"Capital of Quantum" illustration by Valerie Morgan
Happy Quantum Day!
If that’s a salutation you’re unfamiliar with, this might not be the last time you encounter it. Celebrated every April 14, World Quantum Day seeks to boost understanding and appreciation of quantum science and technology.
It’s especially appropriate at the University of Maryland, the heart of the “Capital of Quantum.” UMD President Darryll J. Pines president coined the term to highlight the university’s role in the region’s ecosystem of research, federal agencies and companies dedicated to exploring mysteries of quantum science and exploiting the power of quantum computing and other technologies. On campus in January, Gov. Wes Moore announced it as a billion-dollar initiative to build on UMD’s expertise in physics, engineering and other aspects of quantum research to grow this burgeoning industry and boost the economy of the state of Maryland while addressing global issues.
Last week, Moore signed into law $52.5 million in funding to kick off the Capital of Quantum initiative; it will support research, education, training, operations and other priorities, as well as help the groundbreaking College Park-based quantum computing company IonQ move into new headquarters in UMD’s Discovery District.
If you’re wondering why quantum science and tech matters to you, read on:
UMD’s not just a top basketball school, it’s a top quantum school.
After our historically strong physics department huddled with the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology and the UMD-based Laboratory for Physical Sciences in 2006, the resulting Joint Quantum Institute launched a dynasty: 10 quantum centers and institutes with hundreds of researchers delving into topics ranging from exploration of the quantum foundations of the universe to cutting-edge telecom tech. The university today is renowned as a top center for quantum research, while U.S. News and World Report ranked us No. 2 in the nation among public institutions for graduate education in quantum physics.
UMD is building a quantum business ecosystem, meaning more jobs for Marylanders.
The university’s Discovery District is already home to IonQ—which was spun out of UMD labs as the only publicly traded company focused on quantum computing hardware, software and networking. More companies are following in its wake, some affiliated with a UMD business accelerator, the Quantum Startup Foundry. The private Quantum Catalyzer (Q-Cat) follows a similar model. This rising tide of business creates more economic opportunity locally, contributing to the growth of a major industry of the future rooted in the state of Maryland.
The first wave of quantum tech already revolutionized society.
MRI machines, lasers, even old-fashioned transistor radios—none of these everyday devices would exist without an earlier wave of quantum discovery stemming from the research of scientific giants like Albert Einstein and Neils Bohr. Plus, the defining technology of our age, the computer microchip processor, is fundamentally quantum mechanical.
The next wave of computing will remake society.
Quantum computers, which are still in their infancy (or toddlerhood, anyway), are expected to be able to use counterintuitive aspects of quantum physics to quickly polish off computations that could take modern supercomputers millions or billions of years to finish. The practical upshot of this is expected to be disruptive innovation and upheaval across a range of sectors including health care, banking and transportation.
Quantum could help cure disease.
We may not even need full-scale, general-use quantum computers to open the door to personalized pharmaceuticals and new, life-saving therapeutics. “Quantum simulation”—a simpler variant of quantum computing that uses quantum information processing to study chemical reactions and other phenomena—could supercharge drug development; an institute headquartered at UMD and backed by the National Science Foundation is focused on developing the computer technology that could one day lead to such advances.
Quantum will be central to security discussions of the future.
Current computers can’t crack the public-key encryption that protects everything from your bank account to national secrets—but quantum computers probably will be able to smash through it. That’s why researchers are developing new approaches to “post-quantum cybersecurity”—and even ways to safeguard encrypted data that has already been harvested by malicious hackers hoping to decrypt it once quantum computers are widely available. But not all the news is worrying—the quantum internet of the future, on which UMD researchers are helping to lead development, will be inherently secure, because you can’t eavesdrop on quantum data without destroying it.
Bonus tip: Mind-bending quantum knowledge could make you the star of the party.
You’ll sound like you stepped out of the pages of a French philosophical novel explaining “superposition,” which posits seeming absurdities, like your cat is both alive and dead until you check on it (hopefully it survived the period of quantum uncertainty), or atoms can “spin” two ways at once until a quantum computer measures them. And you’ll woo that special someone like never before with another key concept in quantum information science known as “entanglement,” which links the fates of two particles—or hearts?—across infinite distances.
Original story: https://today.umd.edu/7-reasons-you-should-care-about-world-quantum-day
Jade LeSchack. Photo by Alex Kemp/Kemp Photography.
