Quantum at Yale

Yale Quantum Institute

Outside of YQI at 17 Hillhouse Ave. in New Haven, Connecticut.

“In order to do cutting edge quantum information science, you need new kinds of collaboration among engineers, physicists, computer scientists, materials scientists, and a host of other disciplines. The institute will foster those collaborations, and bring world leaders in this field here to ensure that New Haven remains an intellectual hub for quantum information science, and of quantum science more generally.”

-Robert Schoelkopf, Director of Yale Quantum Institute and
Sterling Professor of Applied Physics and of Physics (Shelton, 2015b).

Inside the Quantum Laboratories in Becton Center, researcher Jacob Curtis works on his equipment, with a dilution refrigerator open in the foreground. 

Photo credit: Florian Carle

A transformative period has been made possible by quantum theory, developed in the first half of the 20th century, explaining the fundamental laws of the atom and of light. Now, in the 21st century, the world is on the brink of a new quantum revolution and Yale researchers are paving the way.

Yale faculty members, spanning the departments of Applied Physics, Chemistry, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, and Physics are making scientific breakthroughs that would have been unimaginable only a few decades ago. YQI was founded in 2014 and launched in 2015, and had received support from W.M. Keck Foundation in 2003, to advance progress in fundamental and applied quantum science at Yale and around the globe. Yale researchers have expertise in theoretical and experimental development of new technologies to store and process quantum information. Their goal is to better understand the fundamental quantum laws that govern the universe and to harness features of quantum mechanics for novel sensors, secure communications, and eventually for the realization of large-scale quantum computers.

In the past fifteen years, under the leadership of faculty Michel Devoret, Steven Girvin, and Robert Schoelkopf and comprising more than fifty researchers, milestones in quantum computing have been achieved including the development of the first solid state quantum information processors based on superconducting electronics. Advances may soon enable performing otherwise intractable computations, ensuring privacy in communications, a better understanding and design of novel states of matter, and development of new types of sensors and measurement devices.

Click here to learn more about the Yale Quantum Institute.

One of the Monday Lunch Seminars.

Artist in Residence Program

In 2017, the Yale Quantum Institute (YQI) established the artist-in-residence program to explore art as a medium to increase our understanding of quantum physics. The purpose of the year-long residency is to produce quantum science-based artwork and visuals and participate in a series of public talks to explain the work with the goal of bridging the humanities-science divide. 

Click here to learn more about the Artist-in-Residence program and to discover the artwork.

Martha W. Lewis

The initial artist-in-residence was Martha Lewis, a visual artist who created several quantum inspired art pieces in collaboration with YQI researchers. Her final project was the interactive and immersive installation “I’ll be your qubit!” where the visitor was invited to experience the world within a quantum circuit at the human scale.

Inaugural YQI Artist-In-Residence, Martha Willette Lewis drawing Frozone, one of the newest dilution refrigerators in Becton Laboratories that hosts superconducting qubit to perform quantum measurements. Researcher Stijn de Graaf modifying his experiment. 

Photo credit: Florian Carle

I'LL BE YOUR QUBIT! THE ENTANGLEMENT OF QUANTUM PHYSICS AND ART from Arts & Ideas on Vimeo.

Spencer Topel

In 2018-2019, the artist-in-residence was Spencer Topel, a musician and artist working with sound installations and performances. To mark the end of his residency, Topel and two graduate students, Kyle Serniak and Luke Burkhart, presented the first-ever music created from the measurements of the dynamics inside superconducting quantum devices. The musical set was preceded by a brief introduction to quantum physics, providing the audience with key concepts to better understand the performance, and followed by a discussion with the artists.

The second Artist-In-Residence was Spencer Topel. Here, seated on the left, with researcher Kyle Serniak they are working on their collaborative musical Quantum Sound, using superconducting devices as synthesizers for a live performance. 

Photo credit: Florian Carle

Acknowledgments | Sources