The Institute for Present and Future Quantum Computation has been selected as a Quantum Leap Challenge Institute (QLCI) by the National Science Foundation, and will be supported by a 5-year $25M grant commencing September 1, 2020. The mission of this Institute is to address the fundamental challenges to the realization of quantum computation. This mission will be pursued by coordinated experimental and theoretical research on the three sub-challenges of developing quantum algorithms for present (NISQ) and future (error-corrected) quantum computers, of realizing quantum advantage over classical computation in an increasing range of systems and tasks, and of scaling quantum systems to larger size while maintaining fidelity and control. The Institute will also pursue an extensive program of education and workforce development, of research coordination within the Institute and across the broader quantum computing community, and of synergetic partnerships with industry, National Laboratories, government entities, and other quantum science and technology centers.
The Institute draws together a team of 27 world-leading researchers from 8 Universities. UC Berkeley will serve as the lead institution and will be represented by 13 investigators from the Departments of Physics (Ehud Altman, Hartmut Haffner, Joel Moore, Dan Stamper-Kurn, and Norman Yao), Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (Shafi Goldwasser, Boubacar Kante, John Kubiatowicz, Umesh Vazirani, and Ming Wu), Chemistry (Martin Head-Gordon and K. Birgitta Whaley) and Mathematics (Lin Lin). The Institute is largely concentrated in California, and within the University of California system. The Institute also features strong partnerships with the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing at UC Berkeley, and the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics at UCLA. The Institute’s scientific leadership team includes Dan Stamper-Kurn as Director, and Hartmut Haffner, Eric Hudson (UCLA), Umesh Vazirani, and K. Birgitta Whaley as co-Directors.
At the campus level, this Institute provides a solid foundation for the Center for Quantum Coherent Science. The Center’s role as the administrative home of the QLCI will be leveraged to allow the Center to act as the convening body for quantum science and technology research across the UC Berkeley campus.