Illinois
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Building a quantum powerhouse in the US Midwest
From the Physics World podcast: Q-NEXT Director David Awschalom and Intersect Illinois Chief Quantum Officer Preeti Chalsani talk about how Illinois is establishing itself as a burgeoning hub for quantum innovation, along with neighboring regions in Wisconsin and Indiana. Read More
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DARPA’s Quantum Proving Ground — with University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
From Protiviti's The Post-Quantum World podcast: Imagine 128 acres of land devoted to advancing quantum information science in a major city. The Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park is expected to draw leading companies and researchers to Chicago, and DARPA is already playing a significant role. Host Konstantinos Karagiannis chats with UIUC's Brian DeMarco, a Q-NEXT collaborator, and Harley Johnson. Read More
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Durbin, Daines introduce bipartisan legislation to fund the future of quantum research at DOE
From the office of Senator Dick Durbin: U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) and U.S. Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) on Aug. 1 introduced legislation to advance the United States’ capacity to invest in quantum information science and research and development through the U.S. Department of Energy. The DOE Quantum Leadership Act of 2024 would reinvigorate R&D projects at DOE by authorizing $2.5 billion in funding over the next five years — well above the $625 million for DOE-related programs laid out in the now expired National Quantum Initiative Act of 2018. The DOE Quantum Leadership Act would also provide DOE the authority to expand its current quantum R&D initiatives. Read More
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Samir Mayekar and Nadya Mason: The quantum revolution is coming to Illinois
From The Chicago Tribune: Following last week's announcement from the state of Illinois on the creation of the Illinois Quantum & Microelectronics Park in South Chicago, Q-NEXT collaborator Nadya Mason and Samir Mayekar, both of the University of Chicago, detail how Illinois is spurring the quantum revolution in this op-ed. Subscription required. Read More
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Illinois lands federal partnership to further develop quantum projects
From the Chicago Sun-Times: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, will take residency on Illinois' soon-to-be constructed quantum campus to establish a program where quantum computing prototypes will be tested to bolster national security. Read More
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U.S. Defense Department, State of Illinois announce multimillion-dollar quantum testing program
From the Chicago Quantum Exchange: Illinois Governor JB Pritzker announces that the U.S. Department of Defense will invest up to $140 million to develop a national proving ground for quantum technologies in the Chicago region. Read More
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Quantum at the Capitals
From the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign: Over the course of a month, IQUIST Director and Q-NEXT collaborator Brian DeMarco has traveled to the U.S. and Illinois capitals to show national and state leaders what quantum is capable of. He spoke with decision makers at the the NSF Quantum Showcase on Capitol Hill and the Illinois Manufacturing Association’s 2024 Business Day in Springfield. Read More
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Colorado and Illinois set their sights on becoming the nation's quantum hub
From The Wall Street Journal: Q-NEXT Director David Awschalom is featured in this story on how Colorado and Illinois are investing millions of dollars in quantum information science in an effort to position themselves as national leaders in this burgeoning area of research. Read More
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Quantum quarterbacks: Pritzker’s a ‘geek’ for computing science that Emanuel calls ‘cutting edge of the next generation’
From the Chicago Sun-Times: Illinois Governor J. B. Pritzker and former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel are working to boost quantum research in Illinois and in Chicago. Governor Pritzker toured quantum labs at the University of Chicago in July and discussed QIS research with Q-NEXT Director David Awschalom and Q-NEXT members Hannes Bernien and Peter Maurer. Read More
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David Awschalom wins global Breakthrough of the Year award
David Awschalom, Q-NEXT Chief Science Officer and the Liew Family Professor of Quantum Engineering and Physics at the University of Chicago, received the prestigious Falling Walls Science Breakthrough of the Year in Physical Sciences for a pioneering body of work that broke the wall between quantum technology, molecules, and proteins. Read More
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Helium lifts new quantum computing concept
A team led by Jacob Covey, who is part of Q-NEXT and is an Associate Professor at the University of Chicago, laid out a new concept that could turn helium’s light weight into the next generation of quantum computers. The design relies on helium-3, an isotope with different quantum properties than the helium-4 used to cool MRI machines and fill party balloons. Once built, the computer could use high-powered lasers as “optical tweezers” to capture and control individual atoms of helium. Read More
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Researchers make materials that support quantum technology
Researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who are part of Q-NEXT are engineering material systems that support quantum technology. Chris Anderson and his team are developing materials for quantum transduction — the conversion of quantum information from one form to another. Elizabeth Goldschmidt, Daniel Shoemaker, and colleagues are developing quantum memory technology that stores quantum information for extended periods of time. Read More
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Silicon Chip Offers New Way to Probe Quantum Materials in Strong Magnetic Fields
Scientists have created a silicon chip that can detect the electrical behavior of very small materials by using very high-frequency waves. The chip is made only from silicon and other non-superconducting materials and still performs very well when cooled from room temperature down to about 4 Kelvin. Read More
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Making quantum bits ready to use again much sooner
Scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Intel have found that a simple electrical pulse can quickly push a quantum dot qubit out of a latched state and return it to its starting condition with very high reliability. Read More
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Q-NEXT-developed open-source software receives 2026 R&D 100 award
SeQUeNCe, a free, open-source software developed by Argonne scientists with Q-NEXT support, is one of seven Argonne projects that received a 2026 R&D 100 Award. The SeQUeNCe software lets researchers test how quantum networks might work before building them. Read More
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Researchers generate spontaneous magnons that synchronize with external signals
Researchers at Argonne and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign demonstrate a method for generating stable ripples in magnetic materials called magnons. The work opens avenues for information processing in microelectronics and quantum devices. Read More
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Uncovering the hidden disorder in silicon quantum computers
From the U.S. Department of Energy: Q-NEXT researchers map the variation in materials to the atom level to scale up silicon qubits Read More
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Color centers in high-purity diamond
Researchers mapped how electron irradiation makes defects inside diamond, finding that creating more vacancies does not always produce more NV centers. Too many vacancies can form unwanted defects. This result can inform advances in quantum sensing. Read More
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Containing multitudes: SLAC scientist collaborates to create scalable qubits
At SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Q-NEXT collaborator Shannon Harvey develops quantum dots — a mass-producible type of qubit. Driven by curiosity about nature and how things work, Harvey draws on her facility for working at the nanoscale. Read More