When quantum engineer Aitor Villar watched a rocket blast off from the US in November 2025, he was seeing almost ten years’ work take flight. This was the launch of SpeQtre—a satellite he helped design—set to demonstrate space-to-ground quantum communication.

Villar’s story is a wonderful example of the careers possible for students choosing a quantum path. His journey began with a PhD at the Centre for Quantum Technologies in Singapore. Arriving with a background in telecoms engineering, he started building quantum satellites, graduated to join a company spun off from the group, and has celebrated as the team’s first spacecraft entered orbit. Villar is part of a growing worldwide workforce in the emerging quantum industry. The total number of “quantum-engaged” workers globally may be close to 200,000, according to an estimate by the US-based Quantum Economic Development Consortium (QED-C) in its State of the Global Quantum Industry 2025 report. The consortium counted over 7,400 openings for quantum jobs in 2024 alone.

Career paths in quantum

These roles encompass a huge diversity. There are deeply technical and hands-on engineering jobs like Villar’s, but also software, business, and community positions. Take the roughly 100 students who have graduated from the PhD programme at CQT since 2007 as a sample: they have found a whole universe of opportunities.

Thi Ha Kyaw, for example, completed his PhD at CQT in 2018 in theoretical physics, focusing on quantum computing. He chose the software route. After a postdoc in Toronto, Canada, he joined LG Electronics, where he now leads a quantum computing research group. He settled in Canada but keeps strong ties to his student home: he is organising a conference in Singapore in 2026 to celebrate his PhD advisor’s 65^th birthday.

Then there’s Angelina Frank. She went into the quantum industry, focusing on software first, taking a role as technical product manager at the Singapore HQ of startup Horizon Quantum after she graduated from CQT in 2023. During her PhD, she had organised camps for high-school students and co-established a national Quantum Young Researchers Association.  

Pursuing that community empowerment, Frank moved next to QAI Ventures, a Switzerland-headquartered venture firm that opened a Singapore office in 2025. She became their Head of Science and Technology APAC. The first project? Organising a quantum hackathon. 

Of course, the traditional path from PhD and to a career in academia is still there for students bitten by the research bug. Anurag Anshu, another 2018 CQT graduate, is now an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Harvard University in the US. Meanwhile, Nelly Ng, who did a final-year project in CQT as an undergraduate before heading overseas for her PhD, came back as a CQT Fellow in 2025. This was after she was appointed an Assistant Professor at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore). 

What’s different these days is the variety of alternative employers competing for quantum skills. 

Top scholarships for talent

Seeing that demand for quantum-trained talent is intense and growing, Singapore in 2024 launched a National Quantum Scholarships Scheme. The programme will support up to 100 PhD and 100 Master’s students over five years. 

Lee Kai Xiang was among the first scholarship recipients. His project, part of Singapore’s National Quantum Processor Initiative (NQPI), involves building a neutral atom array computer. He got hooked by the idea of trying to build it and now enjoys problem-solving in the lab. 

NQPI is one of several national-level quantum programmes established under Singapore’s National Quantum Strategy to focus on translation and industry engagement, complementing the curiosity-driven basic research at CQT.

Through these programmes, students get to work on real-world applications. Recent CQT PhD graduate Du Jinyi, for example, collaborated with the National Quantum-Safe Network testbed to trial an exceptionally bright chip-based source of entangled photons over a record distance of 155 km of deployed telecom fibre. This kind of technology might be used to make a future quantum internet.

In another lab, PhD student Paul Tan worked with colleagues to integrate a superconducting quantum processor for the National Quantum Computing Hub using components from many suppliers. The processor will be used to explore how quantum computing could tackle challenges in fields from finance to drug discovery. 

Is the PhD essential? Not for all industry jobs. An analysis of quantum job listings by the Chicago Quantum Exchange, published in 2024, found that a PhD was a requirement for less than half. That can make a Master’s degree a good entry route, especially for students coming from different backgrounds who want to pick up quantum skills.

The Master’s scholarships under Singapore’s National Quantum Scholarships Scheme are tenable for selected existing courses where students commit to working on a quantum project. These include master’s by research programmes in physics, engineering, and chemistry. 

PhD scholars join CQT, matriculating at the National University of Singapore, NTU Singapore, or the Singapore University of Technology and Design, all of which host nodes of the national centre. 

Both scholarships offer attractive terms and are open to students of all nationalities. Undergraduate students can also ask CQT for an internship before they decide to apply.

With its clear strategy to be a hub for the development and deployment of quantum technologies, Singapore is fertile ground to launch a quantum career. Just ask Villar. While his PhD research aimed at space, he grew deep roots. The Spanish researcher, whose satellite will create quantum connections between countries, has chosen to call Singapore home. 

The diverse experiences of these PhD graduates still give only a small sample of the different types of career paths available in quantum. As researchers and engineers, they have joined a field that also needs educators, communicators, diplomats, economists, and policymakers. In Singapore and around the world, as the quantum industry grows, so do the opportunities.

If you’ve never seen a dilution refrigerator, or a “dil fridge” as we call it in the lab, it’s a surprisingly beautiful machine. A tall column of nested, gold-plated stages and intricate wiring hangs suspended several feet in the air, forming a structure that could be a piece of art in itself. For the next year, a model of one will be in the middle of O’Hare International Airport. 

On a recent trip through O’Hare, I stopped by the exhibit located in United Airlines’ Terminal 1. Before heading to my own gate, I stood for a bit and watched people walk around the glass case, read the captions, watch the video, and pull out their phones to scan the QR code to learn more. 

People heading to or from flights were drawn to the spectacle before they realized, “Oh, it’s science!”

As a quantum-track Molecular Engineering major at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, it was deeply meaningful to see travelers pause to engage with the field that I study and love. Standing among them, I was struck by the quiet fact that no one knew I had helped build the exhibit they were exploring. 

The exhibit and accompanying informational website are called “Imagining the Future: An Encounter with Quantum Technologies.” I helped design both as part of UChicago’s Scientists, Technologists, and Artists Generating Exploration (STAGE) Center. Supported by a generous American Physical Society Innovation Fund grant with space donated by United Airlines, the exhibit celebrates the UN’s International Year of Quantum Science and Technology by putting quantum in public spaces. 

I care about finding ways to make quantum science more visible. Today, it’s hidden behind lab walls and layers of complex math, even as quantum technologies become increasingly relevant to everyday life. Biological sensors may one day detect diseases at the smallest levels, and quantum networks could create uncrackable, secure communications. And with resources like UChicago PME, the Chicago Quantum Exchange, Argonne and Fermi national labs, and a growing startup community, it is all centered right here in Chicago.

I came to the University of Chicago to be part of this quantum revolution and for the STAGE Center.

The STAGE Center, led by UChicago PME Prof. Nancy Kawalek, is a groundbreaking collaboration between engineers, physicists, artists, filmmakers and game creators working to tell stories about and inspired by science. For years, I have been passionate about both quantum physics and documentary filmmaking, and I’ve always been drawn to using narrative to make complex science approachable. The STAGE Center creates a rare environment for that intersection. 

When the United Nations announced 2025 would be the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, I continued to think about how to make quantum visible to people. I wanted the public to not just become aware of quantum science, but to feel its relevance and the role it will play in their lives. I thought back to the first time I saw a dilution refrigerator, how striking and intricate it was, and how it invited a sense of curiosity long before I understood what it did. 

I envisioned an exhibit that would place a dilution refrigerator in a public space as a centerpiece. I brought the idea to Prof. Kawalek and STAGE Director of Science Sunanda Prabhu-Gaunkar. It has been remarkable to watch that initial spark of “Let’s put quantum in public” grow into this very real exhibit, now greeting the millions of travelers who pass through the terminal each year.

It was important to us that the exhibit would be genuinely educational, not just showcasing an incredible piece of hardware, but also the science behind it. Over several months, a team of five University of Chicago students—Jeffrey Li, Avery Linder, Reet Santosh Mhaske, Rohan Venkat, and myself—worked to develop the exhibit’s educational materials, including a website designed to help travelers understand what they’re looking at and why it matters. 

We wanted the science to be both accurate and accessible, a balance that is difficult to hit. Oversimplifying risks losing the integrity or accuracy of the science, but too many details can be overwhelming and turn people away. So we thought carefully about our audience, how much time they might spend at the exhibit, and what type of information would be engaging in that brief encounter.

Luckily, the STAGE Center has always done a very good job of making science accessible and exciting in all its projects. Under Nancy and Sunanda’s guidance, the exhibit grew into what you can see today. 

Working together, APS, United, IBM and the STAGE Center team put science where people would least expect to encounter it. 

In traditional museums or classrooms, people choose to seek out science. In an airport, it finds them where they are. As I continued to my gate, I kept thinking about the travelers who had paused to engage with quantum science in the middle of their journey. I’m sure they had no idea they would learn anything about quantum today, yet the exhibit made space for curiosity anyway. That, to me, is the power of bringing science into public life. 

Credit for the cover picture: Anne Ryan

With a wide range of activities, national and international scope, and strengthened partnerships, the German Physical Society (DPG) is closing the Quantum Year—an outstanding example of volunteer work.

A memorable closing event on November 15, 2025, marked the end of the activities of the Quantum Year in Germany. The DPG took the lead in implementing the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQT) in Germany. Under the motto “Quantum2025—100 years is just the beginning…,” a large number of events and activities were organised, mostly by volunteers. These activities were aimed at anyone interested in quantum phenomena, including pupils, researchers, industry professionals, artists, history enthusiasts, or simply the curious.

The DPG honoured this special year with a national opening ceremony, attended by representatives from 15 physical societies, and a closing ceremony, attended by 3,000 members of the wider public. In addition, a joint DPG autumn conference was held in Göttingen, the birthplace of quantum mechanics, which was specifically dedicated to the significance and modern developments of quantum mechanics. Recurring DPG events were placed under the motto of the Quantum Year, such as the annual DPG Spring Meetings, with around 8,000 participants. Ghana was the country of honor at the annual conference in Bonn and was represented by a delegation to honour Ghana’s role in the United Nations’ proclamation of the IYQ.

New momentum in science communication

In the field of research and science communication, new projects connected science with the public: for example, a quantum light source travelled across Europe, accompanied by social media posts and numerous publications. The project received several awards. In addition, an online map was created highlighting quantum physics institutions in Germany. Each of these received a building plaque to draw attention to quantum physics locally. “Over the course of one year, the DPG’s quantum activities could be found everywhere, in cities and physics institutes, on the internet, in social media, in schools, in libraries, and even in museums and cinemas,” summarizes DPG President Klaus Richter. In addition, interactive elements were developed to illustrate the history of quantum mechanics, and initiatives were launched to highlight the significant but often overlooked contributions of women to quantum physics. These resources remain available beyond the Quantum Year.

All these activities were made possible by members of the DPG, who developed and implemented ideas well in advance of the Quantum Year. Special thanks also go to the Wilhelm and Else Heraeus Foundation, whose financial support made many projects possible in the first place.

Impact beyond the DPG

With its official website, www.quantum2025.de, the DPG provided a central calendar during the Quantum Year, listing more than 400 quantum events in Germany. An exhibition and the national closing event were held under the patronage of the DPG, and partnerships with cities were established. The DPG also reached an international audience through livestreams and international partnerships, e.g., through cooperation with the European Physical Society on the EPS Declaration “Europe and the Future of Quantum Science” and with the Physical Society of Japan on the “Declaration for the Future.” “We have successfully brought the topic of quantum physics to the public’s attention and made clear that it is a powerful cultural, social, and economic development that will influence our social lives,” emphasizes Dieter Meschede, coordinator of the DPG Task Force Quantum Year and former president of the DPG.

At the international level, the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology will be officially closed in February 2026 in Accra, Ghana.