Previous Events
September 29, 2025 | INQUIRE
INQUIRE Seminar: Dirk M. Guldi, Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg
Time: 11:00am - 12:00pm (CT)
Location: Ryan Hall, 4003 | 2190 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208 (map | directions)
Details: The Institute for Quantum Information Research and Engineering (INQUIRE) is pleased to welcome Professor Dirk M. Guldi from Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, hosted by Professor Michael Wasielewski.
Title: Adaptive Photon Management – From Light Capture to Conversion and Storage
Abstract: Efficient photovoltaics (PV) require capturing and converting solar energy across a broad range of energy. Losses due to thermalization and sub-bandgap place, however, significant boundaries on the performance of solar cells. For conventional single-junction cells, the theoretical maximum power conversion efficiency is capped at 33%, a constraint known as the detailed balance limit. Realizing the full potential of PVs requires developing novel strategies to overcome this fundamental obstacle.
For high-energy photons that exceed the semiconductor’s bandgap energy, singlet fission (SF) is a down-conversion pathway to mitigate thermalization losses. SF is a process in organic materials, in which a singlet excited state is split into two independent triplet states, effectively doubling the number of charge carriers. Pentacenes stand out among acenes due to their exergonic nature of SF. Numerous molecular pentacene dimers have been synthesized to elucidate the relationship between structure and enhancing SF efficiency. A broader light-harvesting range of SF materials is realized by covalently attaching complementary absorbing energy donors to set up energy donor-acceptor conjugates. Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) is operative in these energy-donor chromophores and extends the effective absorption of SF materials as they efficiently transfer their absorbed excitation energy. Our studies on various binding motifs show that FRET efficiency depends not only on parameters like the energy donor-acceptor distance and spectral overlap but also on subtle factors such as the alignment of transition dipoles, which significantly affect the energy transfer dynamics and efficiency.
Turning to low-energy photons, triplet-triplet annihilation up-conversion (TTA-UC) provides a means of light up-conversion and, thereby, the reduction of sub-bandgap losses. In TTA-UC, a singlet excited state that is potent enough to generate charge carriers is formed by combining two triplet excitons. It is effectively the reverse process of SF. The higher triplet energy of tetracene and an endergonic SF, renders them highly effective for TTA-UC. We focus on various tetracene-based systems that maximize TTA-UC efficiency.
The strategies outlined in this presentation illustrate that acenes are valuable for addressing mechanistic losses in conventional solar cells. In the final part, light storage following SF by means of interfacial electron transfer are examined.
About Prof. Guldi:
Dirk M. Guldi completed both his undergraduate studies (1988) and PhD (1990) at the University of Cologne (Germany). Following postdoctoral appointments at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (USA), the Hahn-Meitner Institute Berlin (1992), and Syracuse University, he joined the faculty of the Notre Dame Radiation Laboratory in 1995. He was promoted a year later from assistant to associate professional specialist and remained affiliated to Notre Dame until 2004. Since 2004, he is Full Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Pharmacy at the Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen. Since 2018, Dirk M. Guldi is Co-Editor in Chief of Nanoscale and Nanoscale Horizons and he has been named among the world’s Highly Cited Researchers by Thomson Reuters next to the World’s Top 2% Scientists.
The Guldi group and its network belong to the cutting edge of worldwide research in solar-energy conversion with expertise not only in advanced photon- and charge-management without losing sight of the ultimate objective of developing integrated solar energy-to-chemical fuel conversion systems, which in the future can be utilized in real devices. Impressive documentations of their accomplishments are more than 800 peer-reviewed publications, close to 55,000 citations, and an h-index of 112. At the heart is always a multifaceted and interdisciplinary research program, where his group designs, conceptually devises, synthesizes, tests, and characterizes novel nanometer scale materials with the objective of using them in solar energy conversion schemes.
A broad range of spectroscopic (i.e. time-resolved and steady-state measurements with spectrophotometric detection covering a time range from femtoseconds to minutes) and microscopic techniques (i.e. scanning probe microscopy, electron microscopy) are routinely employed to address aspects that correspond to the optimization and fine-tuning of dynamics and/or efficiencies of charge separation, charge transport, charge shift, and charge recombination processes.
Hosted by Michael Wasielewski.
September 19, 2025 | INQUIRE
N'Tangled
A QISE Networking Event
Time: 1:00pm - 3:00pm (CT)
Location: Tech J Wing Atrium | Technological Institute, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208 (map | directions)
Details: N'Tangled is back! N’Tangled is INQUIRE’s networking initiative connecting Quantum Information Science and Engineering (QISE) students and postdocs for collaboration and professional growth.
Join us for an afternoon of networking, collaboration, and discovery!
Agenda Highlights:
- N’Troduction – N’Tangled Leadership
- Ryan Young + Kate Smith
- NU Presentation – Research Safety Student Initiative
- Mark Kazour, Chemical Engineering Department Liaison
- Research Spotlights – Insights from leading QISE faculty
- Prem Kumar, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
- Meet & Greet
This event is designed for QISE students and postdocs looking to connect, collaborate, and grow professionally. Don’t miss out on this exciting chance to engage with the QISE community!
August 29, 2025 | CQE & INQUIRE
OQI Undergraduate Research Symposium
Time: 10:00am - 11:45am (CT)
Location: Technological Institute, room F160 | 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208 (map | directions)
Join the fourth cohort of Open Quantum Initiative fellows as they present summaries of their summer quantum information science and engineering research. CQE members and partners are invited to attend, meet the fellows, and share opportunities for the following summer.
Agenda:
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10:00 am – 10:15 am CT |
Welcome |
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10:15 am – 11:30 am CT |
Presentations |
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11:30 am – 11:45 am CT |
Closing Remarks |
May 23, 2025 | NAISE & INQUIRE Joint Event
QS3: Quantum System Software Stack Workshop
Link to Workshop Information Booklet
Organizers: Kate Smith (NU-CS) , Nikos Hardavellas (NU-CS), Enectali Figureoa-Feliciano (NU-PHY), Neelesh Patankar (NU-MechE/NAISE), Begum Gulsoy (NU-MSE/NAISE)
Scope: While quantum computing has vast potential, current implementations are constrained by the number of qubits (essential for algorithms with many variables), coherence times (vital for running long algorithms), and gate fidelities (crucial for achieving accurate results). Quantum hardware needs to improve by several orders of magnitude along all these dimensions before it can become truly useful for a wide range of applications. Even though quantum hardware advances toward that goal, waiting for it alone to close the gap between the capabilities it offers, and the needs of applications, may take decades. A more balanced approach would be to complement the hardware with a software stack that utilizes the available limited hardware resources in the most efficient manner possible. This full-stack approach improves quantum performance from the user’s viewpoint by collaboratively fine-tuning hardware and software layers, integrating them tightly among them and with classical computing resources, with the aim to make quantum computing practical at an accelerated time scale.
This workshop will explore the open questions and challenges in developing this quantum software system stack, including complementary hybrid quantum-classical systems. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, quantum algorithm design, quantum programming languages, compilation (e.g., mapping, gate synthesis, gate scheduling, routing, error mitigation, error detection), quantum error correction (e.g., optimal QEC strategies, resource requirements, noise tolerance, decoding), technology mapping (e.g. quantum/classical partitioning, circuit cutting, backend selection), quantum hardware and software co-design, hybrid quantum-classical systems, optimal quantum control and calibration, and classical emulation of quantum computation and technology (e.g., quantum circuit and device simulation). By defining key challenges and open problems in these areas, this workshop aims to drive progress toward more robust and scalable quantum systems.
More Information on Northwestern Institute for Quantum Information and Engineering (INQUIRE)
May 1-2, 2025 | CMQT
Fourth Annual CMQT Symposium
The Institute for Quantum Information Research and Engineering (INQUIRE) welcomed the Fourth Annual Symposium of the Center for Molecular Quantum Transduction (CMQT), a US DOE-sponsored Energy Frontier Research Center. The event took place on May 1-2, 2025, in Evanston, IL.
CMQT’s mission is to develop the fundamental scientific understanding needed to carry out quantum-to-quantum transduction exploiting the quantum properties of molecular systems.
Speakers included:
- Arzhang Ardavan (keynote speaker), University of Oxford
- Ashok Ajoy, University of California, Berkeley)
- Mark Hersam, Northwestern University
- Stephen Hill, Florida State University
- Joris van Slageren, University of Stuttgart
- Joel Yuen-Zhou, University of California, San Diego
May 1: Harris Hall, Room 107 | 1881 Sheridan Rd, Evanston, IL 60201
May 2: Ryan Hall, Room 4003 | 2190 Campus Dr, Evanston, IL 60208
View the full symposium agenda and additional speaker information on the CMQT Symposium website.
April 14, 2025 | INQUIRE
N'Tangled Kickoff Event
A QISE Networking Event
Time: 1:00pm - 3:00pm (CT)
Location: Tech J Wing Atrium | Technological Institute, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208 (map | directions)
Details: Join us for the N’Tangled Kickoff Event as we celebrate International Quantum Day with an afternoon of networking, collaboration, and discovery! N’tangled is INQUIRE’s networking initiative connecting Quantum Information Science and Engineering (QISE) students and postdocs for collaboration and professional growth.
This event is designed for QISE students and postdocs looking to connect, collaborate, and grow professionally.
Agenda Highlights:
- N’Troduction – Meet N’Tangled Leadership
- Ryan Young + Kate Smith, N’Tangled leadership
- NU Presentation – Innovation & Ventures at Northwestern
- Lisa Dhar, Associate Vice President for Innovation and New Ventures
- Research Spotlights – Insights from leading QISE faculty
- Michael R. Wasielewski, INQUIRE Director, Professor of Chemistry
- Jens Koch, INQUIRE Executive Committee, Professor of Physics and Astronomy
- Kate Smith, INQUIRE Faculty Affiliate, Assistant Professor of Computer Science
- Logo Competition + Breakouts
March 20, 2025 | INQUIRE
INQUIRE Seminar: Thomas W. Ebbesen, University of Strasbourg
Time: 4:00pm - 5:00pm (CT)
Location: Pancoe Auditorium | 2200 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208 (map | directions)
Details: The Institute for Quantum Information Research and Engineering (INQUIRE) is pleased to welcome Professor Thomas W. Ebbesen from the University of Strasbourg, France, hosted by Professor Roel Tempelaar.
Title: The Alchemy of Vacuum
Abstract: Over the past decade, the possibility of manipulating material and chemical properties by using hybrid light-matter states has stimulated considerable interest [1,2]. Such hybrid light-matter states can be generated by strongly coupling the electronic or the vibrational transitions of a material, to the spatially confined electromagnetic field of an optical resonator. Most importantly, this occurs even in the dark because the coupling involves the zero-point electromagnetic fluctuations of the resonator, the vacuum field. After introducing the fundamental concepts, examples of modified properties of strongly coupled systems, such as chemical reactivity, charge and energy transport, and magnetism will be given to illustrate the broad potential of light-matter states.
About Prof. Ebbesen:
Thomas W. Ebbesen is a Franco-Norwegian physical chemist. He was educated in the United States and France, receiving his bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College (USA) and his PhD from the Curie University in Paris. He then did research in both the US and Japan, most notably at the NEC Fundamental Research Laboratories, before returning to France in 1999 to help build a new institute (ISIS) at the University of Strasbourg. He is currently the director of the Jean-Marie Lehn Foundation and the Strasbourg Institute for Advanced Studies (www.usias.fr). He holds the chair of physical chemistry of light-matter interactions. The author of many papers and patents, Ebbesen has received numerous awards for his pioneering research including the 2014 Kavli Prize in Nanoscience for his transformative contributions to nano-optics. Over the past 15 years, his team made the first demonstrations that chemistry and ground state material properties can be modified by coupling electronic and vibrational transitions to the vacuum electromagnetic field. For this work, he received the Gold Medal (the highest French distinction given normally only to one person a year all fields confounded). He is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters and foreign member of the French Academy of Science.
Hosted by Roel Tempelaar.
February 4, 2025 | INQUIRE
INQUIRE Seminar: Stuart Mackenzie, University of Oxford
Time: 1:30pm - 2:40pm (CT)
Location: Ryan Hall, 4003 | 2190 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208 (map | directions)
Details: The Institute for Quantum Information Research and Engineering (INQUIRE) is pleased to welcome Professor Stuart Mackenzie from the University of Oxford, hosted by Professor Michael Wasielewski.
Title: Probing molecular activation at gas-phase metal centres
Abstract: Infrared action spectroscopy has become a powerful technique for understanding molecular activation at metal centres, both at transition metal clusters or in metal ligand complexes. In particular, it can shed light on “entrance channel complexes” on catalytic / reactive potential energy surfaces relevant in heterogeneous catalysis.
This talk will introduce IR action spectroscopy and provide an overview of these methods including several illustrative examples of our recent work involving both laboratory and free electron lasers. It will cover molecular activation of important species such as nitrogen and carbon oxides together with cooperative and competitive binding effects. Of particular note will be examples in which infrared absorption can drive novel bond making v/breaking chemistry.
About Prof. Mackenzie:
Stuart Mackenzie read physics and chemistry at the University of Leeds followed by a doctorate in Oxford in high resolution photoelectron spectroscopy. He was then A NATO postdoctoral Fellow in JILA /NIST in Boulder, Colorado with David Nesbitt. He has held academic posts at Warwick, University of Cambridge and returned to the University of Oxford in 2008. He is Professor of Chemistry and Tutorial Fellow of Magdalen College where he has research interests in gas -phase transition metal clusters and magnetic field effects in proteins.
He is Director of the £600M Oxford Science Park, one of Europe’s leading Life Science Parks, a Mercator Fellow and Chairs the Scientific Advisory Committee for the High Field Magnet / Free Electron Laser facility in Nijmegen, Netherlands.
October 1, 2024 | INQUIRE
Fall 2024 INQUIRE Meeting
Date: Tuesday, October 1
Time: 12:30pm - 4:15pm (CT)
Location: James Allen Center | 20169 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208 (map | directions)
Details: INQUIRE cordially invites you to participate in a luncheon meeting that will bring together faculty members in the Quantum Information Science and Engineering (QISE) fields at Northwestern.
The October 1 meeting will focus on the following topics:
- Re-familiarize attendees with ongoing QISE research directions at Northwestern
- Foster opportunities for new collaborations
- Share information on upcoming funding opportunities including industry partnerships
- Address INQUIRE's future and potential new directions (with hopefully a surprise announcement!)
- Discuss larger development goals