Written By: Maya Chachra

Before he’s even graduated, Xavier Perkins is already stepping into the world of quantum computing and blockchain innovation—two fields shaping the future of technology. What really stands out is his current project outside of school, He noted, “Right now I am currently interning at NYU’s Center for Quantum Information Physics. I am researching superconducting qubits, which are the basic units of quantum computers, and will hopefully simulate some soon.” 

Perkins also stated that his “ultimate goal would be to send a qubit that I design myself to MIT’s Lincoln Labs (of which NYU has a partnership), and then run tests after it gets returned this coming summer.” His favorite classes right now are AP Physics MEM and Linear Algebra because they “closely align with his NYU research.” 

Some of his favorite activities while in high school were to go to Rye town and play sports with his friends. He deeply enjoys spending time with his family and friends and can’t wait to make new friends in college where he plans to focus on Physics. Rye Country Day has been lucky to have him especially as the leader and founder of the Blockchain club. The Blockchain club focuses on how blockchain technology works and how it’s used in areas like cryptocurrency, cybersecurity, and data tracking. Members often learn through workshops, projects, and discussions about real-world applications and innovations in the field. Blockchain technology is a type of digital system that records information in a secure, transparent, and unchangeable way.

Xavier stated that his interest in Physics started junior year in Dr. Krasovec’s physics class. He loved this class, and it encouraged and allowed his relationship with physics to grow. He describes how he had done summer engineering projects but never really understood how it worked until he took AP Physics 1. Perkins says “my favorite way to see Physics is through labs and real life applications.” He also often reads about quantum mechanics and physics, and most everything he reads pertains to his NYU research and projects. He also goes to the Quantum Mechanics lab at NYU two to three times a week to work on labs and gain more knowledge for his research. This gives him both experience and genuine excitement, because he loves what he does so much that it barely feels like work.Another exciting project that Perkins is working on is creating the Blockchain Technological and Entrepreneurial winter course at Stanford University. He works with the professor to plan class materials and guest speakers. He currently has nearly a full lineup of prominent figures in the areas of finance and crypto that will fly out to Stanford to speak, some of whom include the Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, CEO of Franklin Templeton, and individuals from crypto companies like the Ethereum Foundation and Solana. He is also working to get a panel of tokenized securities with the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (NASDAQ), of which he will introduce and possibly moderate. Tokenized securities are financial assets that have been put into blockchain technology.