Major initiative spotlights 100 professionals helping to propel the field forward
Maryland, USA – 17 December 2025 – The International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ), a United Nations-declared year, today announces the launch of the Quantum 100: a global snapshot of careers & community to recognize and champion people around the world who are working to advance research, innovation, and education. The announcement follows a worldwide call for nominations, which resulted in more than 400 submissions from five continents, telling the stories of hundreds of dedicated people contributing to scientific discovery, translation, policy, mentorship, education, and public engagement.
While 2025 has seen quantum information science and technology come to the forefront of the global agenda, its progress will be limited without international cooperation, education, responsible innovation, and robust quantum research and development spanning academia and industry. The Quantum 100 showcases the many ways people are contributing to and advancing this field globally, and especially the importance of providing opportunities for aspiring professionals and scientists.
The Quantum 100 were selected by members of the IYQ steering committee and global coordination bureau, composed of representatives from each of the IYQ Founding Partners as well as leaders around the world from universities, research institutions, scientific societies, governments, and industry.
Representing people at every stage of their professional journey, the Quantum 100 spans academia, industry, education, art, journalism, and policy, reflecting a breadth of skills and specialization. The full Quantum 100 list can be found on the IYQ website, with a dedicated page for each person to showcase their accomplishments. From leading research in quantum computing, networking, and sensing, to international collaboration and policy-making, to reaching underserved communities through outreach and local engagement, the Quantum 100 encapsulates creativity, innovation, and scientific excellence.
“It has been a privilege to read the Quantum 100 submissions and hear about so many dedicated, inspiring, and supportive professionals who give so much to quantum science and technology,” said Andrew Forbes, Distinguished Professor within the School of Physics at the U. Witwatersrand (South Africa) and member of the IYQ Steering Committee. “Their varied perspectives, experience, and backgrounds reflect the range of skills needed for advancing this field and ensure the next 100 years of quantum are as impactful as the first.”
About the International Year of Quantum Science & Technology
The UN declared 2025 the International Year of Quantum Science & Technology (IYQ) to mark the 100th anniversary of the study of quantum mechanics, and to help raise public awareness of the importance and impact of quantum science and applications on all aspects of life. It also aims to inspire the next generation of quantum scientists and improve the future quantum workforce by focusing on education and outreach. Anyone, anywhere, can participate in IYQ by helping others to learn more about quantum or simply taking the time to learn more about it themselves.
The United Nations declared 2025 as the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ), celebrating 100 years since the discovery of quantum mechanics and raising global awareness of the rapidly developing technology and its applications.
As quantum technologies continue to evolve rapidly, their transformative potential also raises concerns about the uneven distribution of expertise and resources worldwide. With these advancements geographically concentrated, it’s easy to imagine a future where the technology is in the hands of and benefits a select number of nations. This situation risks widening the already existing divide between the Global North and South, as such concentration of control amplifies the uneven distribution of skills, infrastructure, and opportunities on a global scale.
The Open Quantum Institute (OQI), hosted at CERN for its pilot phase, is working to mitigate this divide through practical, forward-looking efforts that will be sustained beyond the IYQ. Avoiding the widening of these gaps involves more than just developing new quantum algorithms or identifying new technological breakthroughs; it requires building and sustaining inclusive ecosystems in all regions, where stakeholders, including researchers, policymakers, and citizens, can actively help shape as well as benefit from the technology.
Capacity building in action
Throughout the year, OQI has contributed to the IYQ through organising and supporting more than 30 events across five continents, with a pipeline of educational events planned for 2026 to sustain momentum beyond the IYQ.
One of OQI’s main efforts is driving global capacity building. In 2025, over 380 participants in hackathons across quantum-underserved regions had the opportunity to develop their quantum computing skills. During these hackathons, participants worked collaboratively to develop algorithms that address locally relevant challenges and advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). OQI’s educational activities throughout the IYQ also included the Quantum Diplomacy Game, a role-play simulation designed to raise awareness and anticipation of the geopolitical implications of quantum computing as an emerging technology, and regional events around the world—all with the collective aim of fostering the sharing of knowledge and open-access resources globally.
SDG-aligned use cases
Another core pillar of OQI is focusing on developing quantum computing applications that address the SDGs and contribute towards mitigating the existing divide. OQI supports the development of SDG use cases and fosters collaborations between experts around the world to guide their progress from ideation to proof-of-concept and implementation on today’s quantum devices. Taking a multidisciplinary approach has proven essential, bringing together research, diplomacy, philanthropy, academia, industry, and civil society to amplify impact on a global level.
Beyond the IYQ
Alongside raising public awareness, the IYQ also identified a range of challenges to be overcome, including limited access to the technology in underserved regions and identifying governance gaps that highlight the need to develop inclusive frameworks. As the global quantum community reflects on the successes and lessons learned, an emphasis on sustained international collaboration will be essential to continue nurturing a diverse global ecosystem and to further mitigate the divide, showing a clear path towards ensuring the technology is advanced inclusively and for the benefit of all humanity.
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.
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.
Interview with Dr. Nathalie P. de Leon, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, at Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton University
Beyond beauty and rarity, diamonds have been used by scientists due to their exceptional hardness and resistance to pressure to build instruments like ultra-thin knives for electron microscopy samples, or in powders to polish materials. However, diamond’s quantum properties have also been shown to be crucial for cutting-edge applications, sometimes even if they are impure, those that would be rejected in the jewelry business.
We interviewed Nathalie P. de Leon, a physicist leading a research group in Princeton, New Jersey, that turns pure diamonds into defective diamonds to push the frontiers of quantum applications, such as quantum computers, sensors, and communication networks.
“What we do is that we kick out one or two carbons of the diamond and replace it with something else, then we get a little defect that responds to light in a different way than the carbons,” Nathalie explains. “The interesting aspect about these imperfections, in the quantum world, is that some of them have high efficiency in the sense that they absorb a photon and then spit a photon back out, so that they act as single photon sources.”
These “imperfections” are called color centers, tiny defects placed with atomic precision inside the diamond’s crystal, causing the diamond to behave like a single atom from a quantum perspective. What others call a flaw, Nathalie sees as a priceless feature.
“The term ‘color center’ is very old; it is really just about shining light that gets absorbed and light that gets emitted; then, the color center is what makes the diamond look yellow or blue. These color centers are defects in the diamond that give us very localized quantum states that we can use in many applications.”
Building Quantum Devices from Flawed Diamonds
Nathalie uses nitrogen to replace the carbon vacancies to create her color centers, called “NV centers.” Then, she and her team manipulate and measure quantum properties of the NV center’s electrons with extraordinary precision. One of these manipulable quantum features is the electron’s spin. The spin is a fundamental quantum-mechanical property found in elementary particles, such as electrons and quarks, and in composite particles, such as protons and atoms, that can have specific values. For example, the electron’s spin can have two values that physicists call “spin up” and “spin down” (or ½ and – ½ ), and it is responsible for the magnetic properties of the electron.
Unlike most quantum systems, which must be kept at extremely low temperatures, NVcenters in diamonds can operate at room temperature, a rare advantage in emerging quantum technologies that desperately need long coherence times (the time the system can maintain a quantum state). This unique property makes them among the few quantum platforms that can operate outside specialized cryogenic environments (extremely cold temperatures), opening the door to practical quantum technologies.
“The main reason why these NV centers are really exciting is the very long spin coherence time, the longest coherence time anyone has ever measured at room temperature and ambient conditions, so you have milliseconds of coherence time, which is really remarkable because you can use the electron’s spin up or down to store quantum information. It also has very efficient optical transitions, which means I put one photon in and get one photon back out.”
Diamonds, Light, and the Quantum Frontier
Nathalie’s research lab has shown that these engineered diamonds are more than just scientific curiosities—they can serve as information storage and processing devices, sensors, and building blocks for quantum communication. De Leon focuses on using NV centers as quantum sensors to measure magnetic fields with extremely high precision and spatial resolution, opening a new frontier in which quantum sensors can help us discover new materials, perform biomedical diagnostics, and aid navigation. Her lab works on the full gamut from basic research to applied technologies, innovating diamond growth in collaboration with Alastair Stacey at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, devising new sensing schemes, and making integrated sensing devices.
In a 2022 Science paper, her group showed that NV centers could be used to directly measure correlations in magnetic noise, a new physical quantity that is not measurable by any instrument today. A follow-up paper (in press in Nature) showed how entanglement can be harnessed to improve these measurements. In a 2025 paper in Physical Review X, Nathalie and her team report a breakthrough in studies of nitrogen color centers in diamonds. Traditionally, researchers could study only one diamond color center at a time—a slow process that limited what they could learn about collective quantum behavior. De Leon’s group changed that, creating a system that can read signals from hundreds of nitrogen vacancy centers simultaneously.
With this innovation, scientists can create tools that can track how tiny magnetic fields vary not just at single points, but across entire 100-micrometer-scale regions. These tiny devices could help advance the study of exotic materials or the development of medical instruments.
Science as a Game of Risk
For Nathalie, research is about strategic exploration. After she showed how to control the surface of diamond to make near-surface NV centers behave well, she started a new collaboration with Andrew Houck and Bob Cava to tackle a completely different platform—improving the quantum coherence of superconducting qubits, which had been stagnant for about a decade despite enormous worldwide investment. In five years, this collaboration has yielded two major improvements in superconducting qubit coherence, first from 100 microseconds to 300 microseconds (Nature Communications 2021), and then to over 1.5 ms (Nature 2025). Jumping into a new effort required devising a large-scale, interdisciplinary playbook to measure and tackle many different aspects of the qubit at once, which she describes in a recent 2025 Nature Physics comment. She compares it to playing Risk, the board game where players place pieces, roll dice, and attempt to conquer new territories. In her view, science works in a similar way.
“You can think of many of these projects as a giant Risk board game. What we are doing is placing forces in different parts of the board because we want to advance the state of the art in some technology. We created qubits made with tantalum and achieved a factor-of-three improvement over the state of the art. And then, we ask, can we do better? And I also need to be aware of the different forces and that other people are working on a different part of the game. For example, now we have one millisecond of coherence, so, how can we make that into 10 milliseconds? We have efforts tackling new materials and better fabrication, but also on packaging and filtering, understanding when the coherence is worse than the loss, measuring time variation… The frontier does not care about what instruments we already have in the lab or what knowledge I have in my head. So, we spend a lot of time figuring out how we are going to solve that problem and advance on the board.”
From blowing up things in her parents’ garage to Harvard, Princeton, and beyond
As a child, de Leon’s curiosity stretched in every direction—from music and art to debate and journalism. But beneath all those interests was a restless fascination with how the world worked. Growing up in a place with few outlets for kids drawn to science, she pursued science as a hobby at home, mixing chemicals and experimenting with crystal growth—sometimes a little too enthusiastically.
“I was mixing chemicals in my garage. I almost blew my fingers a couple of times,” she laughs. “I was interested in crystal growth; I found that exciting, the purification and patience, and I still have a fondness for crystal growth.”
What began as a love for crystals evolved into a career uncovering the quantum secrets hidden inside them, a trajectory that has been anything but linear. From chemistry at Stanford to a PhD in chemical physics at Harvard University, by the time de Leon reached graduate school, her path had already begun to twist in unexpected directions.
De Leon joined as an assistant professor at Princeton in 2016. Since then, she’s earned a collection of early-career honors—from the U.S. Department of Energy, DARPA, and the National Science Foundation—as well as a Sloan Research Fellowship. She was also awarded the APS Landauer-Bennett Award in 2023 for her work in quantum computing. Currently, she is an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Princeton University, a co-Director of the Princeton Quantum Initiative, and an associated faculty member of physics, as well as at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. She is also a Visiting Research Faculty at Google Quantum AI. With her research, Nathalie helps bridge the gap between fundamental physics and engineering.
“These are very exciting times to be living through,” Nathalie concludes.
De Leon publications to deep dive into her research
De Leon, N. (2025). How to build a long-lived qubit. Nature Physics. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-025-03044-y
Cheng, K., Kazi, Z., Rovny, J., Zhang, B., Nassar, L. S., Thompson, J. D., & De Leon, N. P. (2025). Massively multiplexed nanoscale magnetometry with diamond quantum sensors. Physical Review X, 15(3). https://doi.org/10.1103/t8fz-3tzs
Rose, B. C., Huang, D., Zhang, Z., Stevenson, P., Tyryshkin, A. M., Sangtawesin, S., Srinivasan, S., Loudin, L., Markham, M. L., Edmonds, A. M., Twitchen, D. J., Lyon, S. A., & De Leon, N. P. (2018). Observation of an environmentally insensitive solid-state spin defect in diamond. Science, 361(6397), 60–63. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aao0290
“Millisecond lifetimes and coherence times in 2D transmon qubits,” M. P. Bland, F. Bahrami, J. G. C. Martinez, P. H. Prestegaard, B. M. Smitham, A. Joshi, E. Hedrick, S. Kumar, A. Yang, A. Pakpour-Tabrizi, A. Jindal, R. D. Chang, G. Cheng, N. Yao, R. J. Cava, N. P. de Leon, A. A. Houck, Nature (2025).
“New material platform for superconducting transmon qubits with coherence times exceeding 0.3 milliseconds,” A. P. M. Place, L. V. H. Rodgers, P. Mundada, B. M. Smitham, M. Fitzpatrick, Z. Leng, A. Premkumar, J. Bryon, A. Vrajitoarea, S. Sussman, G. Cheng, T. Madhavan, H. K. Babla, X. H. Le, Y. Gang, B. Jaeck, A. Gyenis, N. Yao, R. J. Cava, N. P. de Leon, A. A. Houck, Nature Communications 12, 1779 (2021).
“Materials challenges and opportunities for quantum computing hardware,” N. P. de Leon, K. M. Itoh, D. Kim, K. K. Mehta, T. E. Northup, H. Paik, B. S. Palmer, N. Samarth, S. Sangtawesin, D. W. Steuerman, Science 372, 6539, eabb2823 (2021).
“Nanoscale covariance magnetometry with diamond quantum sensors,” J. Rovny, Z. Yuan, M. Fitzpatrick, A. I. Abdalla, L. Futamura, C. Fox, M. C. Cambria, S. Kolkowitz, N. P. de Leon, Science 378, 6626 1301-1305 (2022).
(The Quantum Algorithms Institute is an IYQ sponsor.)
Quantum computers are a powerful emerging technology that could solve some of the world’s most complex problems. Unfortunately, one of those problems includes breaking our most widely used encryption algorithms, compromising massive amounts of data worldwide.
But in 2025, this should not be news. The quantum threat to cybersecurity has been a hot topic for years, with many organizations working to remediate it. Recently, the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released three standardized “quantum safe” encryption algorithms, marking a huge milestone in post-quantum cybersecurity development. So, with these new safe encryption mechanisms, isn’t this threat now neutralized? Unfortunately, not yet.
The emergence of new encryption standards and national migration guidelines is only the first step in the post-quantum security process; getting organizations to implement these new standards in time, before large-scale quantum computers emerge, is a far more daunting task.
Due to the unpredictable nature of quantum computing progress, skepticism about the validity of the quantum threat, and, most importantly, the lack of a distinct Q-Day deadline, the atmosphere surrounding post-quantum cryptography migration shows a considerable lack of urgency that could prove detrimental in the future.
In 1999, as the world was speeding towards a new millennium, the Y2K Bug was on everyone’s mind. Because computers at the time stored the current year as only two numbers (99 for 1999, 98 for 1998, and so on), the fear was that once the year 2000 hit, computer systems around the world would interpret “00” as “1900” rather than “2000.” This bug was predicted to shut down critical infrastructure technology unless taken care of.
The hard deadline of January 1st, 2000, pushed organizations and governments to solve the problem before it was too late. An estimated $300 billion USD was spent worldwide to fix the bug, and, due to the hard work of thousands of workers behind the scenes, the impact of the Y2K bug was largely mitigated.
The Y2K bug is eerily similar to the newly dubbed Q-Day, the day quantum computers will break modern encryption. If/when this breakthrough event does occur, the implications will be far greater than those of Y2K, rendering the majority of modern encryption obsolete. So, why aren’t we seeing the same urgency to solve the Q-Day problem?
Unlike Y2K, quantum computing’s timeline and image make it harder to mobilize. There were a few traits to Y2K that enabled it to be taken seriously by not only the technology workers trying to fix the problem, but most importantly, by influential company executives.
The tangible deadline certainly helped executives take the problem seriously. Significant pressure was applied, pushing organizations to act sooner rather than later. In contrast, because Q-Day could be anywhere from 3 to 15 years away, according to analysts, it is challenging to convince organizations to allocate resources to the problem now.
The way that the Y2K problem was comparatively easy to understand and quantify also had a large impact on how it was handled. The Y2K bug was easy to take seriously in part due to its mundane nature. In contrast, the quantum threat may seem technologically far-out to most, with some dismissing it entirely as science fiction due to the often-inaccurate portrayal of quantum technologies in popular media. Superhero movies, sci-fi adventures, and space operas all use the term “quantum” to describe just about anything adjacent to magic, causing “quantum” and “sci-fi” to share the same brain space.
This portrayal makes it difficult for outsiders to take quantum seriously. Ella Meyer, a quantum computing outreach coordinator at the University of British Columbia, told GeekWire that media portrayals like this are making it “harder than ever to get people to properly engage with this world.”
Executives and key decision makers around the world are still trying to wrap their heads around the equally sci-fi-like world of AI, and now they’re being told they must start dealing with seemingly outlandish quantum threats.
Because of the lack of a hard deadline and the fantastical portrayal of quantum in fictional media, it is easy to see how difficult it can be for non-technical decision-makers to take the quantum threat seriously.
Call to Action
It is vital to the security of all organizations to get executive minds on board with the quantum threat. This isn’t simply something to be ignored. Already, national post-quantum migration roadmaps have been released by the likes of Canada, the USA, and the UK.
The migration to post-quantum cryptography will be long and arduous for most organizations. Convincing an executive team to commit to a multi-year-long project defending against such a fluid threat will be difficult, but it is entirely necessary.
When discussing the quantum threat with executives, make sure to speak their language. Don’t get caught up in superposition and qubit count, but instead point to government migration guidelines and the post-quantum security plans of large corporations.
Additionally, highlight how migrating to post-quantum cryptography will improve an organization’s security posture beyond the quantum threat. Upgrading to new, improved cryptography, developing ways to become cryptographically agile, and undergoing a cryptographic discovery process will all help defend governments, businesses, and utilities against both quantum and classical threats.
An organization’s post-quantum cryptography migration doesn’t have to be handled entirely in-house, either. Recently, new and established vendors, such as IBM, PQShield, and SandboxAQ, have begun offering cryptographic discovery and post-quantum remediation services. For organizations with small security teams, such vendors provide essential assistance.
Conclusion
In a world where the status quo on security and technology is constantly changing, it can be challenging to sift through the noise and find what will truly make an impact. The Y2K bug was taken seriously because it was perfectly positioned to cut through that noise due to its hard deadline and grounded nature.
The quantum threat to cybersecurity is different. There is no hard deadline, no immediate observable impact, and it is obstructed by the mythological portrayal of a very real technology. Nevertheless, actions to mitigate this threat must be taken.
Every delay in migration extends the period in which critical data remains exposed to future decryption. The growing concern of “harvest now, decrypt later” attacks—where adversaries stockpile encrypted data anticipating quantum capabilities—makes early action essential.
The threat must be properly communicated to executive minds. Point to existing government migration guidelines, avoid getting caught up in the technical weeds, and make it clear that this is a threat that cannot be ignored.
Quantum technologies are entering a decisive moment. Once considered a far-off scientific ambition, they are now moving steadily into practical experimentation, hybrid computing frameworks, and early industrial use cases. The shift is global, multidisciplinary, and collaborative. And yet, in many organizations, quantum still feels like a future tense: promising, but not ready; exciting, but uncertain.
The International Quantum Business Conference, taking place in Santiago de Compostela on December 17 to 18, 2025, is designed precisely for this moment. It brings together industry leaders, researchers, technologists, policymakers, and investors to discuss what it means to move quantum from potential to capability, and from capability to impact.
Pioneering Quantum Innovation from Galicia
Fsas Technologies—a Fujitsu company’s International Quantum Center was created with a clear mission: to accelerate the adoption of quantum technologies by fostering collaboration between research, industry, and public institutions. In Galicia, this mission has taken shape through concrete achievements—from pioneering proof-of-concept pilots with regional industry to the launch of specialized university courses that help cultivate the next generation of quantum talent. This new generation will have the opportunity to join research and development initiatives with the Galician Supercomputing Center (CESGA), local clusters, and innovation agencies. Together with the Galician government and CESGA, these efforts have laid the foundations for a robust quantum ecosystem that is internationally visible and growing rapidly.
More Than a Meeting Point—A Blueprint for Progress
Launched in 2024 by Fujitsu, in collaboration with the Galician Supercomputing Center (CESGA) and GAIN (The Galician Government’s Innovation Agency), the conference established itself as a unique forum where the scientific and business dimensions of quantum met on equal footing. The first edition gathered more than 200 participants from business, academia, and government, with a strong presence of international speakers and media coverage.
Discussions last year ranged from European public initiatives and global investment trends to real-world applications of quantum for drug discovery, logistics, energy optimization, and finance. This year’s edition continues that spirit, while raising the stakes.
2025: Empowering the Future of Quantum and Supercomputing for AI
As hybrid cloud environments, advanced accelerators, and quantum resources begin to work together, the frontier is no longer quantum alone, but quantum + HPC + AI. This is the landscape the 2025 program explores.
Across two days, participants will engage in:
Keynotes on European quantum strategy and national-scale ecosystem development
Panels connecting R&D centers, investors, and emerging industry adopters
Scientific sessions on quantum hardware, algorithms, and hybrid architectures
Business track discussions on real deployment pathways, funding, and regulation
A parallel poster session and a visit to the CESGA Quantum Computer (QMIO)
The conference also hosts the QUORUM alliance sessions, focused on Spain’s collaborative quantum innovation efforts across research centers and companies.
Why It Matters Now
Across regions and markets, the same questions echo:
How do we build a quantum-ready workforce?
Which applications will mature first?
How should policymakers support competitiveness while ensuring ethical and strategic alignment?
What partnerships enable scalable innovation rather than isolated pilot projects?
This event is shaped to address these questions practically, not hypothetically.
Speakers include leaders shaping quantum research, ecosystem design, industry deployment, and science policy. Topics such as fault tolerance, quantum-safe communications, dual-use innovation, hybrid quantum-HPC architectures, and sectoral case studies illustrate what scaling pathways may look like over the next five years.
The Place Matters Too
Santiago de Compostela has become an unexpected yet fitting landmark in Europe’s quantum map. With Fujitsu’s International Quantum Center, the Galician Supercomputing Center (CESGA), and a growing network of research institutions and technology companies, Galicia is positioning itself as a European node for quantum talent, experimentation, and industry collaboration.
The conference is part of that story of ecosystem-making.
Join the Conversation—and Help Shape the Next Chapter
Whether you work in:
Industry transformation
Academic research
Technology development
Policy, investment, or innovation management
The International Quantum Business Conference offers a space to learn, connect, challenge assumptions, and forge collaborations.
If the last decade was about imagining quantum, the next will be about building with it.
This is where that work begins—together.
More information and registration are available at this link.
With quantum technologies shifting from theoretical potential to real-world deployment, we believe the urgency to secure our digital future has never been greater.
Our modern world runs on digital infrastructure, financial systems, healthcare networks, energy grids, and national security, all secured by cryptographic designs for classical computing. These systems have served us well for decades, but they are not equipped to withstand the disruptive power of quantum computing.
Quantum computing is redefining what’s possible in computation. Unlike classical machines, which process information in binary bits, quantum machines rely on qubits that can exist in multiple states simultaneously. This extraordinary capability enables them to solve certain problems exponentially faster than traditional counterparts, advancing areas such as drug discovery, climate modeling, and logistics optimization. Yet, the same power that makes quantum computing so promising also poses a direct threat to the cryptographic algorithms that safeguard digital communications and data.
The greatest near-term threat lies in public-key cryptography. Algorithms such as RSA and ECC, which rely on the difficulty of factoring large numbers and the discrete logarithm problem over elliptic curves, respectively, are particularly susceptible to quantum attacks. Using Shor’s algorithm, quantum computers will eventually be capable of breaking these encryption schemes in a fraction of the time required by classical machines.
This is not a distant threat. The concept of harvest now, decrypt later is already being employed, where malicious actors collect encrypted data today with the intention of decrypting it once quantum capabilities become available. Sensitive information, from personal health records to classified communications, is being stockpiled, awaiting the moment when quantum decryption becomes possible. The implications are profound: breaches that occur years from now could expose data that was once assumed to remain secure for decades.
Transitioning to quantum-resilient systems is therefore not optional—it is essential. Post-quantum cryptography (PQC) offers one of the most promising paths forward, featuring algorithms designed to resist quantum attacks while remaining compatible with existing infrastructure.
In the UAE, we are taking proactive steps to prepare for this new frontier. The UAE CyberSecurity Council and the Technology Innovation Institute (TII)have joined forces on CyberQ, an event dedicated to advancing research, standards, and readiness for quantum-safe cybersecurity. CyberQ is designed to help organizations across both the public and private sectors identify their quantum vulnerabilities, evaluate post-quantum cryptographic solutions, and accelerate the transition to secure communication systems that withstand future quantum threats. Through CyberQ, we are combining policy leadership and advanced scientific capability to strengthen the UAE’s role as a global contributor to quantum security. Together, CSC and TII are collaborating with international experts, industry partners, and standards bodies to safeguard our digital infrastructure and protect the critical assets that underpin our nation’s security in the quantum era.
However, adoption across industries remains uneven. Too often, quantum threats are seen as speculative when, in reality, the groundwork for future breaches is being laid today.
The challenge is not merely technical. It is strategic.
Cryptographic systems are deeply embedded in our digital fabric, and transitioning to new standards will require coordination across sectors and sustained and decisive leadership.
Policy frameworks must evolve in tandem with technological advancements. Governments must update regulatory frameworks to guide the adoption of PQC, incentivize migration, and support public-private partnerships that accelerate readiness.
International cooperation is also essential. Quantum threats do not respect borders, and fragmented responses will leave critical gaps in global security.
Just as crucial is fostering crypto-agility, the readiness to evolve cryptographic systems as threats emerge. Now is the time for organizations to evaluate their vulnerabilities, map their cryptographic assets, and prepare for a hybrid era where classical and quantum-safe algorithms work side by side.
The quantum future is not a distant horizon; it is approaching rapidly. The decisions we make today will determine whether our digital infrastructure remains resilient or becomes a casualty of technological progress.
Through initiatives like CyberQ, we are committed to leading this transformation, combining policy, research excellence, and international collaboration to secure the quantum future, starting now.
As leaders in cybersecurity and advanced research, we share a single goal: to ensure that the world approaches the quantum future with foresight, responsibility, and cooperation.
Protecting digital trust in the quantum age will demand global resolve and shared responsibility, as what we build together today will determine the security and integrity of the digital world for generations to come.
Interview with Temitope Adeniyi, a PhD computer science student at Cleveland State University in the United States, one of the leaders and conveners of the Africa Quantum Consortium.
I have interviewed many scientists and leaders from the quantum world, but few have moved me as much as Temitope Adeniyi, a PhD student in computer science at Cleveland State University in the United States. Cheerful, always smiling, she speaks with such conviction that it is contagious. Her infectious enthusiasm about the future makes you feel that we are already there.
As a quantum scientist, she explores the intersection of quantum systems and artificial intelligence (AI), while as an activist, Temitope is determined to reconfigure quantum science in Africa—yes, the whole continent—to make it as strong as any other leading region on the global stage. During our conversation, we explored her life and career as a research scientist, and her leadership in building “the biggest Deep Tech Research Institute in Africa,” as stated on her LinkedIn profile.
“In my dissertation, what I am doing is applying classical intelligent agents to help improve quantum systems,” Temitope clarifies. Intelligent agents are autonomous systems that can make decisions and perform tasks with limited or no human intervention.
While her research has many applications, she is eager to contribute to the health sector, focusing on neurology. “I am interested in the applications of quantum sensors and AI in biological systems, especially in medical hardware, and one of my ambitions is to develop a quantum sensor that can detect weak electromagnetic signals in the brain to identify neurological diseases, even before they are detected by other medical means. That is my goal.”
From Reluctant Scientist to Quantum Leader for a Whole Continent
Temitope’s early years were not precisely defined by a love of science. “When I was in school, I was a good writer and didn’t really like science—I thought it was too hard,” she recalls. Initially, she chose to study arts until her father encouraged her to “first try science.” Reluctantly, she agreed, not yet knowing how this decision would change her life.
Her turning point came during a university strike in her fourth year. Rather than waiting for classes to resume, Temitope began homeschooling with her brother, who transformed her view of science. “He taught me math, physics, and chemistry through stories that were so interesting that I ended up loving them, especially physics.”
She completed both her undergraduate and master’s degrees in physics at Osun State University and the University of Ibadan, respectively, both in Nigeria. By the end of her master’s degree, she taught herself programming and applied it to physics. “I loved it so much!” She exclaims with a spark in her eyes. “Then I wanted to know more about the basics of computer science. And that is why I chose quantum computing, because it is a balance of everything I love: math, physics, and coding.”
Building a Quantum Network in Africa
Early this year, while doing her PhD in Cleveland, Ohio, Temitope helped reconvene the Africa Quantum Consortium (AQC)—a nonprofit initiative dedicated to building Africa’s capacity in quantum technologies and deep tech.
The AQC brings together researchers, institutions, and policymakers across 15 African countries, creating a network for collaboration and knowledge exchange. Its motto—“Forging Local Strength, Driving Global Impact”—captures the organization’s vision: to make Africa not just a participant but a leader in the global quantum revolution.
Her passion for the AQC was born out of many setbacks she encountered as a graduate student in Nigeria. “When I was doing my PhD in Nigeria, I wanted to learn new technologies, and there were some resources but there were not enough. That let me to change my field many times,” she reminisces. Such instability prevented her from finishing her PhD in Nigeria, and then she moved to Cleveland, where she was offered the opportunity to work in quantum technologies.
But Temitope is not the kind of person who gives up easily on her country; she is determined to change that situation. “By the time I finish my PhD, I want to be able to go back to my home country in Africa and have the assets and equipment to do research in high tech.I want to go back home and help build the infrastructure so Africans can do impactful work in Africa. We don’t want to be left behind in quantum computing. With the AQC, we want to be able to provide resources to our researchers and funding for quantum innovation, to be able to develop our own quantum computers, or to give researchers and students cloud access to quantum computers.”
The AQC is still in its early stages, and starting is always a challenge, but she and her team are determined to succeed. “When we pitch the AQC, people say, ‘No, this is impossible,’” Temitope notes. “But we’re not giving up. We’re connecting leaders, researchers, and students to create a future where Africa is united and recognized in quantum innovation,” she asserts. “The goal of the coordinators is to return to their countries [in Africa], talk with local stakeholders, connect with researchers, institutions, and students, and connect the dots between them. And we are not doing it alone; we are collaborating with other quantum communities in Africa, and we hope to improve the state of education, research, and innovation.”
“Our vision is to create a comfortable space where current and aspiring leaders in quantum can talk about their goals, their fears, and ideas for shaping a hopeful future in quantum. Above all, we want to foster unity in Africa, rather than fragmentation, and that is why we have national coordinators in 15 countries, 9 onboarded, and 6 pending.”
The recently published AQC White Paper on the State of Quantum Science and Technology in Africa expands on this vision. It outlines strategies such as building a Pan-African quantum ecosystem, launching the Africa Quantum Fund to support education and research, promoting quantum alignment with Africa’s development agenda, and advancing digital sovereignty through home-grown innovation. “Together, these efforts represent our roadmap toward a united and self-sustaining quantum future for Africa.”
The Challenge of Representation
Despite her accomplishments, Temitope’s path in the U.S. scientific community has not been easy. “As a woman coming from Africa in the USA, I had impostor syndrome,” she admits. “I wondered, am I really that good? Will I be able to succeed or make an impact in this field?”
The skepticism she faced was often unspoken but deeply felt. “Even when I was doing well, I had to prove myself,” she recalls. “Some people didn’t even hide it, they’d ask, ‘You’re from Africa, so what do you know?’” But instead of allowing those doubts to break her, Temitope used them as fuel. “The pressure was there, but instead of letting it discourage me, it became my drive to do more, to talk about my work, to inspire others. That’s why I’m loud about what I do. I share it on LinkedIn, I mentor students, and I want people back home to see that it’s possible to succeed in this field.” That’s also why the AQC organized the event Q4 Quantum Roundtable on December 12 focusing primarily on women, “to ensure more voices like mine have the visibility, confidence, and support to lead in quantum science.”
Lessons in Perseverance
For Temitope, the barriers she’s faced—being African, Black, and a woman in a male-dominated field—are not limitations but motivations. “At the end of the day, what matters is what you can do,” she says firmly.
Her message to young Africans and aspiring scientists everywhere is simple yet profound: “There is nothing too hard. Never give up on the first try.” She reminds them to keep dreaming, even when those dreams seem impossible. “When I look back, I realize that if I had given up, I wouldn’t be here. Keep on dreaming, even if your dream looks unrealistic—those dreams help you see opportunities when they appear.”
Hello! My name is Serena and I’m currently a master’s student in theoretical and computational chemistry as a part of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s program in Europe. A few weekends ago, some classmates and I decided to venture out of our comfort zone and participate in IBM’s Qiskit Fall Fest 2025 Hackathon. The purpose was to use Qiskit, a quantum software development kit from IBM, to solve a problem using quantum computation instead of classical computers over the course of four days.
Day 1 – Introduction & Talks
First task—meeting everybody. The first day, we gathered in the physics faculty at the University of Barcelona to introduce ourselves to each other and to the new quantum concepts we would be using. Artur Garcia gave the first talk from the Barcelona Supercomputing Center; he discussed tensor networks for circuit simulation and a little bit about the difference between classical supercomputing and quantum computing. He was followed by Niccolo Baldelli, also from the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, who gave a great presentation on simulating quantum circuits.
Day 2 – Set Up
The next day, we were on our own; we had to install the Qiskit package on our computers and complete an exercise to familiarize ourselves with the software. They sent the instructions over Discord, which included a link to IBM’s YouTube channel that walked you through the entire setup procedure and one practice problem. By the end of the night, I was ready and nervous; I was about to spend 48 hours doing something I had never done before.
Day 3 – Hacking!
Joana Fraxanet from IBM came in the morning to kick us off with a presentation on quantum algorithms and their applications (shoutout quantum chemistry!). She gave us more information about the connection between high performance computing and quantum computing, and advised us on the quantum algorithms we would use. Then it was time for the challenges!
My group chose the intermediate challenge of the three options called “The Queen’s Problem”. Although none of us had ever used Qiskit before, we thought trying a challenge that interested us was the way to go: the best motivator is genuine curiosity! At about 11:00, we set out for a full day of coding (eight hours!), stopping only at 2:00 pm for a quick lunch break. The challenge we had selected was this: find the maximum number of queens you can place on a chessboard so that no two queens can attack each other. For the first part of the challenge, we had to use a classical algorithm, or a brute-force method, to find the answer to this question. We started with a blank chessboard, filled in the first eligible space with a piece, and then had the code find all the possible solutions from there. After it saved all the solutions from that starting point, it saved them, wiped the board, and started again.
The next part of the challenge used a quantum algorithm to transform the problem into a physics one: we were going to use a “lowest energy state” to find a board with no pieces attacking each other. The lowest energy state in physics just means the point in the system with the lowest energy. If our system is a ball teetering at the top of a valley, the highest energy state is going to be the ball at the top, while the lowest energy state is going to be the ball at the bottom. If you give that teetering ball a push, where is it going to go? That’s our lowest energy state.
The quantum algorithm would basically do the same thing with the arrangement of the board; if it placed pieces that could attack each other, that would be a high-energy state, and if they couldn’t, it would be a low-energy state. The goal was to have the algorithm place pieces to find, like our ball rolling down the hill, in the lowest possible energy state.
The hardest part about this challenge for me was translating my logic into code. I could answer the question on paper, and on paper it seemed so simple, but then I had to execute it using Qiskit–something I had never done before. It was a lot of trial and error (and a lot of asking for help), but by the end of the day, we were getting the hang of it.
Day 4 – Presentations & Results
The next day, I was back to hacking after coffee and breakfast. We took our seats and dove back into where we left off. The day before, we had completed the challenge for the rook and bishop pieces. Today was about putting it all together to solve the queen’s question.
By lunch, we were almost finished, but had to shift our attention to designing our presentation. In terms of the competition, how we presented our solutions was almost as important as what those solutions were.
Finally, at five, all eight teams were ready to present. We watched as groups presented their solutions for the various challenges, and presented as they listened to ours. Our group successfully completed the part of the challenge that used classical computers to solve the queens’ problem, but only got about two-thirds of the way through the quantum one. We wrote the quantum algorithm we needed to solve it, it just wasn’t giving us the right answers! Still, not bad for a group of chemists among physicists.
In the end, the prize went to a very deserving team that worked on the hardest challenge, the Phase Recognition Challenge, which had to do with identifying the phase of a quantum state, or how a quantum state evolves over time.
My biggest takeaway from the event was: ‘I should have done this sooner’.In college, I always prioritized the acquisition of knowledge over its use. Even though I’m technically learning programming as a part of my curriculum right now, I learned so much in just 48 hours by being forced to use and apply it. Doing it with my friends and working on a real problem I found interesting helped too.
So, if you are interested in learning quantum mechanics, my advice is to get involved: go to an event or try out some online resources. Even better to do it with a friend.
If you’re interested in learning more about quantum computing or checking out Qiskit for yourself, here are some of the resources we used over the weekend:
Serena Krejci-Papa is a first-year master’s student at the University of Barcelona, studying theoretical and computational chemistry with the Erasmus Mundus program. She writes about complex science topics in a way that makes people laugh. You can find more about her at Sciencewithserena.com.
Beyond Our Eyes: 3rd place photo, A microscopic detector toward quantum innovation, by Pasquale Ercolano
To celebrate the 100 years since the formulation of quantum mechanics, the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) launched an international photo contest to capture the beauty of quantum research and technology developed worldwide, as well as the presence of quantum science and technology in our daily lives.
The competition, part of the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ2025) global events, opened submissions on June 9 in two categories:
Beyond Our Eyes
“Dedicated to images captured using scientific instruments or produced through simulations of quantum processes, bringing to life phenomena we can’t usually see.”
At a Glance
Welcomed photos “that revealed the aesthetic beauty of scientific instruments, visible quantum effects in nature, such as light patterns, or creative interpretations inspired by quantum concepts.”
Through these categories, IUPAP encouraged scientists, students, and enthusiasts to look beyond technical boundaries and explore the poetry within science.
The IUPAP–IYQ2025 Photo Contest received submissions from around the world until August 31. After rigorous review, the jury selected winning photographs for their scientific relevance and artistic quality. The IUPAP announced the six winners (three for each category) on October 24. In this series of IYQ blog posts, we intend to feature each winning photograph and the artist who created it, one for each post.
Beyond Crystals: A microscopic detector toward quantum innovation, photo by Pasquale Ercolano, 3rd place in the category Beyond Our Eyes
“As a physics PhD student, I focus on superconducting strip photon detectors, with applications in quantum optics and quantum communication,” Pasquale Ercolano states. “My image, taken through an optical microscope, shows a photon-number-resolving detector that I personally fabricated. It captures not only the intricate structure of a quantum device, but also the journey of its creation, from raw materials to its integration within a cryostat. The detector symbolizes the advancement of photon-based quantum technologies, broadening the horizon of their applications.”
