From the faintest signals from the cosmos to the cells in the human body, here’s a look back on UChicago’s quantum 2025:
UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering alum Jacob Feder, PhD’25, and PhD candidate Benjamin Soloway. (UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering / Jason Smith)
In what Physics World named one of the Top 10 Breakthroughs of the Year, researchers in the labs of UChicago PME Asst. Prof. Peter Maurer and Prof. David Awschalom, director of the Chicago Quantum Institute and Chicago Quantum Exchange, have turned a protein found in living cells into a functioning quantum bit, or qubit, the foundation of quantum technologies. The protein qubit can be used as a quantum sensor capable of detecting minute changes and ultimately offering unprecedented insight into biological processes.
A new initiative between the University of Chicago and quantum company IonQ will support faculty, postdoctoral and student researchers at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering. Above, UChicago Asst. Prof. Peter Maurer (left) and Ph.D. candidate Uri Zvi conduct research on quantum biosensors in their lab at UChicago PME. (Photo by Jason Smith)
UChicago and global quantum company IonQ in November announced a groundbreaking initiative to support faculty, postdoctoral and student researchers in fundamental quantum science at UChicago PME and establish a sponsored research program between UChicago and IonQ. The partnership includes the construction of a world-class science and engineering building - the IonQ Center for Engineering and Science - that will house UChicago PME and other University science and technology research areas.
The University of Chicago is launching the Berggren Center for Quantum Biology and Medicine, a bold scientific field that merges quantum technology with biology to transform the future of medicine and patient care. Established with a $21 million gift from philanthropist Thea Berggren (center), The Berggren Center will be co-directed by Greg Engel (left), professor at the UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and the Dept. of Chemistry, and Julian Solway (right), Professor of Medicine and founding director of the Institute for Translational Medicine. (Photo by Jason Smith)
Co-directed by UChicago PME and Chemistry Prof. Greg Engel and UChicago Medicine Professor Emeritus Julian Solway, the Berggren Center for Quantum Biology and Medicine – created through a generous $21 million gift from philanthropist Thea Berggren – will unlock insights into biology and disease that were previously out of reach, paving the way for new diagnostics and therapies.
New research from University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (UChicago PME) Asst. Prof. Tian Zhong could make it possible for quantum computers to connect at distances up to 2,000 kilometers (1,243 miles), shattering previous records and bringing a quantum internet closer than ever. (UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering / Jason Smith)
The current maximum distance two quantum computers can connect in a high-speed quantum network is about 10 kilometers. Research from UChicago PME Asst. Prof. Tian Zhong could raise that limit up to 2,000 kilometers, bringing a fast, powerful “quantum internet” closer than ever. The work earned Zhong the 2025 Sturge Prize.
In a paper presented at the Quantum Information Processing Conference, the world’s most prestigious conference on the theory of quantum computation, researchers in the lab of Computer Science Assoc. Prof. William Fefferman unveiled insights into random quantum circuits, exploring the speed at which random circuits scramble information. These findings are crucial for understanding quantum supremacy experiments as well as the future of quantum cryptography.
A new paper from the lab of UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering Prof. Andrew Cleland demonstrates entanglement two physically separate resonators. (Photo courtesy of Cleland Lab)
Groundbreaking work from the lab of UChicago PME Prof. Andrew Cleland has for the first time demonstrated high-fidelity entanglement between two acoustic wave resonators. The entanglement was not between the particles that make up the massive objects, but between the “phonons” that occupy the resonators. These are the nanoscale mechanical vibrations that, were there ears small enough to hear them, would be considered sound.
University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (UChicago PME) and Chemistry Department Prof. Laura Gagliardi is one of the UChicago researchers leading the charge on Metal-Organic Frameworks, a field harnessing atomic-level precision and computational intelligence to build the materials of the future. (Photo by John Zich)
Over the past 10 years, UChicago PME and Chemistry Prof. Laura Gagliardi and her collaborator Prof. Don Truhlar at the University of Minnesota have developed and refined a theory that makes it feasible to study larger quantum systems through quantum chemical computer simulations. In 2025, they advanced that theory with a new method that achieves high accuracy without the steep computational cost of other advanced methods.
UChicago Computer Science Prof. Fred Chong co-heads the Quantum Advantage-Class Trapped Ion System (QACTI) to build a 60-qubit “proof of concept” machine anticipated by 2029, and a 256-qubit ion trap computer by 2033. (Photo by Jason Smith)
Now entering its second phase, the Quantum Advantage-Class Trapped Ion System (QACTI) project co-headed by Computer Science Prof. Fred Chong seeks to build two unprecedented quantum computing systems: a 60-qubit “proof of concept” machine anticipated by 2029, and a 256-qubit ion trap computer by 2033. Both targets represent significant advancements in the ability to tackle scientific problems, from climate modeling to drug discovery, that are extremely challenging or even out of reach for conventional computers.
UChicago researchers led by UChicago PME Prof. Liang Jiang are part of an international, multi-institution collaboration that has shown a significant speed-up in using quantum learning techniques to characterize physical systems. (Photo by John Zich)
UChicago researchers led by UChicago PME Prof. Liang Jiang are part of an international, multi-institution collaboration that has shown a significant speed-up in using quantum learning techniques to characterize physical systems. The team showed that while a classical, entanglement-free approach to these measurements would take 20 million years, their quantum, entanglement-enhanced approach took less than 15 minutes.
PhD students Leah Weiss (left) and Grant Smith work in the lab of Professor David Awschalom. (Photo by John Zich)
A team of scientists from the lab of UChicago PME Prof. David Awschalom, the University of California Berkeley, Argonne National Laboratory, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has developed molecular qubits that bridge the gap between light and magnetism—and operate at the same frequencies as telecommunications technology. The advance establishes a promising new building block for scalable quantum technologies that can integrate seamlessly with existing fiber-optic networks.
New research paves the way for scientists to better understand what happens at a sub-atomic scale when ice melts, which has implications including improving predictions of the release of greenhouse gases from thawing permafrost. (Image courtesy of Galli Group)
Working with collaborators at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), UChicago PME and Chemistry Prof. Giulia Galli has used quantum mechanical simulations to reveal how tiny imperfections in ice's crystal structure dramatically alter how ice absorbs and emits light. The findings pave the way for scientists to better understand what happens at a sub-atomic scale when ice melts, which has implications including improving predictions of the release of greenhouse gases from thawing permafrost.
UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (UChicago PME) Prof. Nancy Kawalek, founder and director of the Scientists, Technologists, and Artists Generating Exploration (STAGE) Center, speaks at the unveiling of “Imagining the Future: An Encounter with Quantum Technologies,” a public display model of an IBM Quantum System One quantum computer, and an accompanying website – flyquantum.stage.uchicago.edu – created and designed by the STAGE Center’s students. The exhibit will be on display for a year at United's Terminal 1 at Chicago O'Hare International Airport. (Photo by Anne Ryan)
UChicago Physics Assoc. Prof. David Miller is part of a collaboration with the Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Diraq, University of Wisconsin-Madison and Manchester University that proposed the development of a quantum sensor made of quantum bits called spin qubits in silicon to probe beyond Standard Model physics. By placing many spin qubits together on a chip to form a sensor, the researchers seek to enable scientists to tease out even the faintest signals from the cosmos.
Researchers at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, including Asst. Prof. Shuolong Yang (left) and graduate student Khanh Duy Nguyen, have discovered one of the world’s thinnest semiconductor junctions naturally forming within a promising quantum material. (Photo by John Zich)
Scientists studying a promising quantum material in the lab of UChicago PME Asst. Prof. Shuolong Yang stumbled upon a surprise: within its crystal structure, the material naturally forms one of the world’s thinnest semiconductor junctions—a building block of most modern electronics. The junction is just 3.3 nanometers thick, about 25,000 times thinner than a sheet of paper.
One of the undergraduate students in the University of Chicago molecular engineering program, Avery Linder, is heading straight into industry after graduation as President and CEO of a startup based on a revolutionary diamond-bonding technique she helped develop. (Photo by Steven Metzer)
Quantum materials startup staC12, which spun out of the lab of UChicago PME Assoc. Prof. Alex High joined the Chicago Quantum Exchange as a corporate partner. Headed by College alumna Avery Linder based on research published in 2024, staC12 develops integrated single-crystal diamond materials for next-generation quantum and semiconductor technologies.
