quantum ecosystem
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Diamonds are a qubit’s best friend — and the Quantum Prairie is building them a supply chain
From the Chicago Quantum Exchange: David Awschalom and Alex High of the University of Chicago discuss how the Chicago Quantum Exchange and The Bloch Tech Hub are helping build one of the nation’s first robust quantum-diamond supply chains. Read More
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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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Getting in line with Photon Queue
From the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign: Photon Queue is a quantum company startup mostly led by a group of PhD students from the lab of Paul Kwiat, a UIUC professor and Q-NEXT collaborator. The company is a participant in Cohort 4 of Duality, a Chicago-based accelerator program solely focused on supporting early-stage companies addressing the important challenges in building quantum tech. Photon Queue is the first startup from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to be accepted into the program and the first quantum-focused startup to come from the university. Read More
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Building the quantum economy - Chicago style
From HPCWire: HPCwire talks with Q-NEXT Director David Awschalom about the evolution of the quantum information technology market, the prospects for quantum computing sensing and communication, the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park, current messaging on a quantum future, quantum startups, and the quantum workforce. Read More
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Quantum capital of the world: emerging field that could solve ‘unsolvable’ problems
From WGN News: Chicago is aiming to become the quantum capital of the world. Public and private investment, workforce efforts, tech startups, and collaboration across academia, government and industry are all helping position Illinois as a leader in the quantum revolution. The WGN news piece features Q-NEXT Director David Awschalom and Q-NEXT collaborator Pranav GQuantum capital of the world: Emerging field that could solve ‘unsolvable’ problems okhale of Infleqtion. Read More
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Fact Sheet: Biden-Harris administration announces 31 regional tech hubs to spur American innovation, strengthen manufacturing and create good-paying jobs in Every Region of the Country
From the White House: President Biden and Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo announce the designation of 31 communities across the country as Regional Innovation and Technology Hubs (Tech Hubs) through the Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration. The 31 Tech Hubs focus on developing and growing innovative industries, including quantum computing. One of the tech hubs is the Bloch Tech Hub, led by the Chicago Quantum Exchange. 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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Chicago hopes to become a world center for quantum research
From The Economist: Q-NEXT Director David Awschalom weights in on how Chicago is moving to the forefront of the quantum industry. Chicago’s strength in quantum research in part goes back to its days at the center of research into the nuclear industry. Argonne National Laboratory opened in 1946 as a hub for research into nuclear power. Today, Illinois generates more electricity from nuclear power than any other state. And it was the visionary thinking by Robert Zimmer, a former president of the University of Chicago, that was responsible the city’s more recent quantum leap. Read More
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Democratizing quantum information science
At the 2023 AAAS Meeting in Washington, DC, experts discuss how the scientific community can make quantum information science more accessible and reach a wider base of innovators. Read More
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New foundry to accelerate quantum information research at Argonne National Laboratory
The Argonne Quantum Foundry is meeting a critical need for quantum science by providing a robust supply chain of materials for quantum devices and systems. 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