Engineering the Summer is an annual series following UChicago Pritzker Molecular Engineering students as they embark on summer internships and career experiences.
Truly fault-tolerant quantum computers – devices that stay functional in the dirt, noise, jostling and chaos of the world outside the lab – are the ultimate goal for quantum researchers around the planet.
UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering Quantum Engineering PhD student Su-un Lee is helping IBM bring that vision ever closer. The third-year theorist in the research group of Prof. Liang Jiang is spending his summer on an internship at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York—the global headquarters of IBM Research.
Lee shared some of his experiences for UChicago PME’s yearly Engineering the Summer series:
What first sparked your interest in your area of study?
During my senior year in college, I was fascinated by the interplay between physics and quantum information – complex physical systems are gracefully described through quantum information processing, while intuition from many-body physics inspires novel applications. This, combined with my frustrations in lab classes, led me to pursue theoretical quantum information science.
What research are you focused on at UChicago PME?
I theoretically study limitations and opportunities of noisy quantum information processing. Specifically, I study under what condition quantum information/computation persists or disappears. I also study how to characterize and benchmark quantum information encoded in a large system.
What has been your experience so far this summer at your internship?
I am working with the quantum algorithms team, and the IBM researchers in my team share interests that closely align with my work, which makes discussions highly engaging and productive. I’ve also had the chance to interact with practitioners, gaining insights into practical challenges and perspectives I hadn’t considered in school. This has been both refreshing and valuable in broadening my research scope.
What do you find most exciting about your internship?
I find it exciting to participate in a large-scale collaboration with many theorists and experimentalists. Being part of such a team, I enjoy the opportunity to influence and contribute to progress toward an ambitious goal, which feels unique to corporate research efforts.
What impact do you think your field will have on the world in the next 10 to 20 years?
If fault-tolerant quantum computers become a reality in the coming decades, I believe they will bring a paradigm shift in computation and information technologies. This will solve problems like integer factoring and simulating complex quantum systems that are intractable for classical computers. I also hope we will uncover many more practical problems where quantum computation can drive breakthroughs.
What role do you hope to play in that vision of the future?
I hope to be a researcher who brings insightful ideas and promotes a joyful, creative environment with my colleagues.
2025 International Year of Quantum Science and Technology
The United Nations declared 2025 the International Year of Quantum to mark a century of progress in quantum science and engineering. The University of Chicago and its partners join the celebration of the groundbreaking fields that continue to positively impact lives around the world.
