Scientists have all the knowledge they need to successfully model how a new drug will react in someone’s body, including side effects and solutions for any disease. But, they can’t do it.
To be successful, it requires running interactions between the drug and every single atom in the body through a computer, which represents billions upon billions of individual processes. Solving those equations would take longer than the universe is expected to exist.
But, with quantum technology, solving the same problem could be done in a snap of the fingers.
“It goes from fundamentally impossible to solve to trivial with quantum … and that’s the impact we will see,” said Zachary Yerushalmi, chief executive and regional innovation officer for Elevate Quantum.
Quantum is the study of things at a very small scale, like electrons and atoms. Quantum technology and research manipulate those tiny molecules to make things happen. Quantum is used in innovations including cell phones, self-driving cars, medical devices and barcode scanners at the grocery store.
Quantum as an industry is growing, and expected to be as revolutionary as the internet, if not more — and Colorado is emerging as a global leader.
In October, Gov. Jared Polis announced the state achieved a federal designation as a technology and innovation hub for the quantum industry. The federal government selected 31 tech hubs from 400 applications, providing recognition and opportunities to continue to grow the industry in Colorado.
Elevate Quantum, the entity that applied for and won the designation, is a consortium of more than 70 organizations including higher education institutions, state and local governments, federal labs and private companies.
“We knew that Colorado was great,” Yerushalmi said. “We felt it was among the best. As we did our homework and did the numbers, we realized it wasn’t just among the best. It was the best.”
The University of Colorado Boulder and Front Range Community College are two of the higher education institutions involved in Elevate Quantum. They play opposite but complementary roles in advancing the quantum industry in Colorado.
‘A long history of research’
Massimo Ruzzene, CU Boulder’s vice chancellor for research and innovation, said CU Boulder’s role in quantum is to make new research discoveries and educate the next generation of quantum physicists and engineers.
“CU is building off a long history of research that falls into quantum spheres,” Ruzzene said.
Colorado has won four Nobel Prizes in quantum since the 1990s, all of which came from researchers connected to CU Boulder, Yerushalmi said. He said Colorado has some of the most numerous quantum organizations and jobs of all other places globally, many of which are in Boulder because of the university’s work in the field.
The Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics is where a lot of quantum research happens on the CU Boulder campus, Ruzzene said. JILA is a joint institute between CU Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
JILA is a place where new fundamental research leads to new technology, Ruzzene said. For example, scientists at JILA and NIST are developing some of the world’s most precise and accurate atomic clocks. Devices with atomic clocks and quantum sensors could someday predict when a volcano is about to erupt or detect methane leaking from natural gas operations.
Quantum could also allow for better imaging, and some CU Boulder researchers have a vision of one day creating an X-ray laser so powerful that it could see inside human tissue.
Yerushalmi said the scientific excellence of CU Boulder’s JILA is a cornerstone of the excellence in the quantum ecosystem of Colorado.
“CU ensures we get great PhDs, which is super-valuable and not to be forgotten. But the majority of the work that needs to be done is done by folks that FRCC is going to be training,” Yerushalmi said.
About half of the quantum jobs do not require an advanced degree. The average quantum job pays $125,000 a year, Yerushalmi said, and quantum technician jobs are expected to double in the next five years.
FRCC is playing a critical role in training the quantum workforce, said Eve Lieberman, executive director of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade. FRCC also has the only Optics Technology program in the state.
“That program is helping to diversify the pipeline for quantum, and it’s a great opportunity to partner with an institution that serves many underrepresented students,” Lieberman said.
FRCC’s Optics Technology certificate gives students hands-on training with optics and photonics — a photon being a particle of light.
“Optics and photonics are used in a lot of quantum applications,” said Amanda Meier, FRCC Optics Technology program director and faculty. “We study all things having to do with light. We actually make things like lenses, mirrors and a host of other components that are going to manipulate that light.”
Developing eyeglasses is the very baseline of optics, Meier said. Other optics applications include laser systems for barcode readers at grocery stores, camera systems and imaging systems.
As quantum advances, industry needs are changing, Meier said. As researchers move away from building quantum technology because it’s no longer novel, products are transferred to production where technicians are needed to build multiples of the product.
“You see that in the companies we have now,” Meier said. “We’re seeing that transition start. And it will continue to scale, where companies have less of those scientists and engineers and more of the technicians building.”
Unimaginable possibilities
Ruzzene said quantum will change the world profoundly, but in ways that nobody yet fully understands or can imagine.
“Some of the things it can influence are not known today,” Ruzzene said.
Meier said quantum will be similarly revolutionary to the internet or the transistor, a semiconductor device invented in 1947. It’s one of the most essential components of modern electronics, completely revolutionizing computer designs, television and laying the groundwork for cell phones.
Yerushalmi said if transistors are fire, then quantum is nuclear. Quantum will be different and unimaginably powerful, he said.
Quantum will affect a wide variety of industries, including aerospace, engineering, security and climate science. For example, quantum could change how rockets are built or improve how people monitor the weather and predict it with more accuracy.
“It has an enormous potential that has yet to be realized,” Lieberman said, adding, “It’s untold. We can’t even imagine the possibilities quantum will produce for us.”
