The JILA building on the CU Boulder campus. (Credit: Casey A. Cass/CU Boulder)
This story was adapted from one published by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. .
The Department of Energy has awarded $115 million over five years to the Quantum Systems Accelerator (QSA), a new research center that will include CU Boulder.
The center, which is led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, will forge the technological solutions needed to harness quantum information science for discoveries that benefit the world. It will also energize the nation鈥檚 research community to ensure U.S. leadership in quantum research and development and accelerate the transfer of quantum technologies from the lab to the marketplace.
Total planned funding for the center is $115 million over five years, with $15 million in Fiscal Year 2020 dollars and outyear funding contingent on congressional appropriations. The center is one of five new announced today
Jun Ye will lead CU Boulder鈥檚 participation in the center, which will complement the university鈥檚 work through the CUbit Quantum Initiative and Quantum Systems through Entangled Science and Engineering (Q-SEnSE).
鈥淭he QSA鈥檚 focus on the development of scalable quantum systems for meaningful applications will likely lead to major scientific discoveries and technology breakthroughs,鈥� said Ye, a fellow in JILA, a partnership between CU Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Steve ONeil, Director of Operations for Q-SEnSE, which is funded by NSF, added:听鈥淭his DOE Quantum Systems Accelerator center will have a major research program that is complementary to that of the CU-led Q-SEnSE, and together the two centers confirm Boulder as a national jewel for research in quantum science and engineering."
The Quantum Systems Accelerator brings together dozens of scientists who are pioneers of many of today鈥檚 quantum capabilities from 15 institutions: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, CU Boulder, Caltech, Duke University, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tufts University, UC Berkeley, University of Maryland, University New Mexico, University of Southern California, UT Austin and Canada鈥檚 Universite虂 de Sherbrooke.
鈥淭he global race is on to build quantum systems that fuel discovery and make possible the next generation of information technology that greatly improves our lives,鈥� said Berkeley Lab鈥檚 Irfan Siddiqi, the director of the Quantum Systems Accelerator. 鈥淭he Quantum Systems Accelerator will transform the enormous promise of quantum entanglement into an engineering resource for the nation, forging the industries of tomorrow.鈥�
The center鈥檚 multidisciplinary expertise and network of world-class research facilities will enable the team to co-design the solutions needed to build working quantum systems that outperform today鈥檚 computers. The goal is to deliver prototype quantum systems that are optimized for major advances in scientific computing, discoveries in fundamental physics and breakthroughs in materials and chemistry. In addition to furthering research that is critical to DOE鈥檚 missions, this foundational work will give industry partners a toolset to expedite the development of commercial technologies.听
The Quantum Systems Accelerator will strengthen the nation鈥檚 quantum research ecosystem and help ensure its international leadership in quantum research and development by building a network of national labs, industry, and universities that addresses a broad spectrum of technological challenges. The center will train the workforce needed to keep the nation at the forefront of quantum information science, share its advances with the scientific community and serve as a central clearinghouse for promising research.
Other CU Boulder and NIST participants in the effort include听John Bollinger, Adam Kaufman, Cindy Regal, Ana Maria Rey,听Graeme Smith and James Thompson.
