Workshop on Emerging Opportunities at the Intersection of Quantum and Thermal Sciences

This award is to support the Workshop on Emerging Opportunities at the Intersection of Quantum and Thermal Sciences to be held virtually on June 28-30, 2021. Advances in quantum science over the past century have laid the foundation for both modern information technologies and solid-state energy-conversion devices that have emerged and altered the course of human history.

As these classical devices and technologies approach their theoretical limits, progress is now being made to store information in quantum systems to enable secured quantum communication, quantum sensing, and quantum computation of complex problems that cannot be handled by current classical computers. Among the various grand challenges that need to be overcome for the establishment and deployment of quantum information technologies, innovative thermal science and engineering solutions are required for cooling the quantum hardware to an extremely low temperature.

Meanwhile, thermal measurements can provide unique probes of exotic quantum materials and may provide unanticipated new directions in quantum hardware designs. In response to these challenges and opportunities, nineteen leading researchers in relevant fields have been invited to present forward-looking perspectives and participate in panel discussions in the three-day virtual workshop.

The workshop is open to the broad research community, including both students and established researchers from different fields.

The goal of this three-day virtual workshop is to identify emerging research opportunities at the intersection of quantum and thermal sciences, especially on thermal challenges and opportunities in quantum computation and hardware, thermal science and engineering of quantum sensors and materials, and coherent phonons and magnons for quantum information technologies. This goal will be pursued via invited talks from leading experts in quantum and thermal science communities in US, Europe, and Israel, as well as panel discussions that will stimulate scientific exchanges and initiate interdisciplinary collaborations between the different communities in quantum theories, thermal science, material science, and advanced manufacturing.

These cross-disciplinary interactions will help identify research needs in thermal science and engineering for advancing quantum information science and technologies. The workshop is also expected to promote the applications of quantum sensing and computation for measurements and computation of thermal problems. These reciprocal interactions between quantum and thermal sciences will stimulate future research opportunities in materials science and advanced manufacturing for realizing thermal devices and components in quantum systems and quantum hardware for thermal applications.

Besides identifying collaboration opportunities for the research communities, the workshop will contribute to the education of students from diverse backgrounds for the future workforce of the quantum information technology industry.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.