Quantum science experts shared insights and sparked new opportunities during two-day gathering
The Center for Molecular Quantum Transduction (CMQT) gathered multidisciplinary experts from across the country for its Third Annual Symposium on October 26 and 27.
CMQT is a US Department of Energy (DOE) sponsored Energy Frontier Research Center. Its mission is to develop the fundamental scientific understanding needed to carry out quantum-to-quantum transduction, which is the coherent exchange of information between quantum systems.
“Quantum information science seeks to harness the fundamental quantum nature of matter and energy to greatly advance computation, communication, and sensing. It has major implications for both the United States and global economies,” shared Michael R. Wasielewski, CMQT Director and Clare Hamilton Hall Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern. “We were thrilled to bring researchers together to share recent advancements and opportunities for future discovery,” said Wasielewski, who is also Co-Executive Director of Northwestern’s Paula M. Trienens Institute for Sustainability and Energy, where CMQT is based.
CMQT is comprised of an interdisciplinary team of chemists, physicists, and materials scientists from nine universities across the country. The symposium gathered principal investigators, students, and postdoctoral scholars to discuss new and emerging advancements in quantum information science.
The event’s keynote address was delivered by David D. Awschalom, Liew Family Professor and Deputy Director of the Pritzker School for Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago. He is also the inaugural director of Q-NEXT, a US DOE Quantum Information Science Research Center, Senior Scientist at Argonne National Laboratory, and Director of the Chicago Quantum Exchange (CQE).
In his address, Awschalom explored the future of quantum technologies and opportunities for industry collaboration to “atomically-engineer qubits for nuclear memories, entangled registers, sensors and networks for science and technology.”
With opening remarks from Wasielewski, the second day of the symposium featured lectures from Mark A. Eriksson (Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison), Laura Gagliardi (Univ. of Chicago), Jens Koch (Northwestern University), James Rondinelli (Northwestern University), Paul Weiss (UCLA), and Stephen D. Wilson (UC Santa Barbara). Speakers shared expert insights on topics ranging from superconducting qubits to quantum sensing of magnetic fields as well as how to understand and control charge, heat, and spin at atomically precise interfaces.
Advances like these have, in just the last few years, demonstrated that a future quantum computing technology in silicon will likely integrate sophisticated techniques and knowledge cutting across many different academic departments, from electrical engineering to materials science, computer science, and physics.”
Researchers, students, and faculty members from CMQT member institutions attended presentations and had the chance to share about ongoing research at their respective institutions and engage directly with researchers during an afternoon poster session. Otherwise dispersed across the country, graduate students connected with peers, traded theories about the future of the field, and explored the unique investigations happening across and between the research groups.
As quantum computing, sensing, and communications gain more traction and are increasingly pursued by market and industry actors, there will be a need to develop the next generation of workers and leaders. Following its recent designation as a U.S. Tech Hub for quantum technologies, the Chicago region will play a critical role in developing the quantum workforce and the next generation of leaders in the field. The symposium created space for those at the forefront of cutting-edge research to assess the diversity of existing quantum research and to inspire new endeavors.
Learn more about the speakers and read their full abstracts on the Third Annual CMQT Symposium website.