On December 12, the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory based in Illinois announced that Department of Energy (DOE) National Quantum Information Science Research Centers were celebrating a 4-year milestone.

According to the press release, five DOE National Quantum Information Science Research Centers were established in 2020.

Since then, they have been expanding what’s possible in quantum computing, communication, sensing and materials in ways that will advance basic science for energy, security, communication and logistics.

The centers have strengthened the national quantum information science (QIS) ecosystem, achieving scientific and technological breakthroughs as well as training the next-generation quantum workforce.

According to the United Nations declaration, the "Year of Quantum" will officially begin in January 2025, as this year has been designated as the "International Year of Quantum Science and Technology."

WOC Online reflects on the work of researchers who are already making headlines in this field.

In 2022, UC Santa Cruz announced that Yuan Ping, an adjunct associate professor in the physics department, received an NSF CAREER award from the National Science Foundation.

That same year, she was also honored with an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship. Both awards supported her efforts to develop computational platforms aimed at investigating the physics of new materials for quantum computers and other applications in quantum information science.

According to the press release, quantum information in computers is encoded in quantum bits, or qubits, which can be created from any quantum system with two states.

Ping's research group has developed a theoretical framework and computational tools to predict spin dynamics in solid-state materials, allowing them to study the properties of spin qubits.

Key characteristics of spin qubits include quantum coherence, which determines how long the spin state remains stable and how long the encoded information persists; readout efficiency, which assesses the accuracy of information extraction from the qubit; and quantum transduction, which evaluates whether quantum information can be transmitted and communicated among qubits over long distances.

"Understanding the kinetics of excited states, as well as the relaxation and decoherence of spin qubits, is central to spin-based quantum information science," Ping stated.

"In this project, we will develop a computational platform to address these critical issues related to spin qubits."

These properties are specific to certain materials, and previous research largely relied on simplified models that required data from earlier experiments.

Ping's first-principles approach will eliminate the need for such prior input parameters, paving the way for the design of novel quantum materials that could enhance performance in quantum information science applications.

"Stable, scalable, and reliable quantum information science has the potential to transform knowledge across many critical fields through next-generation technologies for sensing, computing, modeling, and communicating," Ping explained to UC Santa Cruz.

Additionally, the funding for this project includes support for educational and outreach activities designed to enhance undergraduate education in physical chemistry through a summer boot camp and to promote computational materials research through new courses and undergraduate research programs.

According to her webpage, Ping's areas of expertise span quantum information science, computational modeling, and quantum mechanics for graduate students.

Happy birthday to our Dept. of Energy National Quantum Information Science Research Centers! Since they were established in 2020, these centers have been expanding the frontier of what’s possible in quantum computing, communication, sensing and materials: https://t.co/JPWCIFjoAN pic.twitter.com/el8LR6C3bp

— DOE Office of Science (@doescience) December 18, 2024

Moore’s Law at 60: What’s Next for Computing? 💻

🎯 Key Highlights:
1️⃣ The Journey So Far: 60 years of exponential progress in chip technology.
2️⃣ Challenges Ahead: The limits of miniaturization and physical constraints.
3️⃣ The Future: Innovations like quantum computing and… pic.twitter.com/LHAWybsdGm

— Dev Khanna (@CurieuxExplorer) December 21, 2024