Future of Quantum
In its final report, the University Science Strategy Committee identified quantum science as a top priority investment for the next decade. The report noted that “the foundations for a world-leading program already exists at Yale.” (Report, 2018). Yale faculty are playing a national role in the future of quantum research through participation in initiatives such as the Co-Design Center for Quantum Advantage and the Center for Quantum Networks.
"The scientists who invented the transistor, laser, and atomic clock could not imagine the 20th-century technological revolution they would trigger. Similarly, we do not yet know all the applications the second quantum revolution will bring, but we anticipate that they could be as revolutionary as the first. If we can build practical, large-scale quantum computers, we hope to be able to . . . rapidly solve complex optimization problems of great commercial and scientific importance."
-Steven Girvin, Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics (Shelton, 2020).
Co-Design Center for Quantum Advantage
Steven Girvin who served as founding scientific director of C2QA.
As authorized through the National Quantum Initiative Act, the U.S. Department of Energy established five National Quantum Information Science Research Centers in 2020 to advance basic science and quantum-based technologies. One of those centers, the Co-design Center for Quantum Advantage (C2QA), led by Brookhaven National Laboratory with 24 participating institutions, is building the tools necessary to create scalable, distributed, and fault-tolerant quantum computer systems.
Yale plays a key role in C2QA with Steven Girvin, the Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics, having served as the founding scientific director. According to Girvin, “The mission of our center is to carry out the fundamental interdisciplinary research that will break us out of the current era of noisy, intermediate-scale quantum computers and lead the way forward into the era of practical, large-scale quantum computers. (Shelton, 2020).
Center for Quantum Networks
Official logo of the National Science Foundation.
Image credit: Adrian Apodaca
"Engineering research centers have helped shape science and technology in the United States by fostering innovation and collaboration among industry, universities and government agencies."
-Sethuraman Panchanathan, Director, National Science Foundation (Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science, 2020).
Yale is one of the core partners of the Center for Quantum Networks (CQN) funded by an initial five-year grant from the National Science Foundation in 2020 and based at the University of Arizona. CQN is taking on one of the great engineering challenges of the 21st century by developing the technical and social foundations of the quantum internet. The center aims to spur new technology industries and a competitive marketplace of quantum service providers and application developers. (CQN mission) Participating Yale faculty members include Leandros Tassiulas, John C. Malone Professor of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, who will co-lead a team to design architectures and protocols for a quantum internet, and Hong Tang, Llewellyn West Jones, Jr. Professor of Electrical Engineering & Applied Physics, who will co-lead a team focused on quantum subsystem technologies.
Yale Science Strategy Report
"The science and technology associated with quantum-mechanical phenomena have emerged in the 21st century as a new frontier of fundamental knowledge about how the universe works."
-University Science Strategy Committee Report (University Strategy Committee, 2018, p. 34).
Nick Frattini, graduate student in the Department of Applied Physics, working on his quantum computer.
Photo credit: Office of Public Affairs & Communications
President Peter Salovey identified science as a priority for academic investment in November 2016. In January 2017, then Provost Ben Polak formed the University Science Strategy Committee charged with developing priorities to define science at Yale in the next decade. The committee identified quantum science, engineering, and materials as a top-priority area. In his response to the report Salovey stated that “Investments in this area will build on and augment Yale’s leadership in fundamental quantum research with dramatic potential applications.” Recommendations include (University Science Strategy, 2018):
- Expand the scope of the existing Quantum Institute into a University-wide initiative at a scale that will attract international attention and will place Yale in a position of broad intellectual leadership.
- Expand the numbers of faculty and graduate students in quantum-related science and engineering.
- Create a central intellectual hub for quantum built on the foundation of the existing Yale Quantum Institute and expand core facilities.
- Create a multi-departmental graduate program in quantum and an undergraduate program in quantum engineering..
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