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News Coverage

At Chicago Quantum Summit, Leaders Temper Hype, Hail Momentum as Pritzker Says His Commitment to Quantum ‘Cannot Be Overstated’

[October 25, 2024] Seventh annual event breaks in-person attendance records, features discussions about commercialization, workforce building, and the need for continued investment. Learn more.

Chicago Quantum Exchange to Gather Leading Experts for Seventh Annual Chicago Quantum Summit Oct. 21-22

[October 9, 2024] Event will highlight industry and government collaborations, honor early-career Boeing Quantum Creators researchers, and engage the public. Learn more.

U.S. Department of Energy Reinvests in Northwestern’s Quantum Science Research

[September 5, 2024] $14.5 million grant renews the Center for Molecular Quantum Transduction (CMQT) for another four years. Learn more.

Emerging Technologies through Engineering the Sub-Atomic Quantum World

[August 26, 2024] Marking the centenary of the quantum revolution, the United Nations proclaimed 2025 as the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology. The worldwide initiative aims to increase public awareness and to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers...Learn more.

"Beam me up, Scotty!" Demystifying the Quantum World

[June 15, 2024] Michael R. Wasielewski, Northwestern University Clare Hamilton Hall Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Center for Molecular Quantum Transduction (CMQT), gave a Town Talk with the Telluride Science & Innovation Center. The event was recorded for the "Science Straight Up" podcast. Listen to episode.

Six Northwestern Faculty Elected to American Academy of Arts & Sciences

[April 26, 2024] Congratulations to the Northwestern University faculty who have been recognized by the Academy as leaders across disciplines, professions, and perspectives. Professor Mark Hersam is among the six honorees for 2024...Learn more.

What’s the Buzz About Quantum?

[April 22, 2024] Prem Kumar, the director of the Center for Photonic Communication and Computing at Northwestern University, says quantum physics is essential to creating technologies that will revolutionize our lives — but building a quantum computer is not without challenges...Learn more.

NSF Awards $1M to CQE-led Coalition to Strengthen Quantum Technologies in the Midwest

[April 18, 2024] A coalition led by the Chicago Quantum Exchange has been awarded a $1 million US National Science Foundation Regional Innovation Engines (NSF Engines) Development Award to deepen partnerships and strengthen workforce and economic development plans for Chicagoland’s growing quantum ecosystem...Learn more.

Northwestern's Mark Hersam Wins 2024 Mid-Career Research Award

[April 15, 2024] Hersam’s research has led to more effective nanomaterials used in electronics, energy storage, and medicine...Learn more.

Creation of Novel Material Could Lead to New Line of Quantum Research

[April 11, 2024] Recent work from Northwestern Engineering’s James Rondinelli could lead to a new class of metals that defy conventional wisdom...Learn more.

World Quantum Day 2024: Learn About the Universe’s Smallest Scales

[April 11, 2024] April 14 is World Quantum Day, an annual event celebrating quantum science and technology around the world....Learn more.

Advancing Quantum Leadership and Community

[April 4, 2024] As a founding member of Quantum Economic Development Consortium (QED-C), Northwestern University hosted the most recent plenary meeting for nearly 150 members to learn, network, and identify collaboration opportunities....Learn more.

Illinois Governor Celebrates Quantum Technology Leadership with The Bloch Tech Hub

[April 1, 2024] Governor JB Pritzker and Innovate Illinois announced a multi-year plan for The Bloch Quantum Tech Hub to develop quantum technology solutions for pressing issues such as fraud detection, grid resilience, and drug discovery....Learn more.

New Magnetic Device Makes Microelectronic Chips More Sustainable

[March 19, 2024] Northwestern researchers create invention that will allow chips to fit more data in a smaller space and operate with better energy efficiency...Learn more.

Illinois Governor Proposes $500M for Quantum Technologies in New Budget

[February 21, 2024] Illinois Governor JB Pritzker is asking state legislators for half a billion dollars for quantum technologies in the proposed budget. The announcement comes as a Chicago Quantum Exchange-led coalition competes for up to $70 million in federal funding...Learn more.

Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Workshop hosted by Northwestern

[February 13, 2024] One of 34 partner institutions comprising the Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems (SQMS) Center, Northwestern hosted the SQMS Workshop which included participants from Fermilab, NIST, Ames Laboratory, Rigetti, and several universities...Learn more.

Mark Hersam Elected to National Academy of Engineering

[February 6, 2024] Rresearch from Northwestern University's Mark Hersam has led to more effective and sustainable nanomaterials used in electronics, energy storage and medicine...Read more.

U.K. Delegation Visits Fermilab to Collaborate on Quantum Network Research

[January 18, 2024] Northwestern University is a member of the Illinois-Express Quantum Network at Fermilab. A group of researchers from the United Kingdom visited Fermilab to observe firsthand the lab’s efforts to advance quantum information science and explore collaboration opportunities...Read more.

University, Government, and Industry Researchers Join Forces to Explore How Quantum Computing could Aid Financial Institutions

[January 17, 2024] A multisector team has created a one-stop resource on the use of quantum computers to accelerate solutions for the finance sector. The initiative was facilitated by the Chicago Quantum Exchange (CQE), of which Northwestern University is a member...Read more.

Capturing Quantum Optical Information with Atomic Memories

[Nov 8, 2023] A team led by Northwestern University Professor Mahdi Hosseini evaluated recent advances in quantum memory development...Read more.

Leadership News: Michael R. Wasielewski to Serve as Director of INQUIRE

[September 5, 2023] Northwestern University's Michael R. Wasielewski, co-executive director of the Paula M. Trienens Institute for Sustainability and Energy, director of the Center for Molecular Quantum Transduction (CMQT), and Clare Hamilton Hall Professor of Chemistry will serve as the director of INQUIRE as of September 1, 2023...Read more.

Improving the Tiniest Elements of Quantum Communication

[April 17, 2023] Researchers develop method to better control how single-photon emitters produce light. The goal of quantum communication is to send information quickly and securely through encrypted channels. Improving that process is not an easy task and requires delicate work to control how light is released by single-photon emitters. These emitters can be hosted in two-dimensional (2D) materials, and a team led by Northwestern Engineering's Mark Hersam found...Read more.

Chicago Quantum Exchange Members Gain Access to IBM's Quantum Systems

[March 14, 2023] Chicago Quantum Exchange institutions recently signed an agreement with IBM to receive free better-than-public access to the IBM’s Quantum systems. Under this agreement, CQE students, researchers, faculty, and staff can work on systems with up to 16 qubits and hold dedicated reservations on ibmq_jakarta, ibm_lagos, ibm_perth, ibm_nairobi, and ibm_oslo. For more information on how to access the platform or start a project, contact Northwestern's hub administrator: Michael Brooks (kmbrooks@northwestern.edu).

A representative from IBM Quantum will be providing a tutorial on their systems at the March 31 Quantum Recruiting Forum. Additional opportunities to gain an understanding of the systems will be forthcoming.

Nobel-winning Experiment Enables Fermilab-led Quantum Network

[February 2, 2023] The 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded for research efforts that have contributed to the development of technology behind the Illinois‐Express Quantum Network (IEQNET). A joint research project among Fermilab, Argonne National Laboratory, Northwestern University and Caltech, IEQNET is a metropolitan-scale quantum network testbed that uses deployed optical fiber and other currently available technology...Read more

Quantum Researchers Strike the Right Chord with Silicides

[January 23, 2023] Just as the sound of a guitar depends on its strings and the materials used for its body, the performance of a quantum computer depends on the composition of its building blocks. Arguably the most critical components are the devices that encode information in quantum computers. One such device is the transmon qubit...Read more

What Will It Take for Quantum Science to Thrive in the US? Start with a Diverse, Equitable and Inclusive Workforce.

[December 15, 2022, Northwestern University] Quantum physics — the study of energy and matter at the most fundamental level — does not only explain the atomic and subatomic building blocks of our universe. Recent advances in quantum science and engineering also promise a range of technological applications and societal benefits right here on Earth… Read more

UTA Partners with Northwestern University on Quantum Communications

[December 6, 2022] Michael Vasilyev, a professor of electrical engineering, is the principal investigator in an $800,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) project titled “Quantum information exchange over spatially-multimode and multi-core optical fibers.” UT Arlington will team with Northwestern University on the project, which is part of NSF’s Expanding Capacity in Quantum Information Science and Engineering (ExpandQISE) program...Read more

Photon-Pair Source with Pump Rejection Filter Fabricated on Single CMOS Chip

Anirudh Ramesh’s paper, a collaboration between Boston University, UC Berkeley, and NU was selected for a news release by Optica, the Society Advancing Optics and Photonics Worldwide (formerly, the Optical Society, OSA). The news release is to promote the Frontiers in Optics 2021 (FiO’21) conference where this work will be presented in a couple of weeks... Read more

Scientists Stabilize Atomically Thin Boron for Practical Use

[March 11, 2021, Northwestern University] Northwestern Engineering researchers have, for the first time, created borophane — atomically thin boron that is stable at standard temperatures and air pressures. Researchers have long been excited by the promise of borophene — a single-atom-thick sheet of boron — because of its strength, flexibility, and electronics properties. Stronger, lighter, and more flexible than graphene, borophene could potentially revolutionize batteries, electronics, sensors, photovoltaics, and quantum computing… Read more

Fermilab-NU Scientist Anna Grassellino Named “Woman of the Year” by Italy’s D La Repubblica

[December 10, 2020, Northwestern University] Grassellino was selected from a list of 50 Italian women who have excelled in their fields, and who left their mark on 2020. She heads Fermilab’s new quantum national center, the Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center… Read more

In New Step Toward Quantum Tech, Scientists Synthesize ‘Bright’ Quantum Bits

[December 08, 2020, Northwestern University] With their ability to harness the strange powers of quantum mechanics, qubits are the basis for potentially world-changing technologies — like powerful new types of computers or ultra-precise sensors… Read more

What’s Next for Quantum Science?

[October 8, 2020, Northwestern University] In August, Argonne National Laboratory in southwest suburban Lemont, Illinois, received $115 million in funding over five years from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to create Q-NEXT, a transformative 100-person collaboration among universities, national laboratories and private companies that will work to advance the leading edge of quantum information science… Read more

Northwestern is Key Partner in $115 Million National Center to Build Revolutionary Quantum Computer

[August 26, 2020, Northwestern University] The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory has been selected to lead one of five national centers to bring about transformational advances in quantum information science (QIS) as a part of the U.S. National Quantum Initiative (NQI), the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the National Science Foundation and DOE announced today (Aug. 26). Northwestern University is a major partner in the new center… Read more

Perspectives: Chemistry and Quantum Information Science

[July 2020, ISEN, Northwestern University] The relationship between chemistry and Quantum Information Science (QIS) is outlined in a Perspectives piece published this month in Nature Reviews Chemistry. First author Michael R. Wasielewski is the Clare Hamilton Hall Professor of Chemistry; Executive Director, Institute for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern (ISEN); Director, the Center for Molecular Quantum Transduction (CMQT), a US Department of Energy (DOE) Energy Frontier Research Center, a member of the executive committee for Northwestern’s Initiative for Quantum Information Research and Engineering (INQUIRE), and a member of the Chicago Quantum Exchange (CQE)… Read more

Northwestern Research Predicts New State of Matter

Creating the Heart of a Quantum Computer: Developing Qubits

[February 10, 2020, US Dept. of Energy] A computer is suspended from the ceiling. Delicate lines and loops of silvery wires and tubes connect gold-colored platforms. It seems to belong in a science-fiction movie, perhaps a steam-punk cousin of HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey. But as the makers of that 1968 movie imagined computers the size of a spaceship, this technology would have never crossed their minds – a quantum computer… Read more

From Qubits to Climate Change: Northwestern Quantum Experts See Powerful Potential

[January 21, 2020, Northwestern University] Imagine there are 20 playing cards laying side-by-side and face down on a table in front of you. You know that one of them is the queen of hearts, but you don’t know which one. To find it, you probably would start turning over the cards one by one. A modern-day computer is designed to take the same approach in solving this problem, albeit much faster than a human. But what if you could find the queen of hearts on the first try every time? This is the type of power enabled by quantum computing… Read more

Optical Society Announces New Editors-in-Chief for Three of its High-Quality Journals

[January 9, 2020, OSA] The Optical Society (OSA) is pleased to welcome Prem Kumar as the new editor-in-chief of Optica. Kumar is professor of information technology in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and director of the Center for Photonic Communication and Computing in the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science at Northwestern University, U.S.A… Read more

Northwestern Part of New DOE Quantum Collaboration

[November 13, 2019, Northwestern University] Northwestern University will be a partner institution in a $3.2 million research initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. The effort, in conjunction with Fermilab and others, will develop designs for transparent optical quantum networks and demonstrate their operation in the greater Chicago area… Read more

Northwestern Researchers Demonstrate Quantum Teleportation using a Chemical Reaction

[September 27, 2019, Northwestern University] A team of Northwestern University researchers are the first to document the role chemistry will play in next generation computing and communication. By applying their expertise to the field of Quantum Information Science (QIS), they discovered how to move quantum information on the nanoscale through quantum teleportation—an emerging topic within the field of QIS. Their findings were published in the journal, Nature Chemistry, on September 23, 2019 and have untold potential to influence future research and application… Read more

[Paper] 2D Materials for Quantum Information Science

[August 19, 2019, Nature Reviews Materials] By focusing on the interplay between quantum physics and materials science, Northwestern researchers Xiaolong Liu and Mark C. Hersam identify key opportunities and challenges for the use of 2D materials in the field of quantum information science… Read more

Northwestern Physicists Reveal New Understanding Of Quantum Mechanics In Circuits

[August 16, 2019, Northwestern University] Researchers at Northwestern’s Center for Applied Physics and Superconducting Technologies publish a major advancement on the quantum theory of electrical circuits… Read more

Northwestern Professor Receives DOE Funding for Quantum Information Science Research

[August 12, 2019, Northwestern University] Michael R. Wasielewski, Clare Hamilton Hall Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern University and Executive Director of the Institute for Sustainability and Energy, will receive $1.5 million over three years from the Department of Energy (DOE) for research toward the development of new Quantum Information Science (QIS). His award is a part of a total of $37 million in DOE funding granted to some 20 projects selected through competitive peer review for targeted research in materials and chemistry… Read More

Department of Energy Announces $37 Million for Materials and Chemistry Research in Quantum Information Science

[July 24, 2019, US Dept. of Energy] The US Department of Energy announced $37 million in funding for targeted research in materials and chemistry to advance the important emerging field of Quantum Information Science. Michael R. Wasielewski, Clare Hamilton Hall Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern University, received funding for his proposal “Systems for Transducing Entanglement between Photons and Electron Spins”… Read more

Chemist Danna Freedman Receives Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers

[July 12, 2019, Northwestern University] Established in 1996, the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) honors the contributions of scientists and engineers in the advancement of science, technology, education and mathematics (STEM) through scientific education, community outreach and public education. It is the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers. Freedman, along with four other Northwestern faculty members, received the prestigious award in 2019… Read more

Boeing, Applied Materials and Others Join New Corporate Partnership Program

[July 8, 2019, CQE] The Chicago Quantum Exchange, a growing intellectual hub for the research and development of quantum technology, has expanded its community to include new industry partners working at the forefront of quantum technology and research. These corporate partners are Boeing, Applied Materials, Inc., ColdQuanta, Inc., HRL Laboratories LLC and Quantum Opus LLC… Read more

Linked with permission from UChicago/CQE. Northwestern University is a member of the Chicago Quantum Exchange, via the Initiative at Northwestern for Quantum Information Research and Engineering.

Leading Universities Partner with IBM to Accelerate Joint Research and Drive Educational Opportunities in Quantum Computing

IBM announced the expansion of the IBM Q Network to include a number of global universities with the intent to partner with IBM to accelerate joint research in quantum computing, and develop curricula to help prepare students for careers that will be influenced by this next era of computing, across science and business… Learn more

Northwestern University Joins the Chicago Quantum Exchange

Northwestern joins forces with the University of Chicago, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison in enhancing a national leading collaboration in the rapidly emerging field of quantum information… Learn more

Northwestern Launches INQUIRE (Initiative at Northwestern for Quantum Information Research and Engineering)

[May 13, 2019, Northwestern University] Northwestern has launched a new interdisciplinary initiative to integrate and advance its strengths in quantum science, a field that promises to transform communications, security, metrology, sensing and computing… Read more

Freedman Receives ACS Award in Pure Chemistry

[September 17, 2018, Northwestern University] Professor Danna Freedman has received the ACS Award in Pure Chemistry for her joint contributions to developing a molecular approach to quantum information science and harnessing diamond anvil cells as tiny, transparent synthetic vessels to create new chemical bonds… Read more

Engineers and Chemists Awarded $3.6 M to Study Quantum Computing

A group of Northwestern University chemists and engineers has been awarded $3.6 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to support their work of creating better qubits, the smallest unit of a quantum computer… Learn more

Controlling Quantum Interactions in a Single Material

[February 5, 2018, Northwestern University] Professor James Rondinelli and an international team of theoretical and computational researchers have demonstrated that multiple quantum interactions can coexist in a single material, the team also discovered how an electric field can be used to control these interactions to tune the material’s properties. This work is published in Nature Communications… Read more

Reports

DOE Quantum Networks for Open Science Workshop

Led by Professor Prem Kumar, DOE convened a half-day roundtable meeting attended by multi-discipline experts in classical optical networks, quantum information processing, and computer science from academia, national labs, and government on December 4, 2017, to discuss and explore the potential of quantum networks in the DOE open science infrastructure.

Workshop Report

NSF Workshop: Quantum Information and Computation for Chemistry

Led by Professor Michael Wasielewski, this report summarizes the NSF Workshop in Quantum Information and Computation for Chemistry held in Fall 2016. The workshop assembled experts from directly quantum-oriented fields such as algorithms, chemistry, machine learning, optics, simulation, and metrology, as well as experts in related fields such as condensed matter physics, biochemistry, physical chemistry, inorganic and organic chemistry, and spectroscopy.

Workshop Report

REPORT ARCHIVE

coming soon.