Brilliant Poetry is an international competition that invites participants from around the world every year to explore scientific discoveries and curiosity through poetic expression.  

Aligned with the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ), marking a century since the formulation of quantum mechanics, Brilliant Poetry aims this year to highlight the power of artistic expression, making the complexities of science accessible, beautiful, and profoundly inspiring.

During the call for participants, poets were encouraged to engage with the principles and paradoxes of quantum science, exploring their intellectual and human significance. 

After closing the submissions on July 30, the jury started the selection process. In September, ten outstanding poems were selected for a shortlist that was announced early this month.  

We are thrilled to publish each of them on the official blog of the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology. Winners of the first, second, and third places will be announced on November 10.

Schrödinger’s Attic

by Muizzah Fatima Munir

Muizzah Fatima Munir is a computer science student and poet from Pakistan whose work explores emotion, identity, and the quiet intersections between humanity and technology.

Brilliant Poetry is an international competition that invites participants from around the world every year to explore scientific discoveries and curiosity through poetic expression.  

Aligned with the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ), marking a century since the formulation of quantum mechanics, Brilliant Poetry aims this year to highlight the power of artistic expression, making the complexities of science accessible, beautiful, and profoundly inspiring.

During the call for participants, poets were encouraged to engage with the principles and paradoxes of quantum science, exploring their intellectual and human significance. 

After closing the submissions on July 30, the jury started the selection process. In September, ten outstanding poems were selected for a shortlist that was announced early this month.  

We are thrilled to publish each of them on the official blog of the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology. Winners of the first, second, and third places will be announced on November 10.

Father’s Love

by Crispo Chang

Crispo Chang is an amateur poet and a college student, with a passion for transcribing the small things in everyday life into poetry. 

A new white paper from SC Quantum and qBraid explores the path forward for quantum computing in drug design

(SQ Quantum is an IYQ Leading Philanthropic Partner.)

Designing effective drugs is one of the most complex and costly challenges in modern science. It can take more than a decade to move a single treatment from concept to clinic. Today, researchers and pharmaceutical leaders are exploring how quantum computing might offer a better way forward.

In this white paper, developed in collaboration with qBraid, we explore the intersection of quantum computing and drug design. From foundational science to real-world use cases, the paper offers a grounded look at what’s happening, what’s possible, and what still lies ahead.

Beyond the Hype: What Quantum Can and Can’t Do

The promise of quantum computing has been part of the drug discovery conversation for years. Until recently, much of that promise remained theoretical. That’s now changing. New advances in quantum hardware and algorithms are opening doors to better understand complex molecules, simulate protein interactions, and speed up key phases of the drug pipeline.

At the same time, there are real challenges to overcome, such as limited qubit counts, noise, modeling scale, and the fundamental complexity of biological systems. The paper presents these limitations with clarity, helping readers separate marketing from milestones.

A Use Case with Real Impact

To show this work in practice, the white paper highlights a research pipeline from qBraid focused on Alzheimer’s disease. Partnering with institutions like MIT, Argonne National Lab, and North Carolina A&T, qBraid is using quantum techniques to study protein-metal interactions tied to neurodegeneration. Their Quanta-Bind platform is one example of how researchers are applying quantum tools to real-world problems.

South Carolina’s Role in What’s Next

Pharmaceutical companies across South Carolina are well-positioned to explore these technologies, from small-molecule research to clinical applications. The white paper identifies companies already doing groundbreaking work in diagnostics, therapeutics, and delivery systems. With quantum computing now reaching a more practical stage, the timing is right to explore how these tools could support R&D pipelines across the region.

Get the White Paper

This is the first in a series from SC Quantum and qBraid spotlighting how quantum technologies are taking shape in real-world industries. It’s designed for decision-makers, technical leads, and anyone interested in what the future of quantum might actually look like.

📄 Click here to download the white paper.

Dave Alsobrooks is Director of Communications, SC Quantum

Featured image: Dave Alsobrooks.

Brilliant Poetry is an international competition that invites participants from around the world every year to explore scientific discoveries and curiosity through poetic expression.  

Aligned with the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ), marking a century since the formulation of quantum mechanics, Brilliant Poetry aims this year to highlight the power of artistic expression, making the complexities of science accessible, beautiful, and profoundly inspiring.

During the call for participants, poets were encouraged to engage with the principles and paradoxes of quantum science, exploring their intellectual and human significance. 

After closing the submissions on July 30, the jury started the selection process. In September, ten outstanding poems were selected for a shortlist that was announced early this month.  

We are thrilled to publish each of them on the official blog of the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology. Winners of the first, second, and third places will be announced on November 10.

Emergency Room

by Jasmine Zhang

To be frank, quantum physics
makes for terrible metaphor. Of course
the human experience contains
multitudes. Try writing down
the wavefunction for grief, or for kissing
someone you love on the mouth

Or, for the angry blue sky, the
bloodwork, the body arranged
on the stretcher, catatonic in
its dreaming. I fail to find solace
in the pulse-finding machines,
the sterile clockwork of it all

In the waiting room I consider
the thought experiment
about superposition. The nurses
discuss a birthday party while
you possibly die in this bed

I have scorned the study of the living
for its imprecision and even now 
I hold onto theories relevant only
at scales we cannot touch. But 
I can’t look away, as if superstition 
will keep you here

Brilliant Poetry is an international competition that invites participants from around the world every year to explore scientific discoveries and curiosity through poetic expression.  

Aligned with the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ), marking a century since the formulation of quantum mechanics, Brilliant Poetry aims this year to highlight the power of artistic expression, making the complexities of science accessible, beautiful, and profoundly inspiring.

During the call for participants, poets were encouraged to engage with the principles and paradoxes of quantum science, exploring their intellectual and human significance. 

After closing the submissions on July 30, the jury started the selection process. In September, ten outstanding poems were selected for a shortlist that was announced early this month.  

We are thrilled to publish each of them on the official blog of the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology. Winners of the first, second, and third places will be announced on November 10.

Dualism

by Thom Hawkins

I could hear the cat moving around in the box,
but I was determined to ignore it. My feline
friend was in a state of quantum superposition—
it had to be, if I'd done everything right. 

The radiation source, the Geiger counter,
the vial of poison, a half-life had passed
so there was no way to know if the meows
were from a cat’s body or its ghost.

Thom Hawkins is a writer and artist based in Maryland. His poems have appeared or are scheduled to appear in COMP, Excuse Me Magazine, The Fieldstone Review, Last Stanza Journal, Linked Verse, Poetry Box, Red Ogre Review, Sinking City, and Uncensored Ink’s Banned Books Anthology. 

Brilliant Poetry is an international competition that invites participants from around the world every year to explore scientific discoveries and curiosity through poetic expression.  

Aligned with the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ), marking a century since the formulation of quantum mechanics, Brilliant Poetry aims this year to highlight the power of artistic expression, making the complexities of science accessible, beautiful, and profoundly inspiring.

During the call for participants, poets were encouraged to engage with the principles and paradoxes of quantum science, exploring their intellectual and human significance. 

After closing the submissions on July 30, the jury started the selection process. In September, ten outstanding poems were selected for a shortlist that was announced early this month.  

We are thrilled to publish each of them on the official blog of the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology. Winners of the first, second, and third places will be announced on November 10.

Dice Rolling Eternal

by Akis Linardos

In the eternal void
      there comes a brilliant bang

Quieter than a baby’s snore
     louder than the end of sound

Quantum fluctuations, a primordial Jackson Pollock
     spit colors on a black, expanding canvas
Carving celestial castles
    from sands of eternal chance

As has been, as will be done,
    before, after, forever

Fireworks spark rivers in the desert
Carbon to branching forms, life from strands

In a pocket eternity, there come soft rains
Youth hungry to experience existence
Elderly aching to pass the torch
Radiant unions, harsh goodbyes

The cosmic candles dim at last,
As entropy reaches its zenith,
    returning everything to slumber

Until the dice may roll again

Akis is a writer of bizarre things, a biomedical AI scientist, and maybe human. He’s also a Greek that traveled the world and now resides in the USA, writing silly dark things while everything burns. Find his words at Apex, Strange Horizons, Uncharted, Heartlines Spec, and visit his lair for more: akislinardos.com

Brilliant Poetry is an international competition that invites participants from around the world every year to explore scientific discoveries and curiosity through poetic expression.  

Aligned with the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ), marking a century since the formulation of quantum mechanics, Brilliant Poetry aims this year to highlight the power of artistic expression, making the complexities of science accessible, beautiful, and profoundly inspiring.

During the call for participants, poets were encouraged to engage with the principles and paradoxes of quantum science, exploring their intellectual and human significance. 

After closing the submissions on July 30, the jury started the selection process. In September, ten outstanding poems were selected for a shortlist that was announced early this month.  

We are thrilled to publish each of them on the official blog of the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology. Winners of the first, second, and third places will be announced on November 10.

An End to Time

by Luisa A. Igloria

Poet, nonfiction writer, and translator Luisa A. Igloria teaches in the MFA Creative Writing Program at Old Dominion University. She is originally from Baguio City in the Philippines. www.luisaigloria.com

Brilliant Poetry is an international competition that invites participants from around the world every year to explore scientific discoveries and curiosity through poetic expression.  

Aligned with the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ), marking a century since the formulation of quantum mechanics, Brilliant Poetry aims this year to highlight the power of artistic expression, making the complexities of science accessible, beautiful, and profoundly inspiring.

During the call for participants, poets were encouraged to engage with the principles and paradoxes of quantum science, exploring their intellectual and human significance. 

After closing the submissions on July 30, the jury started the selection process. In September, ten outstanding poems were selected for a shortlist that was announced early this month.  

We are thrilled to publish each of them on the official blog of the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology. Winners of the first, second, and third places will be announced on November 10.

A New Grammar for Atlantis

by Marie Vibbert 

Marie Vibbert is a computer programmer from a working-class background in Cleveland, Ohio. She has been nominated for the Hugo and Nebula awards for her fiction. 

In 2025, the Brilliant Poetry competition invited people from around the world to explore the beauty and mystery of quantum science through verse. The response was extraordinary. In only three months, we received 368 poems written in three languages and submitted from 50 countries. This truly global effort shows how quantum science can spark creativity and how poetry can give voice to scientific wonder.

Poetry and quantum ideas

Quantum mechanics has always inspired curiosity, drawing us toward questions that stretch the limits of understanding. Concepts such as entanglement, where particles remain correlated across vast distances; superposition, in which a system can exist in multiple states at once; and the paradox of Schrödinger’s cat, which imagines a cat that is simultaneously alive and dead until observed, all challenge our sense of reality. These concepts are as strange as they are fascinating, inviting us to reconsider what it means to know, to see, and to measure the world around us.

These ideas continue to stretch the imagination, and poetry offers a unique way to respond to them. Where equations can be abstract, poetry can be immediate. It can capture not only the complexity of quantum science but also its emotional and human dimensions.

The competition invited entrants to channel their own interpretations of quantum science into poetic form. By doing so, it supported the spirit of the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, which highlights the global importance of quantum research and education, and the need to make science accessible to all.

A collective effort

The judging process was led by Diego Golombek, an Argentinian neuroscientist, writer, and Ig Nobel laureate, and Jean-Pierre Luminet, a French astrophysicist, writer, and artist celebrated for his pioneering work on black holes and cosmology. Both are laureates of the UNESCO Kalinga Prize for the Popularization of Science, and together they brought scientific expertise and a deep appreciation of the arts to the task..

Reflecting on the process, the judges described how rewarding it was to read such a broad collection of poems from so many countries. They noted the diversity of styles and approaches, and how exciting it was to see quantum science interpreted through so many creative lenses. When it came to selecting the longlist, shortlist, and winners, they quickly found common ground, with strong agreement on the poems that stood out. For them, the shortlisted works are distinguished by originality, emotional resonance, and well-crafted language.

What happens next

The ten shortlisted poems are now live on the Brilliant Poetry website: www.thebrilliantpoetry.com. The winning poems will then be announced on World Science Day for Peace and Development, 10 November 2025.

In addition, the shortlisted poets will be invited to take part in a virtual reading event in November, bringing together voices from across the globe. This event will allow the poets to share their work with an international audience and to celebrate the achievement of being selected from such a large and diverse field. Plans are also underway for a further celebration in early 2026, offering another opportunity to showcase the creativity and imagination that the competition has inspired.

Why this matters

Competitions like Brilliant Poetry highlight that science is not confined to laboratories, nor poetry to literature alone. By combining the two, they encourage participation from people who might not usually see themselves reflected in scientific spaces. The fact that poems came from 50 different countries shows both the global reach of quantum science and the universal appeal of creative expression.

This inclusivity is central to the goals of the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, which calls for greater access to science education and engagement, particularly for young people, women, and under-represented communities. Poetry offers a powerful route into these conversations, providing a platform where scientific ideas can be expressed in personal, imaginative, and culturally diverse ways.

Looking ahead

As we move through the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, Brilliant Poetry stands as a reminder that science can inspire not only research and innovation but also art and dialogue. By inviting poets from every corner of the world to engage with quantum science, the competition has demonstrated how cultural and scientific exchange can enrich one another.

We look forward to celebrating the winners in November and continuing to explore the creative potential of science and poetry together.

Sam Illingworth is a professor at the Department of Learning & Teaching Enhancement, Edinburgh Napier University.