Hello, and welcome to the Physics World weekly
podcast.
I'm Hamish Johnston.
In this episode,
I'm very pleased to be in conversation
with two
leading lights of the quantum science and technology
community
in The US state of Illinois.
They are Priti Chalsani
and David Auchalam.
That interview is coming up after this message
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Now invent.
Priti and David, welcome to the podcast.
Hi, Himesh. Thanks for having us. Hamish, likewise.
Great to be here. So, Preeti, you're chief
quantum officer at Intersect
Illinois.
Can you tell us, a bit about the
organization
and your role within it?
Sure. Happy to.
So IntraSC Illinois is a nonprofit
organization,
a public private partnership.
We are essentially the state's business and economic
development arm
for statewide
business and economic development. So
in Illinois, like most other states, cities
might have their own business development and economic
development arms. Intersect Illinois focuses on the state
of Illinois.
Our mission is to bring growth to Illinois,
so in the form of jobs,
companies,
investments,
and also sort of doing what it takes
to,
ensure that that happens. So maybe we,
also,
get involved in infrastructure development
that will help towards job creation or business
creation.
And then when we also,
work
very closely with companies or entities that are
looking to
grow or expand in Illinois or who are
looking to come to Illinois
to help make,
you know, the necessary connections for them, whether
they need connections to government organizations or professional
services
or certainly, especially in the industry, work in
connections to,
to
researchers or universities
and talent. And so we work very closely
with
other organizations
throughout the state, including,
the Chicago Quantum Exchange,
or research organizations,
other companies, etcetera.
And
my role was created very recently.
I am the inaugural chief quantum officer for
Illinois.
And, really, what it is is a testament
to the state's
focus on this industry.
Our governor,
as many of you may know already, is
really,
he has,
he has an interest in this,
industry
that comes from many different
motivations.
One being Illinois has been at the forefront
of, you know, innovations in science and technology
for many decades now, thanks to our great,
educational research institutions.
But
in the past, a lot of the
economic development
from those innovations
happens outside of Illinois.
And there's a real desire to change that
narrative.
And then I think Illinois has been at
the forefront of quantum science and technology, and
you'll hear more from that more from David
on that, I'm sure.
And so it's trying to get ahead of
this and be like, this is great. What
can we do to ensure
that the science and this technology continues to
develop,
and it continues to develop locally?
So the idea behind creating my role is
to have someone who's focused on this
and not doing this as part of 18
other things that they're,
focused on.
Oh, that's great. That's really interesting. I have
to say, when when I heard that Illinois
has a chief quantum officer,
I thought we we've definitely got to get
that person on the podcast because it sounds
like it sounds like such a fantastic job.
You know, not to say, David, that your
job isn't fantastic at all. And, you're you're
the director of the Chicago
Quantum Exchange,
which is one of the largest quantum consortiums
in The US. Can can you tell us
a bit about that,
organization
and your role within it?
No. Thanks. Of course. I'd be happy to,
and I'm glad to know I'm not entirely
useless. So I I appreciate the introduction.
So,
yeah, as you mentioned, the Chicago Quantum Exchange
or the CQE as we call it, it's
a regional hub that spans Illinois, Wisconsin,
and Indiana,
and the intent really is to advance the
science and engineering of quantum information
to prepare the future quantum workforce
and help drive the quantum economy.
And one of the things we do is
this is done in very tight collaboration with
leading universities,
two national laboratories,
and more than 50 industry partners
that we've organized in the last decade here.
And with these partners, the CQE has had,
I think, relatively broad impacts in this space.
We've
we've launched more than a 100 joint research
projects with companies. We provided
some of the first quantum experiences for our
students,
joint industry postdocs with companies like IBM and
others,
online professional courses
that help current
scientists and engineers in industry pivot
from traditional technologies into quantum.
And we lead the commercialization and workforce developments
in this region spanning the three different states.
I should also mention one thing that we
did early on with Preeti, who used to
be actually with the CQE before Yes. She
went to the state,
which was we co launched Duality, which is
the first quantum startup accelerator
in the country.
And it supports that over two dozen quantum
companies that have grown in this region. So
I I think these deep cross sector partnerships
that are growing in this ecosystem has sort
of set the stage of what we've been
seeing here in the last several years.
For example, the US Department of Commerce has
listed
us as one of two national quantum tech
hubs for quantum technologies.
Let us bring in companies, like EeroQ and
Cy Quantum into the region. And as Preeti
will probably talk about later, it's led to
the development working with the governor of the
Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics
Park.
So we did launch this in 02/2017.
And in terms of my own role, as
you mentioned, I'm very lucky to serve as
the inaugural director
where my intent is to coordinate some of
these activities, identify
some of the most promising opportunities
in science and technology,
and to work with people like Priti and
her organization
to make this region grow as efficiently as
possible.
So I I guess, you know, in the
end, we've convened academic
and industry and government leaders.
We have yearly
summits here in the Midwest. It's a once
a year big program called the Quantum Summit.
Actually, the next one is this November,
and we'll hear from people like Tara Shimato,
who's the CEO of Toshiba,
Sila Mertzbacher, who's the executive director of the
US Quantum Economic Development Consortium.
So that's what we do here.
Oh, that's great. And I I should point
out that Celia Mertzbacher has also been on
the, the Physics World Weekly podcast.
And, I'll I'll I'll I'll put a link
to that,
to that interview in the notes for this
episode.
I wanted to add something else to what
David mentioned and what you said.
CQE is certainly one of the largest
consortia,
in quantum. But, also,
even more importantly, maybe it's one of the
first ones, and
that has played a big role in
creating momentum in our ecosystem.
So,
I wanna
make sure that we understand. It's also one
of the earliest.
Well, thanks, Priti.
David, can you can you give us a
flavor of some of the the quantum science
and technology
that that's being done in Illinois at the
moment? I know that that you're an active
researcher
in that field. Could you may maybe start
with some of the work that you're involved
in and then branch out?
Yeah. It's a very thing. That's a very
dangerous thing to ask a physicist to talk
about their research.
It's okay. It's a physics world podcast. I
know. But there'll be no there'll be no
time left for Preeti. So maybe I can
take I could I could step back a
little bit and revisit this a little bit
later, in our discussion. But, you know, I
think one of the things that we did,
as Preeti mentioned, we started this very early.
So the quantum science and technology efforts here
in Illinois are very broad and very deep,
and the intent when we built this was
to span basic research like my own work,
to the industrial development
and applications, and do this all together. And
I think one of the unique ways that
Illinois approached this area
is to develop, first of all, outstanding basic
research programs,
but also to engage industry for collaborative research
at the very beginning.
So this latter point, I think, is really
important for people to appreciate.
The history of microelectronics
taught us a pretty important lesson in collaborating
with industry,
which is
do it at the beginning.
Don't wait for research results to appear. Wait
a decade later.
Try and sort out if it might or
might not be relevant to technology and then
think about transition.
What we've learned is that this type of
engine works much more efficiently
if you do it together cooperatively at the
very beginning.
And to be clear, it doesn't mean we're
doing work at service to industry.
It means that industry is watching what's going
on, you know, in house and saying, oh,
you know what that thing you just saw
in your lab? This could be really important
to us.
So this style enabled us to prepare for
unexpected opportunities in what's clearly a rapidly changing
area.
So to your point, we focused on quantum
sensing,
quantum communication,
quantum computing, and algorithm development.
So the idea was not to pick an
early winner because we think that's impossible for
a new field,
but to invest broadly like a type of
quantum mutual fund. You may not know exactly
what's going to peak, so
you you invest.
And we appreciate also that in quantum science,
all of these areas are actually connected and
ultimately will be physically entangled.
So it's impossible to predict the high impact
areas of a new field, and we thought
this was quite an effective strategy for the
long game.
So I can tell you to a point
you mentioned a little earlier. I this made
us appreciate early on how important it is
to develop a quantum ready workforce
in order to succeed.
And this had to be integrated as well
because without a quantum ready workforce,
none of this will happen.
So that's quite integrated.
And this type of tight connection has actually
led to some remarkable acceleration of homegrown startups
where students doing the basic research
have picked bits of what they've done
and have developed an appreciation of where it
may lead to an application as part of
their training. That's led to startups like MemQ
and Inflexion and Qubrade. There are lots of
others here.
So while I'm happy a little later to
talk about some of our own developments, which
will be great for us to chat about,
I think this broad perspective in how science
has spun out into industry is really important
and really important for this field.
I see. And, Preeti, you've spent a a
good chunk of your career working at the
interface between
academic science,
industry,
and government.
Can you what what what is the plan,
in Illinois to take these
breakthroughs that are that are being done in
David and others' labs
and and turn them into in into business
opportunities?
Yeah. It's a great question, and I'm so
glad,
David focuses
on that aspect
in addition to the
to the scientific achievements that we have,
created in this,
in our region.
I think
for any type of technological
advancements,
it's,
you know, it's a marathon. It's not a
sprint. It requires a lot of different types
of resources,
funding,
infrastructure,
talent, and workforce, which David mentioned,
and partnerships
both at the, you know, the early end
of the spectrum, partnerships with r and d
organizations
to ensure,
that cutting edge advancements and research are connected
to the, to the technology
as well as,
strategic partnerships at the other end,
connecting with,
you know, corporations
who might help with go to market strategy
or with the technology development.
So Illinois,
and all of our organizations are taking a
really holistic approach and making sure that we
understand what it takes
to, to support these types of startups and,
and work on developing each of those aspects.
So for example, the state has created
a whole,
suite of incentives
that will support startups
and specifically startups which are pre revenue. Right?
So,
income tax credits don't really mean much when
you're not making profits.
So things like payroll withholding, things like venture
investments for early stage startups.
The state has created these as a way
of catalyzing investments from the private sector.
We're also,
supporting
and creating infrastructure, things like the Illinois Quantum
and Microelectronics
Spark,
you know, in order to build on all
of the infrastructure
development at universities and innovation hubs.
We're,
really
looking to support
and,
working with other organizations
to create
innovative workforce development programs to be able to
keep these, startups and, technology companies,
you know, supplied with
this real,
you know, really
scarce resource.
And then, overall, like, you know, I think
what's really important is to create density in
an ecosystem.
So we're,
again, working with everybody across the region and
the, the ecosystem to make sure that we're,
creating a support network,
where
natural collisions between
large companies, small companies, researchers,
investors,
the public happens naturally,
and we there's a real sense of an
ecosystem here.
I see. Had
it's funny. You you mentioned collisions. Of course,
Illinois is blessed with two national labs,
Fermilab, which, of course, is famous for colliding
particles,
and Argonne
National Lab,
as well as several leading
universities.
So, I mean, it almost seems like
the region or the state
should have emerged
naturally
as a hub
of quantum
innovation.
But was there also a lot of hard
work,
you know, from you, Preeti and David
in in making,
Illinois a quantum
a quantum leader?
I will take the first shot at this
with a very simple answer saying, yes. A
lot of work. Right? Like, just so, yes,
we have these foundational
assets,
national labs,
really amazing,
universities.
But
just having those
doesn't do a whole lot on its own.
You need catalysts
like the Chicago Quantum Exchange, like
the work that was done by some of
the early leaders, including David, in seeing what
was possible
in creating a space where we could think
more collectively
about
how we could support these large,
collaborative,
partnerships, collaborative, you
know, organizations,
and how we could build support from the
state, from the federal government,
from the private sector
to make it into something bigger.
And that's something, I think, that is unique
to our ecosystem. So,
California has a number of amazing institutions,
but you don't have an ecosystem for quantum
the way you do here, and that's what's
missing, the catalysts
and, really, the glue that binds everything together.
But I'll I'll also make sure that David,
I know he has a lot to say
on this, that Halo.
Well, I I think Preeti made this, really
nicely
stated. I mean, it I agree. It was
a lot of hard work, and it's still
a lot of hard work
taking different visions,
coalescing them,
and we can trace it back to more
than a dozen years here and, honestly, to
a series of pretty bold decisions by the
University of Chicago.
And I say that not not just because
I'm here now, but because they were willing
to be a pioneer
Yeah. To invest in this nascent field in
really big ways well before it became obvious
that things were moving the way they are
today.
So you're right, Hamish. The region was already
home to world leading quantum scientists and institutions,
but
with some discussion, the University of Chicago saw
a genuine opportunity to make our region the
national hub for quantum technology,
and very few others were thinking this way
in 02/2012.
It made these investments both risky
and remarkably visionary.
So I I like to joke that I'm
very good at spending other people's money.
The making money can be more of a
challenge,
but I generally admire the university, Billy, being
willing to take this remarkable risk. And,
you know, please understand, this was a serious
financial investment,
to make at a time
where it wasn't obvious how this would go.
And I think the Midwest attitude of thinking
big, you know, the famous quote, no small
ideas,
in the Midwest was really a driver here.
So, I mean, for example, the university through
the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering,
which was built,
at the same time, created the first PhD
program in the nation for quantum science engineering.
It built the first school of molecular engineering,
the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering,
and one of the four cornerstones of that
was quantum engineering.
We talked about the CQE,
and
now now we're hundreds of industry projects and
the startup accelerators and, you know, student projects,
things have gone
better than we thought. And in to Preeti's
point,
the governor of Illinois has been an extraordinary
supporter
and champion of this effort, an ambassador globally
even
of speaking to companies around the world to
bring them here.
He's helped us understand the potential of this
field in ways I certainly didn't understand. I
honestly I never thought in my life I
would spend time with the governor,
as a physicist,
and we've learned a lot from him.
And this partnership, I think, is quite unique
to this part of the country.
And, Preeti, I wanted to ask you about
the Illinois
Quantum and Microelectronics
Park, which is currently being built on
Lake Michigan,
sort of right at the Southern edge of
Chicago, I suppose, in an in an area
that maybe used to be very
industrial
but, is not
that,
industrial
anymore.
Can you tell us a bit about the
park? What,
what companies and facilities
will it host? And, ultimately, how many people
will work there?
Sure. Happy to.
Yeah. So the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics
Park is the latest
and biggest
in a series of investments
dating back to 2012, as David mentioned.
And, really, it's a result
of all of the work that happened before
seeing the success our region has had in
building up this kind of juggernaut
of quantum science and technology happening here. The
real,
the really natural next step is how do
we support this
so that we can continue to make these
technology advancements and,
build
economic value, build businesses
from these techno technological
advancements right here. So the, Illinois Quantum and
Microelectronics
Park is basically,
a tech park, a very large tech park
to support scale up further advancements and commercialization
of quantum and adjacent technologies that you need
for the development of quantum technologies.
And as you mentioned, yeah, it's,
it's
in,
right,
on Lake Michigan
in on a site that used to be
a steel factory, US Steel Works,
which itself is, I think, very symbolic, like,
building this new,
building a site for this new industry on
a
site that used to be a hub for
the old industry.
And what I've learned is that much of
the steel that was produced there went into
building New York City and Chicago,
you know, all of the amazing architecture that
we're familiar with.
I myself
grew up in what's called a steel city
in India, so it's very
cool for me to think about working in
this site that,
heralds new technology.
It's a 130
acres.
And, essentially,
what it is is that the state is
investing in infrastructure
that can be leveraged
by companies
to do what they do best, which is
advancing technologies. So,
one of the first companies that,
choose chose to locate there is PsiQuantum,
which, as you know, is a quantum computing
company,
based in Silicon Valley.
They were looking to expand so that they
could build their next generation
fault tolerant,
photonic quantum computer.
And,
after
a very long
eighteen month search,
settled on this location as being the place
where they could
really
have access to everything they needed, including talent
and ecosystem
support to do what they're doing, which is
not an easy thing to do.
Since then, we've also announced a partnership with
IBM, who will also host their next generation
quantum computer on the park
and build a team of,
50,
algorithm specialists.
We've announced,
Duraq, which is an Australian quantum computing company,
and there's several others in the works.
What the park will have is
infrastructure
including
access to
equipment, things like very expensive, complicated,
specialized equipment, like dilution refrigerators,
control electronics
that will
that that are really necessary to make advancements
in these fields, but can be a big
barrier in terms of both the capital needed
and the time needed
to,
kind of set up equipment like that. So
the idea is providing access. We're building what
we call the National Quantum Facility, which will
have this equipment
available for lease,
so that companies can come in and start
working immediately.
We're also building other things like a facility
where suppliers, you know, who are building enabling
technologies
can locate and manufacture these technologies that can
then,
they can be colocated
with their users
again to enable development of new technologies.
There is an industrial scale cryo plant, which,
again, as we're thinking about scaling some of
these quantum computers that need access
to cooling and large amounts of cooling, having
access to a cryo plant makes that more,
cost efficient and energy efficient.
And there's a lot of room,
for others to build their own facilities, so
similar to PsiQuantum.
And
the advantage would be having access to all
of this all of these resources being in
this ecosystem
with other companies.
And, really,
the location, it's about a fifteen minute drive
from UChicago, and you're embedded
right in the heart of the,
quantum ecosystem in Illinois.
It's it's a really exciting project, and,
we are
working very hard on building a lot of
the infrastructure, but also partnering with other companies,
and more announcements
will be forthcoming soon.
Wow. That that does sound very exciting.
Yeah. And And Yeah. It it's
based on a, you know, a really historic
$500,000,000
investment from the state. And, again, this is
a like, it's
this was the first time a state
invested this much
in quantum technologies.
We're used to the federal government making investments
like that, but for a state to do
that is really amazing.
David, I I wanted to ask you about
your move,
to Chicago.
I think we met about
ten years ago,
when you were still at the University of
California
at Santa Barbara.
And you've since moved to Chicago where you're
the director
of the quantum
engineering theme at the Pritzker School for Molecular
Engineering.
Why did you make the move, and can
you give us a flavor
of what your current research interests are?
No. Thanks for the thanks for the question.
Well, to be clear, it wasn't the weather
that drove this move,
but,
I I know Preeti has a lot to
say about that. But at at that time,
there was a president, president Bob Zimmer, a
mathematician at the University of Chicago,
who was keen on building the first
engineering and applied science school for this university.
And they decided that time to take a
risk on building thematic areas. Very different design
for education, not departments.
But could you pick a few important
problems for society
and assemble people around them?
And one of the areas that I proposed
to them was quantum science and engineering as
part of creating this endeavor. And then as
I said earlier it's important to recognize this
was in 2012.
So as I mentioned it was pretty bold
for them to do this.
To be clear, it meant building state of
the art labs, hiring over a dozen new
faculty in addition to people in related areas,
and consider
very broad ways of building a school and
university, including, by the way, one of the
themes that integrates the arts and sciences,
which turns out to be particularly important in
our current times.
So they also appreciated the concept that universities
couldn't do some of this alone,
and that success would depend on thinking regionally,
strategically with international partners, companies as we talked
about.
And so they embraced all of this, and
that that's why I moved here, frankly. It
was a remarkably
exciting endeavor to build what turned out to
be a globally competitive activity, but in a
very different way. It was, honestly, it was
an impossible opportunity to resist.
In terms of my own research,
and I'll try and keep this short, Amish,
because this could be a separate podcast.
We focus on creating,
entangling,
and controlling quantum states in matter and particularly,
atomically engineered semiconductors
and molecules.
And I mean, individual electrons and individual nuclei.
So at the subatomic level for processing information.
And, you know, today our current technology is
created from a top down approach where we
build nanometer scale of devices from wafers of
semiconductors.
But in my own group, we're also exploring
what I think is a very different approach.
Could you build quantum bits for technology from
the bottom up
using molecular chemistry?
And this offers a chance to custom design
quantum states that can be assembled into much
more complex systems.
For example, could you integrate a quantum sensor
and communication technology?
Could you convert a qubit into a photon
to make a flying qubit if you like
that could be on a chip or across
the country or across the world?
And this has been to some pretty exciting
new directions. Most recently,
a new technique has emerged where we, with
collaborations with colleagues here at Chicago, can create
quantum bits out of proteins.
So it's an interesting idea not to try
and force a semiconductor quantum center into a
cell, for example,
but could you turn a part of a
cell into a quantum bit and use that
to probe the behavior of a cell,
sub cellular medicine in the future using a
single
atom scale quantum sensor?
So that's turned out to work in surprising
ways, and it's just an example of things
you might not have predicted a few years
ago. We wouldn't have predicted this, that now
we're moving very quickly.
I see.
The so so the,
these systems that you're studying at the moment,
are they are they still some way from
being,
being used as as practical
qubits, you know, in a quantum computer or,
let's say, you know, as a quantum sensor?
Or are you are you at the point
where you can start
manipulating them in that way or or connecting
them together and entangling them?
Well, I think,
some of the work is, moving into
prototype technologies right now.
So,
a number of years ago with our theory
colleagues, we explored what new semiconductors
might host quantum states that no one ever
explored.
And
this theoretical program identified over a dozen materials,
and the top of list was a material
called silicon carbide.
You and your audience may not be quite
as familiar with this as silicon, but it's
one of the most popular materials on the
planet. It's used in LED lighting.
It's used essentially silicon that works at high
temperature,
used in aircraft and satellites, five g technology,
electric vehicles.
So ironically,
the prediction was that you could build qubits
off out of commercial wafers in this material,
and no one had looked. So we looked,
and after a few years, it became clear
you could do this. You could buy materials
online
and use classical
manufacturing technologies
to build quantum technologies
with a commercial material.
So we've now been able to demonstrate record
long quantum coherences over ten minutes in these
materials. They're extraordinarily long,
and this work now is transitioned to a
number of our industrial partners,
for applications and sensing and communication.
And
tying back to our earlier conversation, that's the
fun of working with industry.
We can focus on fundamental science, often find
big surprises,
and then our colleagues can help us identify
how one can use that
and often hire our students into these companies
to use these discoveries to build new technologies.
I see. And and, Preeti, here at at
Physics World, we're we're always very interested in
talking to physicists about their career.
And, you know, I think you you've had
a very interesting career. You you did a
PhD in applied physics at Cornell University, and
you've spent more than twenty years
working at the intersection of,
academia
and industry.
Can you describe the path that took you
to intersect
Illinois
and perhaps give a few tips to to
some, you know, to young physicist listeners who
might be interested in such a career?
Sure.
And as David said, this could be its
own podcast. It was certainly not a
planned path to where I am, definitely a
very nonlinear one, but one that I've enjoyed,
you know, along the way a lot.
As you said, yes, I did start. I'm
a physicist by training. I have a degree,
a PhD in applied physics.
Incidentally,
I I also have an undergrad degree in
applied physics with a focus on quantum electronics.
This is in the mid nineties,
long before I had even thought about quantum
computing or anyone had. Wow. So you're a
true pioneer as well.
Of some kind. Yes. But, I've enjoyed being
with the pioneers.
You know, I think for me, I really
enjoyed the work I was doing and
being
in this,
in this space.
You know? I was working in an area
called spintronics,
which
while it involved fundamental
science, also had
really interesting applications.
I like science and technology and all of
the,
applications,
you know, across different industries.
But, frankly, I just didn't want to be
in a lab anymore, and so I was
looking for other things to do
with my interests, with my skill sets,
and still being
within this industry
without being in an actual lab. And
so things like this don't happen.
You know,
it it it's not hard to predict or
plan this.
For me,
after I finished my PhD, I was also
moving to Canada, which is a new country,
and I
didn't have established network. So I did a
postdoc,
which was a more natural step for me
while I was thinking of other things.
I taught for two years.
Again, I really enjoyed it,
but I wanted to be more at the
cutting edge of things.
So I,
I worked in intellectual property, which is
again, I really enjoyed that because it gave
me
what I what, for me, it was sort
of like the opposite of being in grad
school with all of the advantages,
but none of the disadvantages
as I saw them. I got to work
on a number of different projects,
unlike in grad school where you work on
one project for a very long time.
And I got to work with all of
the success stories, all of the hard work
that happens in research labs and at start
ups. I got to see them once they
were successful,
and it was immensely joyful.
And from there, it's sort of a natural
step to go in house at some point.
So,
I had an opportunity
right when University of Chicago
was expanding
like, really expanding their quantum efforts. I had
an opportunity
to move in house and work in the
tech commercialization
team
at the Polsky Center at University of Chicago.
And it was sort of, for me,
life coming full circle because I was able
to get back to my original roots,
in,
you know, quantum physics
and adjacent sciences and work with the faculty
as they were,
developing,
this area, help like, I worked with David,
and his team
as they were, you know, filing new patents,
launching startups.
And then having worked with the CQE, I
also then,
decided it was really interesting to work within
the CQE, and
I worked on David's team leading industry partnerships.
Again, sort of a natural transition because,
it I had worked in industry. I knew
how to work with industry.
I had worked with researchers. I knew how
to work with them, and so it was
natural to try work in an area where
my job was making those connections.
Help launch Duality, the startup accelerator,
because, again, I had been working at this
intersection
of cutting edge technology and commercialization.
And,
from there, it was, again, a natural step
as the state decided that they really wanted
to focus on these efforts to try to
do that in a more focused way.
So I don't know if that answers your
question. No. No. No. That's no. No.
Lots of very sort of interesting tips there,
I think, for,
you know, for for for early career people
to, you know, sort of set a path.
Yeah. I mean, I mean, it does you
know, it sounds like you've got the best
of both worlds, you know, as you as
you say. You get you you're you're still
in touch
with the physics and the researchers and all
the exciting
new
science that's happening. But on the other hand,
you,
you also get to see it turned into
real useful technologies
that improve people's lives.
Yeah. And businesses. Right? Like, how do you
make it a viable
economic effort as well?
And I I've got one last question for
both of you.
May maybe, David, you could you could start.
What what does the future hold for quantum
science and technology in Illinois? What what are
you most excited about? What are you looking
forward to?
Oh, that's a fantastic question. Although I should
say,
Preeti, I have to I have to say
I'm I'm disturbed that you don't want to
be in a lab anymore.
So I dream of being in a and
I dream of being in a lab full
time. So maybe offline we can talk about
that.
In terms of Illinois, I you know, I
think as scientists and engineers,
it's quite remarkable that we have an opportunity
to make life better for people by bringing
jobs and economic security to this region.
You know, one of the things we've learned
from our colleagues, talking to analysts about what
might happen down the line is the analysts
predict that, you know, the Illinois, Wisconsin,
Indiana region
could see as many as 200,000
jobs in the quantum space in the next
decade.
And what's remarkable is the vast majority of
these will be open to people without graduate
degrees.
So what I to your question, what am
I most excited about? While there's a lot
of science I'm very excited about, I think
the impact on society
is something that could be extraordinary.
At the end of the day, tying a
bit to what Preeti was saying, quantum technology
has been projected to drive as much as
$80,000,000,000
in economic development for this region
in the next decade. And that's according to
analysis by the Boston Consulting Group, not by
us.
So this is something I'm excited about. In
terms of the science,
to your point about the future for science
and technology in this area,
honestly, I think it's boundless.
If every day, there are new discoveries from
quantum memories to entanglement
to improvements in error correction. It's incredible how
quickly things are moving.
There are growing applications in finance,
in medicine, you know, in security and computation,
and there are also new opportunities in cosmology,
developing new types of telescopes,
cosmological sensing. And the truth is,
I think at the end of the day
with all new endeavors like this, history has
taught us that the most exciting impacts are
ahead of us.
Wait. You know, when the transistor was invented
in the fifties,
well, before that actually,
people wrote down pages of things they thought
would impact the world.
But you know what they didn't write? No
one thought of integrated circuits.
The lasers,
social media.
Right? TikTok.
Exactly.
Oh, yeah. No. And there are things maybe
they should have thought about, but, yes, correct.
But the so to your point, I think
what I'm most excited about is the road
ahead. Right? We're creating a new generation of
quantum scientists and engineers that will drive this.
It's like driving down a road at a
100 miles an hour in low beams with
a lot of fog. We're we're moving very
quickly.
We don't know exactly where we're going, but
we're going very fast.
And, Priti, what what excites you the most,
about the future
of quantum science and technology
in Illinois?
Yeah. I think,
I will agree with everything that David has
said and
kind of
along the same lines. I think,
for me, I really think what's exciting is
that we're working in this space with a
lot of really smart people who are thinking
very creatively and working very hard about
ways in which this technology
can take on new shape and,
have new impact.
And for me,
just the journey itself, the effort itself is
really exciting, and I like to be,
I like to be in a place where
I'm able to help with that. And I
honestly,
humbly, really don't think we know what will
happen. And,
and I'm definitely quoting someone here,
you know, the this idea that
we're almost certainly,
overestimating
the impact in the short term
and very definitely
underestimating
the impact in the long term.
So I'm really curious to see what comes
out of this. And in the meanwhile,
like, the creativity
and the hard work that goes into
making these technologies happen. Quantum computers are hard
enough, but even building things like
detectors and sensors and lasers and cryostats
that help enable this,
it's it's just really interesting, really hard work,
and will lead to impacts in other industries
and other sectors that we don't know about.
And
the opportunity
we have here to engage a wide audience
and to
create new ways of creating,
workforce development programs
or,
technology acceleration programs. It's just fantastic to be
able to work in this. And,
Well, that's great.
That that that's a good place to to
stop. Looking forward to the future.
David and Preeti, thanks so much for joining
me today on the on the podcast.
Well, thank you for having us.
Yeah. I like thank you.
That was Q NEXT's
David Auchlum
and Priti
Chalsani
of Intersect
Illinois.
Thanks to both of them for speaking to
me today,
and a special thanks to our producer, Fred
Isles.
I'm afraid that's all the time we have
for this week's podcast,
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