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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. 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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
