James Weaver is currently an IBM Quantum Developer Advocate. Before that James was (and still is) a world-class developer, author, and speaker with a passion for both quantum computing and music. He is a Java Champion, and a JavaOne Rockstar and has written several books on Java, J2EE, the Pro JavaFX series, and Java with Raspberry Pi. Here's a video of James from a few years ago when he was with Pivotal. He tweets as @JavaFXpert, can be reached on LinkedIn and blogs in various places including at Cultured Ear (where he weaves music into his role as a Quantum Developer Advocate for IBM). As an IBM Quantum Developer Advocate, James speaks internationally at software technology conferences. Here's a blog article on Quantum Computing and Java from about the time when he moved to IBM Q. Here's a video from Devoxx Belgium 2017 where he and Johan Vos are being interviewed after their presentation.

In Jim's experience concepts that classical developers typically find challenging after a cursory investigation of quantum computing include: superpositions of quantum bits (qubits), quantum gates and quantum entanglement. In April 2019 he offered a first seminar to classical developers in San Francisco, a gentle introduction to quantum computing in five steps: a brief history, visualizing superpositions, composing quantum algorithms with quantum gates, understanding Shor's potentially RSA encryption busting algorithm, and information on the current status of quantum computers. For our event James has agreed to demonstrate Qiskit and show us how to work with Qiskit Blocks in the classroom (and for good measure here's Abe Asfaw with information on Qiskit Blocks as part of the official Qiskit series of introductory videos).