Highlighting Women in Quantum History


The authors of a new book tell the stories of 16 women who made crucial contributions to quantum physics, yet whose names don’t usually appear in textbooks

As modern quantum mechanics was taking shape in the mid 1920s, the field was sometimes referred to in German as Knabenphysik—“boys’ physics”—because so many of the theorists who were crucial to its development were young men. A new book published as part of the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology pushes back against that male-dominated perspective, which has also tended to dominate historical analyses. Coedited by historians of science Daniela Monaldi and Michelle Frank, physicist-turned-science writer Margriet van der Heijden, and physicist Patrick Charbonneau, Women in the History of Quantum Physics: Beyond Knabenphysik presents biographies of 16 oft-overlooked women in the field’s history.

The editors did not profile physicists such as Lise Meitner and Maria Goeppert Mayer, who have attracted significant attention from historians and physicists. As the editors explain in the book’s introduction, focusing on a few heroic figures perpetuates “a mythology of uniqueness.” They instead highlight individuals who are lesser known but nevertheless made important contributions. The following photo essay highlights six of those scientists.

H. Johanna van Leeuwen

Photo courtesy of the Van Leeuwen family.

In 1919, Dutch physicist H. Johanna van Leeuwen (1887–1974) discovered that magnetism in solids cannot solely be explained by classical mechanics and statistical mechanics: It must be a quantum property. Niels Bohr had made the same insight in his 1911 doctoral thesis, but he never published the result in a scientific journal; it was published only in Danish and barely circulated outside Denmark. Van Leeuwen rediscovered what is now called the Bohr–Van Leeuwen theorem in her doctoral research at Leiden University. The theorem, which has applications in plasma physics and other fields, came to the attention of the broader community after Van Leeuwen published an article based on her doctoral thesis in the French Journal de Physique et le Radium (Journal of Physics and Radium) in 1921.

As happened with many women of that era, little trace was left of Van Leeuwen (pictured here in an undated photo) in the historical record. Chapter authors Van der Heijden and Miriam Blaauboer uncovered several sources that helped them assemble an illustrative synopsis of her career. Van Leeuwen was one of four women to study with Hendrik Lorentz, with whom she remained close until his death in 1928. Unlike many women of her generation, Van Leeuwen remained in the field for her entire career: She was appointed as an assistant at the Technical College of Delft in 1920, a position that required her to supervise laboratory courses for electrical engineering students. In the little spare time she had, Van Leeuwen continued her research into magnetism. In 1947, she was promoted to reader, which meant that she could finally teach her own courses.

Laura Chalk Rowles

Photo courtesy of Marilyn MacGregor.

Laura Chalk Rowles (1904–96) was one of the first women to receive a PhD in physics from McGill University in Montreal, in 1928. Her dissertation investigated the Stark effect—the shifting of the spectral lines of atoms exposed to an external electric field—in the hydrogen atom. In his series of 1926 articles on wave mechanics, Erwin Schrödinger had used quantum theory to predict how the Stark effect would affect the intensities of the Balmer series of spectral lines in hydrogen. As chapter author Daniela Monaldi outlines, Chalk (pictured ca. 1931) used an instrument known as a Lo Surdo tube to measure the intensities of the spectral lines; the work provided the first experimental confirmation of Schrödinger’s predictions. She published several articles on the subject in collaboration with her adviser, John Stuart Foster.

Later in his life, Foster regarded his subsequent work on the Stark effect in helium as more important than the hydrogen experiments he had carried out with Chalk. Observers and historians have tended to follow his lead, so her contributions are often overlooked. After spending the 1929–30 academic year at King’s College London, Chalk received a teaching position in McGill’s agriculture college. But after she married William Rowles, who was also at McGill, she scaled back to working only part time. Five years later, she was let go because of rules that were ostensibly designed to prevent nepotism but typically served to exclude women from the professoriat.

Elizabeth Monroe Boggs

Photo courtesy of Pamela Murphy.

Elizabeth Monroe Boggs (1913–96) received significant press attention for her advocacy work on behalf of people with disabilities. But her prior career in science has long gone overlooked, writes chapter author Charbonneau. Boggs (pictured in 1928) was the only undergraduate to study with famed mathematician Emmy Noether at Bryn Mawr College before Noether’s untimely death in 1935. After graduating, Boggs pursued a PhD at the University of Cambridge, where she began studying the application of quantum physics to molecular structure—a pursuit that is now known as quantum chemistry. For her thesis, she used an analog computing device called a differential analyzer to probe the wave functions of diatomic molecules.

After finishing her studies, she received a research assistantship at Cornell University, where she met and married chemist Fitzhugh Boggs. As was common in the day, his career took precedence over hers: They moved to Pittsburgh in 1942 when Fitzhugh received a job at Westinghouse. Elizabeth taught at the University of Pittsburgh for a year and then got a job at the Explosives Research Laboratory outside the city, where she ended up contributing to the Manhattan Project by helping to design the explosive lens for implosion bombs like the one ultimately used on Nagasaki. She eventually decided to withdraw from the field and focus on advocacy after the birth in 1945 of a son, David, who had severe developmental delays because of brain damage from an illness.

Katharine Way

Photo courtesy of the AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Wheeler Collection.

Katharine Way (1903–95) was the first graduate student of John Wheeler’s at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the late 1930s. As chapter author Stefano Furlan recounts, Way’s research during her PhD studies included using the liquid-drop model of the atom, which approximates the nucleus as a droplet of liquid, to examine how nuclei deform when rotating at high speeds. In a 1939 Physical Review article, she describes the magnetic moments of heavier nuclei. While carrying out the research, Way (pictured in an undated photo) noticed an anomaly that she brought to Wheeler’s attention: The model was unable to account for highly charged nuclei rotating at extremely high speeds. In later recollections, Wheeler regretted that the two didn’t further investigate that observation: He noted that, in retrospect, the model’s failure in that case was an early indication that nuclei could come apart, just as they do in fission.

During World War II, Way worked on nuclear reactor design at the Metallurgical Laboratory in Chicago; she moved to Oak Ridge Laboratory in 1945. Along with Eugene Wigner, she published a 1948 Physical Review article outlining what is now known as the Way–Wigner formula for nuclear decay, which calculates rates of beta decay in fission reactions. She spent much of her postwar career at the National Bureau of Standards (now NIST), where she initiated and led the Nuclear Data Project, a crucial source for information on atomic and nuclear properties that is now part of the National Nuclear Data Center at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Way was also active in efforts to get nuclear scientists to think about the societal ramifications of their work.

Sonja Ashauer

Photo courtesy of the Ashauer family.

Although her death from pneumonia at age 25 ended her career practically before it began, Sonja Ashauer (1923–48) was an accomplished physicist and promising talent, chapter authors Barbra Miguele and Ivã Gurgel argue. The daughter of German immigrants to Brazil, Ashauer (pictured ca. 1940) studied at the University of São Paulo with Italian physicist Gleb Wataghin, who likely introduced her to quantum theory. Shortly before the end of World War II, in 1945, she moved to the University of Cambridge, where she became the only woman among Paul Dirac’s few graduate students.

In her 1947 thesis, Ashauer worked on one of the most pressing problems of the day in quantum electrodynamics: what was termed the divergence of the electron’s self-energy. Because that self-energy—the energy resulting from the electron’s interactions with its own electromagnetic field—is inversely proportional to its radius, the value tends to infinity when the particle is modeled as a point charge. Ashauer attacked the problem by working to improve classical electrodynamics in the hope that it might inform the quantum theory. That divergence problem and others were ultimately solved through the renormalization techniques discovered around 1950.

Freda Friedman Salzman

Photo courtesy of Amy Parker.

Freda Friedman Salzman (1927–81) is more often remembered for her work advocating for women in science than for her significant contributions to physics. As an undergraduate, Salzman (pictured in the late 1940s) studied physics with nuclear physicist Melba Phillips at Brooklyn College. In the mid 1950s, in collaboration with her husband, George Salzman, she came up with a numerical method to solve the integral equations of what was known as the Chew–Low model: a description of nuclear interactions developed by Geoffrey Chew—Freda’s dissertation adviser at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign—and Francis Low. To carry out those calculations, the Salzmans used the ILLIAC I, an early computer. Published in 1957 in Physical Review, what was soon termed the Chew-Low-Salzman method helped stimulate work by nuclear and particle physicists, including Stanley Mandelstam, Kenneth Wilson, and Andrzej Kotański in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Chapter author Jens Salomon argues that the method was one of Freda’s most important contributions to the field.

Freda and George lived an itinerant academic lifestyle for a period before finding what they believed to be permanent positions at the University of Massachusetts Boston in 1965. Four years later, Freda was fired after the university began to enforce what they claimed to be an anti-nepotism policy. Her termination became a cause célèbre, and after a long campaign, she got her job back in 1972 and received tenure in 1975. The fight to regain her job at the university appears to have motivated Salzman to devote increasing amounts of time to feminist advocacy in the 1970s.

From Physics Today

Building the Future of Quantum Computing in Mexico & Latin America

Interview with Claudia Zendejas-Morales,
A driving force behind quantum computing in Mexico and Latin America, developer of the Tequila programming platform, mentor at QWorld, and IBM Qiskit Advocate

Imagine a machine capable of solving problems that would take even the world’s most powerful supercomputers longer than the age of the universe to crack. As fantastical as it sounds, that’s one of the superpowers promised by emerging quantum technologies. And these technologies—like quantum computing—are starting to leap from labs to industry. In Mexico, serious strides are already being made to be part of this transformative future.

One of the pioneering scientists leading the way is physicist and computer engineer Claudia Zendejas-Morales. Her academic journey began in software engineering, but it was a quantum mechanics course that sparked her passion for quantum computing. Since then, she has built a solid academic and professional profile, participating in programs like USEQIP at the University of Waterloo, the Quantum Open-Source Foundation’s mentorship program (where she collaborated with The Matter Lab at the University of Toronto), and the IBM Quantum Summer Schools.

“As a physics student, I took quantum mechanics and found the subject fascinating. In that first class, they introduced us to quantum computing, and I dove in. At my school, there was little to nothing about quantum computing, so I actively sought out ways to learn about it online. That’s how I connected with different people and institutions involved in quantum computing. From there, I’ve been actively participating in the field,” Claudia explains enthusiastically.

“Access to the internet has been essential—it’s what allowed me to train and participate as a developer and mentor in projects like the Quantum Open Source Foundation. That’s where I worked on the Tequila project, which eventually led to a publication in IoP Science.”

Promoting Quantum Education in Latin America

Alongside her own training, Claudia has made a massive effort to promote education in quantum technologies across Mexico and Latin America. She became a Qiskit Advocate (Qiskit is IBM’s quantum programming platform), and has collaborated with initiatives like Quantum Flytrap, Qubit by Qubit, and QWorld. Always focused on Spanish-speaking students, she has developed educational content, translated Qiskit documentation into Spanish, and coordinated quantum computing courses at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She’ll soon join the University of Copenhagen’s Quantum Information Science program.

“A few years ago, there was nothing—now there’s something growing little by little. Thanks to people like Alberto Maldonado, we’ve kickstarted quantum computing in Mexico and created a community. He organized the first Qiskit Fall Festival in 2021, and we’ve held one every year since. Through him, I connected with a professor from another state working in quantum, and I reached out to folks at UNAM’s engineering faculty who were also interested. That’s how the community in Mexico has grown—we’re organizing more and more quantum events.”

QClass 23–24: A Game-Changing Experience

One of Claudia’s most rewarding experiences was organizing QClass 23–24, a free, advanced two-semester program in quantum computing for students from a wide range of backgrounds.

“What gave me the most satisfaction was coordinating a QWorld event called QClass 23–24. We ran postgraduate-level courses for two semesters. I was not only a mentor but also a professor—I designed the exams and course content using Qiskit. More than 1,500 students from over 100 countries and diverse professional backgrounds participated. It was incredibly rewarding—and all of it was free, because that’s the goal: to support others.”

A Quantum Network for Mexico

More recently, Claudia co-organized a national event alongside Dr. Alberto Maldonado and other collaborators, bringing together students, teachers, researchers, and industry professionals to collaborate, learn, and unlock new opportunities in quantum computing. Remarkably, the entire event was held in Spanish and prioritized inclusion.

A major barrier to learning quantum computing in Latin America is language—most resources are in English, and the concepts are already difficult. The event focused on creating learning spaces in Spanish, with accessible, clear explanations. As detailed in a paper published by IEEE, over 76% of participants—many without prior experience—felt confident diving into quantum computing thanks to this approach.

The attendee pool was highly diverse: undergraduates, master’s students, high schoolers, professors, professionals, and even public-sector workers. Over 40 universities were represented, some from outside Mexico. Women and non-binary people participated actively, highlighting the importance of diversity in scientific spaces.

One key goal of the event was to build a collaboration network between universities, research centers, and tech companies. That network is now a growing reality, with institutions like UNAM’s CECAv, the Autonomous University of Puebla (BUAP), Tecnológico de Monterrey, and companies like IBM Quantum, Xanadu, Quantinuum, and the Unitary Fund involved.

“Thanks to the network, our summer school at the engineering faculty now draws hundreds of attendees. We’re reaching more people and training more minds. The network and school are growing—it’s exciting to see. More students are getting interested, and some are even planning to write their thesis on quantum computing.”

Building a Quantum Community with Qiskit

Claudia’s journey with Qiskit perfectly illustrates how early access to educational tools can ignite passion and lead to meaningful contributions in a global tech community. What began as curiosity grew into mentorship, leadership, and major contributions to Spanish-language content.

“I primarily learned quantum computing through Qiskit, especially at the beginning. IBM did a great job promoting their platform and hosted events like the summer school, fall festival, and the Advocate program. I started as a participant, then became part of the staff. I became a Qiskit Advocate and began mentoring and translating materials into Spanish—tutorials, textbooks, programming notebooks. That led me to join the core localization team and get deeply involved.”

Woman. Latina. Scientist. Facing Challenges and Winning

Alongside her academic and technical achievements, Claudia has faced challenges rooted in gender and origin. Being a woman from Latin America has meant dealing with bias and discrimination. Her story highlights a persistent issue in STEM: the need to constantly prove yourself, being ignored in collaborative spaces, or judged for your name or nationality.

“This has been clear to me since the beginning: being a woman often means your knowledge isn’t considered sufficient or valid—especially by some men. I’ve seen it happen to other women, too. We have to work twice as hard to be heard or recognized as capable.”

“I’ve been rejected just for being a woman. At some hackathons, I tried joining teams but got no response. Then I’d see how the groups formed—and it was clear gender played a role.”

“Being Latin American adds to it. I’ve noticed people reacting to my surname or to the fact that I’m Mexican. Sometimes I even avoid saying where I’m from because people immediately form a limited idea about my abilities. Some don’t even know where Mexico is, but they still judge.”

Despite these hurdles, Claudia has found ways to turn exclusion into motivation. A great example is her second-place finish at a hackathon organized by Zaiku Group Ltd., where she and her team dotQ developed a hybrid quantum–classical model for genomics. This win wasn’t just technical—it was a statement against prejudice.

Final Thoughts: Feed Your Curiosity

After years of building pathways for quantum computing in Mexico and facing structural barriers, Claudia Zendejas-Morales offers this advice:

“I tell young girls to get into quantum computing. A lot of people hear the word ‘quantum’ and get scared without really knowing what it’s about. But the key is to dive in. Fortunately, there are now many entry points at different levels.”

“If you don’t know physics—you can learn. If you can’t code—you can learn. If you don’t speak English—that too can be learned. What matters is not ignoring your curiosity. Follow it. Explore. Seek answers.”

Mexico is planting the seeds for a solid, collaborative, globally connected quantum community—and anyone can be part of this technological era.

Rethinking Energy in the Quantum Age

Interview with Dr. Alexia Auffèves, French physicist, pioneer of quantum energetics, and co-founder of the Quantum Energy Initiative (QEI).

Quantum physics has been the star of the tech world for almost a century now. However, a second quantum revolution is quietly emerging, shaking up the very foundations of how computers work at every level, from the principles behind the information itself and how the machines physically process it, to the algorithms. These new quantum technologies promise exceptionally faster computations and more secure communications. 

As governments and industries invest heavily in quantum systems, it’s time to think about how we build and use them responsibly. That means not just focusing on what they can do but also on how much energy they use to accomplish tasks. Environmental and societal challenges recognized nowadays impose new constraints that were not obvious when classical computers first emerged. Early signs from quantum processors show lower energy consumption compared to traditional machines, but we don’t fully understand why and whether this advantage will persist as they scale.

In a seminal paper published on Physics Review X Quantum, in 2022, physicist Dr. Alexia Auffèves, First Class Research Director at CNRS in France, head of the International Research Lab MajuLab and invited Professor at the Centre for Quantum Technologies of Singapore argues that “a strong link between fundamental research and engineering is necessary to establish quantitative connections between quantum-level computing performance and energy consumption at the macroscopic, full-stack level.” In the framework of the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, we had a conversation with Dr. Alexia Auffèves about her work as a pioneer of quantum energetics and as a co-founder and leader of the Quantum Energy Initiative (QEI) —an interdisciplinary effort that brings together experts in quantum physics, thermodynamics and energetics, computer science, and engineering aiming to understand how quantum technologies use energy from the ground up.

“I have been working in quantum thermodynamics for twelve years now, and at the beginning the impact of this research for quantum technologies was not easy to spot. The community of quantum thermodynamics was barely involved when the big takeoff in quantum technologies took place. I was part of the quantum thermodynamics community, but also had a vision of what was going on with quantum technologies because of my past as an experimentalist, and because I was running the Grenoble center for quantum technologies. So, I saw that there was clearly a gap to bridge between the two communities,” Alexia says. 

Drawing lessons both from the history of classical computing and the recent developments in artificial intelligence, Auffèves reminds us that energy efficiency does not happen by accident: If you don’t search for it, you won’t find it. In the case of quantum computing, it may require decades of refinement, from understanding fundamental principles connecting energy cost and performance, to designing chips that balance performance with power consumption. 

Creating an international research community to understand the energetic footprint of emerging quantum technologies

Motivated by the timeliness and relevancy of addressing the energy cost of quantum technologies, Alexia, her colleagues Robert Whitney and Janine Splettstoesser, and consultant and author Olivier Ezratty co-founded the Quantum Energy Initiative (QEI) in 2022.

That means establishing ways to measure energy efficiency in quantum devices, setting benchmarks, and identifying how to reduce energy consumption across different quantum platforms and computing paradigms. Quantum computing would be addressed first, but communication, and sensing, the two other so-called pillars of quantum technologies, would be investigated as well. The QEI team aims to define what “energy quantum advantage” really means in scientific terms and use that knowledge to guide smart design choices as quantum systems develop. 

“The QEI is one of the first attempts to develop innovation in a finite world. In the past, innovators used to invest lots of money, hoping that something would come out. Now, we have to take into account the fact that the physical resources, especially energy, are finite. In that sense, quantum computing is growing in very, very different conditions than its older sister, classical computing, when there was oil all over the place, and so you could develop technologies presuming that we have infinite resources.”

But launching such initiatives, where fundamental science and emerging technologies intersect, also means navigating the influence of industry sectors, which often seek to align themselves with the prevailing ethical narratives of the time. 

“When you launch an initiative like this, you are not really aware of the kind of forces it is going to trigger, especially nowadays, where there is a lot of quantum hype. If you mix this hype with the word “energy”, then it can quickly become unbearable. The QEI is not a greenwashing company. We are here precisely to prevent greenwashing. We are here to provide the community with objective scientific figures of merit so that sentences like: “Oh! My quantum computer will compute with less energy.” can be checked, and the energy efficiency of this very computer can even be compared to a fundamental bound and improved over time. 

Can we build a theory that captures the quantum and the classical altogether? 

To understand the true energy cost of quantum computing, we must look beyond hardware specifications and operational efficiency. At the heart of the challenge lies a much deeper, more conceptual problem: how to capture the quantum and classical worlds within a single physical model. This isn’t just a technical hurdle—it’s the oldest and still open problem of quantum physics, known as the measurement problem.

Any computation—whether classical or quantum—can be broken down into three stages: input, processing, and output. In quantum computing, both the input and the computational process involve inherently quantum phenomena such as superposition and entanglement. However, obtaining the result (the output) requires a measurement, a process that plays a central role in our understanding of quantum mechanics. Scientists remain puzzled by what exactly occurs during measurement, when quantum properties are seemingly lost as the quantum system interacts with the classical apparatus used to observe it. 

“If you think about a quantum computer, while the computation is being performed, we deal with Schrödinger’s cat states, i.e. superpositions of states of “macroscopic” systems – here, data registers made of large numbers of qubits. So, there you have Schrödinger’s cat states in a box (a cryostat, for instance) that you are trying to control from the external [classical] world. And my feeling is that the truly fundamental energy cost of quantum computing is actually the cost of the box surrounding the Schrödinger’s cat.

Answering that question is hardware-independent and would also be a way to solve one of the biggest open questions of quantum physics: can we build a theory capturing the quantum and the classical altogether? 

Nowadays, this question belongs to the field of quantum foundations, which is largely decoupled from quantum technologies where ‘Shut up and calculate’ [the answer usually given by engineers and academics to people wondering on the philosophical meaning of quantum theory] has been proven an efficient strategy; However, if you really want to calculate minimum energy costs and get a universal framework to benchmark all possible quantum platforms, solving that fundamental problem is highly relevant. This is a beautiful example of how the answer to foundational issues can be triggered by technological questions, just like the thermodynamic arrow of time came out from the optimization of heat engines,” Dr. Auffèves enthusiastically explains.

Quantum energetics at the forefront of the fundamentals of quantum physics itself

Peeling back the layers of abstraction to understand what’s really happening inside a quantum computer is foundational to asking deep questions about the nature of energy, noise, and computation at the quantum level. Alexia reflects on how her investigation offers a window into that philosophical and scientific inquiry, one that challenges us to rethink what “energy cost” means in the quantum world.

This is research driven by curiosity, not utility, by the desire to grasp what quantum energetics truly means at its core.

“My research is about understanding the fundamental mechanisms ruling flows of energy, entropy and information at the quantum level, and how these behaviors scale up to the macroscopic level. This research line dubbed quantum energetics is young, fundamental and it has an intrinsic value, out of any technological considerations. It is very important to underline that the QEI does not only promote a technologically-driven research. We also foster this fundamental core of quantum energetics. It is curiosity-driven and has triggered a number of exciting new questions lately, like measurement-powered engines where looking at a quantum system is enough to put it in motion!”

Dr. Alexia Auffèves kindly explains what quantum energetics is.

“It is inspired by classical thermodynamics, whose first motivation is to turn ‘messy energy’ (heat) from hot baths into a useful, controllable one (work). That is called a heat engine, and thermodynamics tells us what is its maximal efficiency, which is a fundamental bound. A second motivation is to reverse natural heat flows, which has a work cost: this is called a fridge, and it also has a fundamental bound.   Now, what plays the role of the heat in quantum physics is quantum noise (like decoherence), which comes from the coupling to baths which do not necessarily have a well-defined temperature. This is why I talk about quantum energetics and not quantum thermodynamics (where temperatures play a central role). One of the purposes of the field is to derive quantum fundamental bounds: find the minimum energy cost for any kind of quantum process, for any kind of quantum noise. We want to relate irreversibility and energy waste in the quantum realm, where there is no temperature in the picture. This line of investigation is all about understanding the fundamentals of quantum physics with energetic and entropic probes.”

While much of quantum research today is driven by the race to innovate and commercialize, there remains a quieter, deeper pursuit—one that asks foundational questions about the nature of energy, noise, and irreversibility at the quantum level.

In a world increasingly shaped by energy concerns and climate imperatives, amazing women in science, such as Dr. Alexia Auffèves and the QEI, offer a roadmap for responsible innovation while pioneering fundamental research in quantum mechanics. It’s time to power the quantum future, with precision, purpose, and sustainability.

The quantum future doesn’t have to repeat the mistakes of the digital past. It can be better—if we start now.

Credit for the pictures: CQT.

Quantum Computing for the benefit of humanity

Interview with Catherine Lefebvre, Senior Advisor at the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator (GESDA) for the Open Quantum Institute, a GESDA initiative hosted by CERN

Imagine it’s the year 2035. Quantum computing has reached some maturity, revolutionizing industries and solving complex problems at an unprecedented scale. Large corporations rely on quantum systems to accelerate technological innovation. But has this progress been shared equitably? Has quantum technology been used to tackle humanity’s most pressing challenges, such as strengthening global food security, improving global access to affordable essential medicines, and reducing carbon emissions? Or has it remained in the hands of a few, widening the gap between those who have benefited from it and those who don’t?

In the framework of the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, we interviewed scientist Dr. Catherine Lefebvre, who specializes in exploring quantum computing-related thought scenarios. She is a Senior Advisor for the Open Quantum Institute at the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator (GESDA).

2025 Laureate in Innovation by Le Point.

“At GESDA, what we do is to anticipate future scientific and technological breakthroughs in the next 5 to 25 years, as well as the potential related challenges, not only in quantum but also in many other scientific fields. From these challenges, we explore the potential opportunities to make sure that these breakthroughs could benefit all, and not only the rich countries that typically develop and use the technology. With a taskforce of experts, we work towards accelerating a solution and transforming into concrete actions that could lead to a better scenario for everyone. This is how we co-created the Open Quantum Institute,” Catherine explained. 

Concerned about the impact of emerging technologies on humanity, she and her colleagues, with the close collaboration of research, diplomacy, industry and impact experts around the globe, launched the Open Quantum Institute (OQI) in October 2022—a bold step toward making quantum computing more inclusive and beneficial for our society and planet. “The mission of the OQI is to promote global, equitable and inclusive access to quantum computing and, through that, to explore applications of quantum computing that would benefit humanity.”  

History has taught us that when transformative technologies—like social media or artificial intelligence—are concentrated in the hands of a few, the consequences can be profound and unpredictable. Today, as we stand on the brink of the quantum era, we face a similar crossroads. Looking at quantum computing through an international lens, we see stark disparities: many countries lack the infrastructure, expertise, or funding to participate, leaving vast potential untapped. If quantum technology becomes the exclusive domain of the wealthiest nations or corporations, we risk deepening the digital gap and reinforcing global inequalities. 

Catherine enthusiastically explains how she got involved at GESDA and how she and her colleagues helped bring the Open Quantum Institute to life:

“I was doing a training in science diplomacy during the pandemic when I got the opportunity to learn about GESDA. Thanks to my mentor, Prof. Barry Sanders, I was able to join the task force on the quantum initiative, and soon after my involvement grew, and I became part of the GESDA team, as a volunteer. We co-designed a solution that would respond to the opportunity quantum could present, translating it into an institute, which is now the OQI. Towards the end of the OQI incubation phase in 2023, we confirmed CERN as partner to host the institute and help scale it for the three-year pilot, with the support of UBS [the Swiss bank UBS Group AG]. We officially launched the activities at CERN in March 2024, and we are now celebrating a successful first year of the pilot!” 

So, what exactly is the mission of the Open Quantum Institute, and what steps its stakeholders are taking? Catherine dives into these questions with clarity and insights.

91st Acfas Congress in Ottawa, May 2024 – Panel on Science Diplomacy.

A promising quantum future for all rests on four activity pillars 

First activity pillar: Accelerating applications for humanity

“The first OQI activity pillar is on exploring applications. We’re using the framework of the UN on the Sustainable Development Goals [SDGs] and beyond to explore where quantum computing approaches could be applied to relevant problems that would help accelerate the achievement of the SDGs. For that, we put together multidisciplinary teams of quantum experts, subject-matter experts and UN organizations or large NGOs from all around the world to explore potential impactful use cases of quantum computing.”

Second activity pillar: Access for all  

“Once the use cases reach sufficient maturity, we collaborate with industrial partners who are donating credits for the implementation on quantum devices: first on simulators, and then on QPUs [quantum processing units]. This is the second pillar: focusing on access.”

Third activity pillar: Advancing Building Capacity

“The third activity pillar focuses on how to scale globally, how to onboard quantum-underserved geographies in entering their quantum journey, and eventually participating in the exploration of use cases based on their own local challenges. This is working towards increasing inclusivity and equitable access with training and upskilling activities. 

Last year, we launched an educational consortium with several academic and industrial education providers to share best practices, put together resources, and make them accessible to target geographies, which are Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. 

Together with the educational consortium members, OQI is supporting local organizations to deploy educational activities, such as hackathons. For instance, there will be an OQI-supported hackathon in Ghana in July, and several others in Greece, Egypt, Thailand, etc., in 2025 and 2026. Additionally, we are looking into mentorship and internship programs helping to build knowledge capacity globally.”

Fourth activity pillar: Activate multilateral governance for the SDGs

“The other target audience for OQI in terms of education are diplomats, ambassadors, and policymakers. This ties to the fourth pillar, which involves governance and science diplomacy. Equipping diplomats with science-based information about what quantum means, where do we stand in terms of technological development, what are the possible challenges and the geopolitical implications; we provide a neutral multi-stakeholder platform to foster a multilateral dialogue with the goal to accelerate an effective governance approach.

We have designed a Quantum Diplomacy Game, which is a role play simulation to immerse participants in the anticipation of the geopolitical implications of quantum computing and actively explore multilateral governance. The game was played in Washington and at the Technical University of Munich earlier this year and will be “played” in the Philippines, Costa Rica, etc. during the pilot of OQI. ” 

Q2B Silicon Valley December 2024. Panel on Quantum and Sustainability. 

Enduring challenges to ensure quantum for good and for all 

As Catherine reflects on the collaborative nature of the Open Quantum Institute’s work, she highlights on the key challenges they face—bridging gaps in expertise and communication across diverse stakeholders and geographies. 

“One of our great challenges is in the translation. I am going to give you a concrete example of use cases development. Because these are multidisciplinary teams, we constantly need to find a way to speak a common language to be effective in the collaboration between, for instance, quantum experts and domain experts. 

Another challenge is in upskilling researchers and developers who want to participate with ideas to carry on a use case. We have developed a rigorous methodology to guide the participants from the ideation to the proof-of-concept so that strong use cases could lead to implementation on quantum computers in the future. The snapshot today is that too few participants from quantum-underserved geographies have the level to meaningfully contribute to building strong use cases, so there is a lot to be done for OQI and our collaborators. This is the reality, and it is also validating the need for our education activities.”     

While these challenges highlight the complexity of building inclusive and high-quality quantum use cases, Catherine emphasizes the importance of fostering collaboration through rigor, resilience, and practical problem-solving.

“We need to be realistic; no one learns quantum overnight, and not everyone needs to know quantum computing in depth. In exploring use cases, it’s important to bring local experts who   with know about their challenges, their own realities, and so these use cases could have real impact, especially on underserved communities and geographies. For example, in certain geographies, they want to be active in preventing natural disasters, how we could predict floods more accurate with quantum computing. This is a real problem in Malaysia, for instance, it is a problem close to their heart. At OQI, we are supporting the development of use cases that will be impactful, and collaborating with local so that the impact can be directed to these affected countries.” 

OQI technical workshop on quantum approaches at the GESDA Summit, October 2024 Credit: Marc Bader.

Passion for science and collaboration as motivation to foster global changes

The OQI approach reflects more than just strategy—it speaks about the values that have guided Catherine’s journey from the start. She’s motivated not just by the technology itself but by the global collaboration it can foster and the global challenges it has the potential to address. A deep passion for quantum science and a strong belief in the power of collaboration have shaped the professional path of this remarkable woman in quantum since she was a young girl. 

“When I was six, I decided I wanted to become a chemist – although at that age I didn’t really know what that meant! As an undergraduate student, I first learned that I hated experimental chemistry laboratories, and luckily, I quickly found out a course on quantum mechanics applied to chemistry and I said, this is it, this is what I want to learn more. I ended up doing a PhD in theoretical chemistry and molecular physics. From there, I worked as a researcher for several years. Aside to quantum, my other passion that has grown since my PhD years is collaboration. My PhD thesis was in cotutelle between two universities, in Quebec and in Paris, and I learned to build bridges between the two departments in chemistry and physics in two different countries. As a theorist, I was also involved in multi-country collaboration with experimentalists. Being exposed to different scientific cultures and different approaches to science was wonderful. That early exposure fueled my passion for collaboration and crafted my role and my career as a researcher, and led me to science diplomacy.” 

Although 2035 is not really that far, quantum computing is still today in its infancy. The future is wide open, which means we have the unique opportunity to co-shape its path for the greater good. And everyone can be involved.

“To be involved in science diplomacy in action, like what we do at OQI in the field of quantum computing, you don’t necessarily need to be an expert in quantum. For non-experts, it’s an opportunity to stay informed about the scientific development and engage actively in framing the future through the dialogue and exchange between the scientists and decision-makers.”

While OQI focuses primarily on quantum computing, other emerging quantum technologies may also contribute to addressing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It is essential for diplomats and organizations like GESDA to remain attentive to these developments. “My message for anyone is that what is important is to be curious, understand the importance of cooperation at the intersection of science and diplomacy. We have this great opportunity to bring quantum for the benefit of all humanity, the time is now to be active.”  

Featured Image by Marc Bader.

Quantum Women’s Day

An event for everyone, inspired by women!

Join us for a day of inspiration, learning, and networking, open to all who believe in the power of innovation, knowledge, and empowerment. Despite its name, Quantum Women’s Day welcomes everyone interested in exploring new ideas, connecting with inspiring individuals, and unlocking opportunities.

Through a mix of motivational talks and networking moments, we celebrate talent, diversity, and progress in science, technology, and beyond.

Come be part of the conversation and make an impact!

Women in Quantum Technologies

Women in Quantum Technologies – Networking Event

Connect. Inspire. Shape the Future of the Quantum World!

Are you a student, PhD candidate, postdoc, professor, or working in industry in the field of Quantum Technologies? Join us and network with other women shaping the future of the quantum world!

Expect exciting conversations, inspiring ideas, and the opportunity to connect with a supportive community. Let’s grow together, learn from each other, and push quantum technologies forward!

🔹 When? 08.04.2025, 5 pm to 8 pm
🔹 Where? Science Schaufenster, Waisenhausdamm 8, 38100 Braunschweig
🔹 For whom? Women from academia & industry in the field of quantum physics & technologies

Sign up now!

We look forward to seeing you!

Fotònica en 5 Minuts! – International Day of Women and Girls in Science

Immerse yourself in the world of photonics thanks to 4 ICFO female scientists, who will tell in 5 minutes in an attractive and inspiring way why photonics is important for their research and society in general. You can also send them your questions about science and their careers.

This event is aimed at students between 9th and 12th grade (second cycle of ESO and bachillerato) and will be in Spanish.

Photonics in 5 minutes! is organized in the framework of ICFO Women in Science Month to celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, joining the Iniciativa 11 de Febrero.

We in Quantum – Annual Symposium 2025

The WIQD Annual Symposium 2025 brings together everyone in quantum to foster a more inclusive, supportive, and collaborative ecosystem. This year’s theme, “We in Quantum,” focuses on the diverse perspectives that drive innovation in the field.

Building on the success of the past years’ panels and interactive workshops on sustainability in quantum, work-life balance, neurodiversity, burnout prevention, and others, this year’s programme is filled with engaging discussions, hands-on sessions, and networking opportunities.

Free lunch and coffee will be provided throughout the event, ensuring you’re fueled for productive conversations and connections!

Why Attend?

✅ Engaging Plenaries & Panels – Explore key topics in quantum research and hear about different experiences in the field.
✅ Interactive Workshops – Gain practical tools for personal and professional growth with workshops focused on different perspectives like gender, neurodiversity, culture, and others.
✅ Dedicated Networking Sessions – Connect with peers, industry leaders, and researchers to build meaningful collaborations.

Who Should Attend?

This event is open to researchers, students, industry professionals, and anyone interested in creating a more inclusive quantum ecosystem. Whether you’re a quantum expert or just beginning your journey, there’s something for everyone!

📅 Date: 22 May
🕘 Time: 09:00 – 17:00 + drinks
📍 Location: House of Watt (Amsterdam)
🎟️ Secure your spot today! It’s free!

💡 Join us as we build a more inclusive quantum ecosystem! 🚀