As International Year of Quantum begins, read about the latest breakthroughs

UChicago, national laboratories are part of growing regional ‘quantum ecosystem’

The University of Chicago is a key part of the flourishing quantum ecosystem in Illinois and beyond. With the launch of the UN’s 2025 International Year of Quantum, it is set to celebrate the groundbreaking fields of quantum science and engineering with potential to impact nearly every facet of life.

In the past decade, new breakthroughs, including research at the University of Chicago and its partners, have opened new frontiers in technology for speedy and secure communications, biomedical sensing and advanced computing.

Researchers at the University of Chicago, the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, the Physical Sciences Division including the Departments of Physics and Computer Science, collaborate closely with key partners at area universities, Argonne National Laboratory, the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, and the Chicago Quantum Exchange. The region was named an official U.S. Regional and Innovation Technology Hub for quantum technologies.

These expanded partnerships have led to many new initiatives, including two Department of Energy quantum research hubs and a massive quantum campus to be built on Chicago’s South Side.

As the Year of Quantum begins, take a quick look back at recent research and innovations from the quantum science and engineering research areas at UChicago that are advancing this powerful technology.

Reimagining quantum communications

Quantum devices will change how we communicate, but scientists have struggled with practical methods of building the networks capable of transmitting quantum information over long distances. UChicago is pioneering this field both in the lab and in the private sector through alumni-founded startups like Manish Singh’s memQ.

Prof. Liang Jiang’s lab has proposed a new approach to quantum networks — building long quantum channels using vacuum sealed tubes with an array of spaced-out lenses. These vacuum beam guides, about 20 centimeters in diameter, would have ranges of thousands of kilometers and capacities of 10 trillion qubits per second, better than any existing quantum communication approach.

In collaboration with Argonne and the UChicago Computer Science Department, Jiang also introduced a groundbreaking classical algorithm that represents a significant step forward in understanding how quantum and classical computing can work together.

Quantum engineering also has the potential to reduce the environmental impact of another recent innovation — artificial intelligence. An interdisciplinary team including Jiang in 2024 showed how incorporating quantum computing into the classical machine-learning process can potentially help make machine learning more sustainable and efficient.

Building healthier lives

The term “quantum engineering” might bring to mind images of high-speed computers and unbreakable codes, but some of the most exciting applications are within the human body. Quantum sensing is poised to revolutionize disease detection and prevention, and help secure Chicago’s future as a biotech hub, as UChicago PME Asst. Prof. Allison Squires told the Chicago BioCapital Summit late last year.

UChicago PME Prof. Aaron Esser-Kahn, PME Asst. Prof. Peter Maurer and UChicago Medicine Assoc. Prof. Alexander T. Pearson in 2024 received a $900,000 grant from the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Chicago to develop quantum-enabled identifiers (Q-IDs) that will allow for the investigation of individual immune cells in real-time.

“Eventually these Q-IDs will be able to monitor thousands of immune cells, which will provide insights into inflammation in tumors and tissues and potentially lead to new therapies for chronic inflammation and cancer,” Maurer said.

Maurer also in 2024 received a $2.75 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to study qubits — the building blocks of quantum computing — made from proteins.

“This is a completely new class of qubits that will allow us a radically new approach to engineer quantum systems,” Maurer said.

Creating better quantum devices

But none of these innovations can happen without better, more powerful, faster and less expensive quantum devices.

Researchers are reimagining the architecture of quantum chips, unlocking a “new synthetic frontier” for creating quantum dots, finding a completely new, quantum path toward building superconductors and liberating the building blocks of quantum materials.

Other quantum innovations include a new diamond bonding technique to better integrate quantum and classical electronics, laser-written quantum bits to help scale quantum devices, quantum optical antennae for more detailed measurements on the atomic level, and even building qubits out of sound.

Explaining the inexplicable

Although the effects of quantum engineering are experienced every time a QLED television is flicked on or a smartphone is utilized, explaining this counterintuitive technology is a different matter.

When descriptions of cats-in-boxes and superpositioned ones and zeroes fail, UChicago PME Dean Nadya Mason and Prof. David Awschalom, who also leads the Chicago Quantum Exchange, took their expertise to a global audience through PBS’s acclaimed science show Nova.

Watch the episode here.

Building the quantum workforce

Beyond research, UChicago is also driving STEM fluency, building the quantum workforce of tomorrow.

UChicago brings quantum to the community through summer programs such as Quantum Quickstart, which brings ninth- and tenth-graders from across Illinois for a weeklong immersion in quantum science, and TeachQuantum, which teaches South Side schoolteachers how to bring this cutting-edge field into their classrooms.

UChicago PME’s innovative science/arts lab the STAGE Center turns explanation into fun, bringing their suite of quantum mechanics-based card games to the public, most recently at a game night at Bowen High School in the South Chicago neighborhood.

Along with programs like the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s LabEscape, the night was designed to build community support and excitement for the massive quantum campus planned for the long-vacant U.S. Steel South Works site.

Learn more:

—Adapted from an article published by the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering.