Plasma & Fusion Research.

Michael "Mike" Jura

Dr. Michael Jura is a Senior Physicist at HRL Laboratories, where he has worked since 2014. He leads the Materials Characterization group, which tests quantum dot spin qubit devices at low temperature, and he also directs qubit failure analysis and quantum yield engineering efforts. He has helped develop and validate novel spin qubit designs that will enable device scaling and increase fidelity. Prior to joining HRL, Dr. Jura worked at a start-up company using silicon nanowires to improve the efficiency of solar cells. He earned his Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Stanford and bachelor’s degrees in Physics and Electrical Engineering/Computer Science from MIT.