IBM announced Dec.14 that the company intends to engage with the University of Chicago,Keio University,the University of Tokyo,Yonsei University,and Seoul National University to work together to support quantum education activities in Japan,Korea,and the United States.IBM intends to deliver educational offerings in combination with contributions from each of the participating universities to advance the training of up to 40,000 students over the next 10 years to prepare them for the quantum workforce and promote the growth of aglobal quantum ecosystems.Quantum computing offers adifferent approach to computation which may solve problems that are intractable today.A skilled quantum workforce is critical to growing the quantum industry that will lead to economic development through leveraging quantum computing technology.Currently,people trained and skilled in quantum computing are in high demand as more higher-education and research institutions,national labs,and industries adopt quantum computing.To address the increasing demands of agrowing quantum workforce,this new partnership aims to educate new and future generations of quantum computing users.This international initiative may include materials for educators from broad disciplines of science and technology such as physics,computer science,engineering,math,life sciences and chemistry.To prepare for today’s era of quantum utility,and the coming era of quantum-centric supercomputing,the universities and IBM are focused on preparing aworkforce capable of using the latest quantum computing technologies for scientific discovery and explore industry applications that create new value in specific domains.IBM intends to participate with the universities to develop arobust quantum curriculum to teach the next generation of computational scientists,who will be able to use quantum computers as ascientific tool.All parties involved will have the resources to engage in educator training,course material development,and community-driven educational events,including mentorships,joint summer programs,exchange programs and distinguished lecture programs.“The University of Chicago was an early pioneer of the field of quantum engineering,and was the first university in the U.S.to award graduate degrees in this emerging area of technology,”said Paul Alivisatos,President of the University of Chicago.“With other partners in the Chicago region,UChicago has strived to develop avibrant ecosystem for quantum technologies that is attracting companies and investments from around the world.These developments have underscored the need for atalented workforce.The University of Chicago is excited and proud to work with our partners at IBM,and to build on its long-standing ties to Keio University,Yonsei University,Seoul National University,and The University of Tokyo,to deliver world-class educational programs that will prepare thousands of students for jobs and opportunities in quantum information sciences.”“With the recent demonstrations that quantum computers at ascale of more than 100 qubits are capable of being used as scientific tools to deliver insights reaching beyond leading classical approaches,we have an even greater need to educate today’s students to join the growing quantum workforce,”said IBM Senior Vice President and Director of Research Darío Gil.“This effort intends to provide Keio University,the University of Tokyo,Yonsei University,Seoul National University,and the University of Chicago with IBM’s latest and most advanced quantum education materials is acrucial step toward exploring useful quantum applications.”The new partnerships build upon the University of Chicago’s and the Chicago area’s strengths in quantum science and engineering.A leading global hub for research in quantum technology,Chicago is also home to one of the largest quantum networks in the country.This May,UChicago joined two global partnerships to advance quantum computing:a$100 million plan with IBM and the University of Tokyo to help develop aquantum-centric supercomputer;and a$50 million partnership with Google and the University of Tokyo to support quantum research and workforce development. 查看详细>>

Scientists with the University of Chicago have demonstrated away to create infrared light using colloidal quantum dots.The researchers said the method demonstrates great promise;the dots are already as efficient as existing conventional methods,even though the experiments are still in early stages.The dots could someday form the basis of infrared lasers as well as small and cost-effective sensors,such as those used in exhaust emissions tests or breathalyzers.“Right now the performance for these dots is close to existing commercial infrared light sources,and we have reason to believe we could significantly improve that,”said Philippe Guyot-Sionnest,a professor of physics and chemistry at the University of Chicago,member of the James Frank Institute,and one of three authors on the paper published in Nature Photonics.“We’re very excited for the possibilities.”The right wavelength Colloidal quantum dots are tiny crystals—you could fit abillion into the period at the end of this sentence—that emit different colors of light depending on how big you make them.They’re very efficient and easy to make and are already being used in commercial technology;you might already have bought aquantum-dot TV without knowing it.However,those quantum dots are being used to make light in the visible wavelength—the part of the spectrum humans can see.If you wanted quantum dot light in the infrared wavelength,you’ve mostly been out of luck.But infrared light has alot of uses.In particular,it is very useful for making sensors.If you want to know whether harmful gases are coming out of your car exhaust,or test whether your breath is above the legal alcohol limit,or make sure methane gas isn’t coming out of your drill plant,for example,you use infrared light.That’s because different types of molecules will each absorb infrared light at avery specific wavelength,so they’re easy to tell apart.“So acost-effective and easy-to-use method to make infrared light with quantum dots could be very useful,”explained Xingyu Shen,a graduate student and first author on the new study. 查看详细>>

The U.S.Department of Energy has announced the renewal of the Midwest Integrated Center for Computational Materials(known as MICCoM)for another three years at$3 million per year.Founded in 2015,the center is headquartered at Argonne National Laboratory.Partnering universities include the University of Chicago,University of Notre Dame and University of California,Davis.“The MICCoM team has been at the forefront of developing simulation methods and codes and solving cutting-edge materials science problems,”said center director Giulia Galli,a senior scientist in Argonne’s Materials Science Division and professor in the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and the Department of Chemistry at the University of Chicago.The use of theory and computation plays acentral role in the design of new materials for applications in diverse fields.The MICCoM mission is to apply theoretical methods and software to the understanding,simulation and prediction of the properties of materials at the atomic and molecular scale.To that end,MICCoM develops and disseminates ahost of interoperable computer tools.It also establishes the validity of theoretical models and codes for determining the characteristics and behavior of materials.Another part of its mission is providing searchable materials data that are reproducible with small margins of error.This is an increasingly pressing need in the age of artificial intelligence and machine learning.“In the last eight years,MICCoM has positioned itself to be asustained innovation factory for new simulation strategies to solve materials science problems,”Galli said.“We have also been providing exemplary open-source software,data and validation procedures to the scientific community.”At its founding in 2015,the Center focused on new materials for energy conversion,including nanoparticle-based solids for the conversion of sunlight into energy.Starting in 2019,MICCoM began working on the modeling and simulation of materials for quantum technologies.This strategic emphasis presents an opportunity to leverage the extraordinary behavior of nature‘s smallest scales to discover groundbreaking materials for quantum computing,sensing and communication.In the next three years,MICCoM will also emphasize energy saving by designing materials for low-power microelectronics.There is an urgent need for new computational pathways to materials and devices that will lead to more energy-efficient microelectronics.This research endeavor not only supports the U.S.leadership in microelectronics research but also could reinvigorate the semiconductor manufacturing industry. 查看详细>>

At one of the many science,technology,engineering and mathematics educational programs run by Argonne National Laboratory over the summer,attendees tackled avariety of data exercises,including investigating London’s 19th century cholera crisis.Just as doctors at the time collected and analyzed data to determine the source of the epidemic,participants discovered the problem-solving potential of data science.But unlike Argonne’s other STEM education programs,the attendees at this data workshop were not students but Chicago Public Schools high school teachers.The teachers’typical subjects ranged from computer science to math to physics,but they all wanted to find ways to bring data science to their classrooms.The three-week-long Data Science Institute for High School Teachers brought eight teachers together with staff members from Argonne,which is aU.S.Department of Energy national laboratory affiliated with the University of Chicago.They met at Hyde Park Academy High School in Chicago,where they learned about computer science,experimented hands-on with coding tools and practiced teaching data science to youth.“Working with teachers allows us to have an exponential impact on communities,”said institute lead and Argonne associate Miranda Kerr.?“By introducing teachers to data science—an essential skill for students—and helping them bring the concepts to their classrooms,we have the potential to introduce more than 800 students to data science.If these teachers continue to spark students’curiosity in data science in subsequent years,there’s ahuge potential for aripple effect of increased STEM learning.”“Making meaning from data has always been an important part of all STEM courses,so it can be easily integrated into the curriculum,”said Deysi Emeterio,who is preparing to teach AP and honors physics at Whitney Young High School.?“Data science is agrowing field widely used in various industries,including marketing,healthcare,finance,banking,policy work and more.As ateacher,I want to help my students develop the knowledge and the set of skills that opens opportunities for them in their future careers.”“I plan to take the activities and skills we were introduced to at the institute,and implement them into my AP computer science classes,”said Emmanuel Medina,a computer science teacher at Curie Metropolitan High School.?“With minor modifications,these lessons will help students develop their analytical skills,build critical thinking skills,and engage their knowledge with real world events and issues.” 查看详细>>

Physicists now have abrand-new measurement of aproperty of the muon called the anomalous magnetic moment that improves the precision of their previous result by afactor of 2.An international collaboration of scientists working on the Muon g-2 experiment at the U.S.Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory announced the much-anticipated updated measurement on Aug.10.This new value bolsters the first result they announced in April 2021,and sets up ashowdown between theory and experiment over 20 years in the making.“We’re really probing new territory.We’re determining the muon magnetic moment at abetter precision than it has ever been seen before,”said Brendan Casey,a senior scientist at Fermilab who has worked on the Muon g-2 experiment since 2008.Beyond the Standard Model Physicists describe how the universe works at its most fundamental level with atheory known as the Standard Model.By making predictions based on the Standard Model and comparing them to experimental results,physicists can discern whether the theory is complete—or if there is physics beyond the Standard Model.Muons are fundamental particles that are similar to electrons but about 200 times as massive.Like electrons,muons have atiny internal magnet that,in the presence of amagnetic field,precesses or wobbles like the axis of aspinning top.The precession speed in agiven magnetic field depends on the muon magnetic moment,typically represented by the letter g;at the simplest level,theory predicts that gshould equal 2.The difference of gfrom 2—or gminus 2—can be attributed to the muon’s interactions with particles in aquantum foam that surrounds it.These particles blink in and out of existence and,like subatomic“dance partners,”grab the muon’s“hand”and change the way the muon interacts with the magnetic field.The Standard Model incorporates all known“dance partner”particles and predicts how the quantum foam changes g.But there might be more.Physicists are excited about the possible existence of as-yet-undiscovered particles that contribute to the value of g-2—and would open the window to exploring new physics.Gordan Krnjaic,a theoretical particle physicist at Fermilab and the University of Chicago Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics,told the New York Times that if the experimental disagreement with theory persisted,it would be“the first smoking-gun laboratory evidence of new physics.And it might well be the first time that we’ve broken the Standard Model.” 查看详细>>

The installation of Aurora’s 10,624th and final?“blade”marked amajor milestone for the highly anticipated“exascale”supercomputer at Argonne National Laboratory.After years of diligent work and planning,the system now contains all the hardware that will make it one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world when it is opened up for scientific research.Built by Intel and Hewlett Packard Enterprise,Aurora will be theoretically capable of delivering more than two exaflops of computing power,or more than 2billion billion calculations per second.These supercomputers are invaluable to scientists.“Everything we know about large-scale climate comes from climate simulations on supercomputers.What we know about the human genome comes from massive data analysis on big computers.Everything that’s happening in AI right now is happening on large-scale computers,”Rick Stevens,who helped lead the effort and is aprofessor with the University of Chicago and associate director at Argonne,told Chicago Magazine.“Our ability to design reactors,our ability to come up with new batteries — all that is aresult of computing.”The Aurora team has been building the system piece by piece over the last year and ahalf,installing blades and other components as they were delivered to Argonne,which is aU.S.Department of Energy national laboratory affiliated with the University of Chicago.“We have been living and breathing the Aurora installation since the first pieces were delivered in November of 2021,”said Susan Coghlan,project director for Aurora.?“While we still have alot of work to do before we can roll the system out to scientists worldwide,it is incredibly exciting to have the final hardware in place.”Blades are backbone of system As the backbone of the system,Aurora’s blades are sleek rectangular units that house its processors,memory,networking and cooling technologies.The machine gets its computational muscle from acombination of state-of-the-art Intel CPUs(central processing units)and GPUs(graphics processing units).Each blade is equipped with two Intel Xeon CPU Max Series processors and six Intel Data Center GPU Max Series processors.With each blade weighing in at around 70 pounds,the team needed aspecialized machine to delicately install the units vertically into Aurora’s refrigerator-sized racks.Each of the system’s 166 racks contains 64 blades.The racks are spread out across eight rows,occupying the space of two professional basketball courts in the ALCF data center.Expanded space to stretch out Before the system could be installed,Argonne had to carry out some major facility upgrades.This included adding new data center space to provide enough room for the supercomputer and building mechanical rooms and equipment to provide increased power and cooling capacity.Now that the machine is fully assembled,researchers will move their work to Aurora to begin scaling their applications on the full system.For the past few months they’ve been working on the Sunspot testbed,which is atest and development system that has the exact same architecture as Aurora but only on two racks.These early users help to stress-test the supercomputer and identify potential bugs that need to be resolved ahead of its deployment.“We’re looking forward to putting Aurora through its paces to make sure everything works as intended before we turn the system over to the broader scientific community,”Coghlan said. 查看详细>>

The University of Chicago will present an honorary degree to Joseph Neubauer,former chairman of the Board of Trustees,during its Convocation ceremony on June 3.Neubauer,MBA’65,will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree,in recognition of his extraordinary service to the University.At Convocation,UChicago also will confer honorary degrees upon five renowned scholars and will honor Chancellor Emeritus and President Emeritus Robert J.Zimmer for his leadership and service to the University.During his service as Board chair from 2015 to 2022,the University concluded The University of Chicago Campaign:Inquiry and Impact,the largest and most comprehensive campaign in its history.Neubauer continues to serve the University as amember of the Board,to which he was first elected in 1992,and is aLife Member of the Chicago Booth Council.Neubauer is the retired CEO and board chairman of Aramark,which under his leadership,grew into a$13 billion global services provider.Neubauer began his career at Chase Manhattan Bank,where at age 27,he became the youngest vice president its history.He went on to hold several senior positions with PepsiCo,Inc.before joining Aramark.He currently manages his family office,Next Egg Group.An active alum since his graduation from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business(now Chicago Booth),Neubauer’s involvement with the University is characterized by many years of distinguished service and philanthropic commitment.He and his wife,Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer,were awarded the University of Chicago Medal in 2013,which recognizes rare and distinguished service to the University.Together they support many areas of the University,including the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society,the Neubauer Family Assistant Professors Program,an endowed professorship at the Booth School of Business,the Adelante Scholars Program and the Booth Civic Scholars program. 查看详细>>

Three University of Chicago undergraduate students have received Barry Goldwater Scholarships,awarded annually based on academic merit and undergraduate research in the natural sciences,mathematics and engineering.Cameron Chang,Steven Labalme and Umar Siddiqi are among the 417 U.S.college students to be selected for this award out of apool of over 5,000 applicants.Considered the preeminent undergraduate award of its kind,the scholarship covers the cost of tuition,fees,books,and room and board up to$7,500 per year.It also helps STEM students fund their research during their final years of undergraduate study.As third-year students in the College,Chang,Labalme and Siddiqi were supported throughout their Goldwater application process by the College Center for Research and Fellowships as well as by the UChicago Goldwater faculty nomination committee.CCRF supports undergraduates and recent College alumni through highly competitive national and international fellowships.“The College’s commitment to funding undergraduate research through programs like the Quad Undergraduate Research Scholars program and Dean’s Fund for Research-Conference Travel,helps talented students to compete successfully for major scholarships like Goldwater,”said Dr.Nichole Fazio,associate dean of undergraduate research and scholars programs,and executive director of CCRF.Cameron Chang was undecided about his studies as afirst-year student.He originally thought he would double major in physics and art history.But math classes with Professors John Boller and Alexander Razborov completely changed his mind and reminded him of the joy he felt solving problems and understanding things on adeeper level.“I am confident Imade the right choice,”he said.“While to an outsider mathematics may seem like arigid science with arbitrary rules and regulations,to those who study it,it is an art.I love the potential for boundless creativity—there are many different ways to prove something,and often new proofs come with increased intuition as to why something is the way it is.”The third-year from Orlando,Fla.,now aims to pursue aPh.D.in either combinatorics or algebra,with the eventual goal of becoming aprofessor in mathematics.He hasn’t decided between the two but is interested in both of them as they pertain to structures,both finite and abstract.“Combinatorics studies finite structures,and Iwas first drawn to it when Idiscovered the surprising complexity of the finite world.The notion of finding structure in randomness is incredibly beautiful to me,”Chang said.“On the other hand,my interest in algebra arose from learning about the beautiful applications and connections that its abstract point of view unearths.”At UChicago,Chang has found awelcoming community with astrong affinity for mathematics,which he said is rare.This has made it easier for him to become excited about material he’s learning.“When Ican share the joy of the things I’ve just learned with others,it’s areally great experience for me,”he said.Chang said he is grateful for the financial support offered by the Goldwater scholarship,which will help supplement his tuition and help him purchase costly textbooks.“It definitely makes me want to continue working harder and delve deeper into the topics Iam researching,as well as learn more math and expand my horizons,”he said.“It’s asuper motivating factor,for sure.” 查看详细>>

At first glance,you may see aserene lake at sunset or delicate petals on awinter-blooming tree.But look closer at UChicago professor of chemistry Bozhi Tian’s artwork and you might notice these images don’t quite capture the world as it is.They meld scenes of nature with hints of technology,much as his research merges biological and synthetic systems.A materials scientist who works with semiconductors for biomedical applications,Tian designs devices to stimulate or modulate parts of the anatomy,such as the heart and neurons.One project his lab has been working on for almost eight years is asolar powered pacemaker.The team is also exploring technology to influence microbes,including an edible material that could modulate the gut microbiome,potentially helping to treat gastrointestinal ailments like inflammatory bowel disease.Tian’s research is inspired by the natural world:its shapes and textures and patterns.And that influence suffuses his artwork,often created in conjunction with his science:a riverscape with ananowire forest,a neural cell framed as asnowcapped mountain.These are created digitally,but Tian has been painting and drawing since childhood.Encouraged by his father,Tian started practicing calligraphy when he was 3.He branched out to painting at 6and started experimenting with design software at 15 or 16,when his father bought him his first computer.(Around that time,he was falling in love with chemistry and devoting more attention to science.)He still enjoys making analog art but finds it time-consuming.At Shanghai’s Fudan University,where Tian earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemistry,his devotion to art and to science began to coalesce.He joined aresearch lab that designed and synthesized porous materials—orderly and geometrically structured with nanoscale pore size.Such structures exist in nature but not at the same scale,Tian says.The 2D and 3D arrangements fascinated him.“It’s essentially an art piece,”he thought.Both scientists and artists must be innovative and imaginative,says Tian,inspired in how they re-create their vision of the world.This multidimensional creativity is particularly evident in one of his lab’s new research directions,what he calls“synthetic reality.”The team is focusing on designing tissue-like materials,but not in the traditional tissue engineering sense(such as growing artificial organs or materials for direct medical use).“We’re thinking more broadly,”he says.Imagine incorporating organic tissue into your surroundings—an idea that struck Tian on arecent visit to the intensive care unit of Comer Children’s Hospital to meet with acollaborator.There it occurred to him that premature babies have physical and emotional needs that would have been met by their mothers’bodies,but they are treated inside what is basically abatting-lined box.Perhaps the team could create an environment like awomb.“We don’t really need reality,as long as it feels like reality,”he says.“That should be enough.”Likewise,some stringed instruments traditionally use gut string,made from animal intestines,which produces awarmer sound than steel.But asynthetic gut-like tissue might produce an equally beautiful tone.Reality:inspired by nature but made in alab.Tian believes that combining science and design is good business—it sells innovation through communication.“It helps motivate people,”he says,“bringing us together through storytelling.”But he admits that creating art is also asort of compromise.He finds illustration relaxing but sometimes feels guilty for neglecting his research.This way,he doesn’t have to choose. 查看详细>>

Sending an atomic clock onboard aspacecraft to fly close to the sun might be the trick to uncovering the nature of dark matter,suggests anew study published in Nature Astronomy.Dark matter makes up more than 80%of the mass in the universe,which we know because we can see its effects on galaxies and stars—but so far,no one has been able to directly detect it,despite decades of experimental efforts.A group of scientists has proposed anew way to look for this mysterious dark matter,using the technology known as atomic clocks.Atomic clocks,which tell time by measuring the rapid oscillations of atoms,are already at work in space,enabling the Global Positioning System(GPS).These clocks are so precise that they will not lose even asecond of time in billions of years.This caught the attention of researchers,who thought they might be able to use this unique precision to detect dark matter."This is abeautiful synergy between particle theorists and aquantum expert,and we have been in contact with NASA solar probe researchers to realize this proposal,"said lead author Yu-Dai Tsai."There are many new exciting directions in the intersection of all these fields."The study,published Dec.5,was led by Tsai,who initiated the project at the University of Chicago and Fermilab and is now apostdoctoral researcher at the University of California,Irvine,along with collaborators University of Delaware physicist Marianna Safronova and Joshua Eby of the University of Tokyo and the Kavli Institute for the Physics and the Mathematics of the Universe.Constants of nature“Dark matter is one of the most important remaining mysteries in astronomy and cosmology,given its unknown and elusive nature,”explained Tsai.“If we could find dark matter and understand its properties,we can understand the evolution of our universe.”But because scientists are not even sure exactly what dark matter is and how it behaves,it’s been difficult to even design ways to find it.Consequently,scientists have come up with many theories of what dark matter could look like.One such theory is known as“ultralight”dark matter.If this ultralight dark matter exists the way the theory predicts it does,it should cause oscillations in the very constants of nature—such as in the mass of electrons or the strength of the electromagnetic force.This caught the attention of the scientists.They knew that atomic clocks use these constants of nature to operate—so any change in these constants of nature should show up in the functioning of the atomic clock.Specifically,atomic clocks—sometimes known as quantum clocks—operate by carefully measuring the frequency of photons emitted in transitions of different states in atoms.Ultralight dark matter in the vicinity of the clock experiment could modify those frequencies,as the oscillations of the dark matter slightly increase and decrease the photon energy.That would change how the clock ticks.To have the best chance of working,the scientists said,the clocks should be positioned close to the sun,where theory predicts that the dark matter should clump in ahalo.The technology to put their theory to the test already exists,the scientists said.The NASA Parker Solar Probe,operating since 2018,is the closest artificial spacecraft to the sun in human history.“The Parker Solar Probe is not returning to Earth,but the next-generation solar probes can carry aprecise quantum clock on board,”said Tsai.“Such aspace mission would have the ability to carry out our proposed study.”The Parker Solar Probe is named after the late great physicist at the University of Chicago,Prof.Eugene Parker,who has made significant contributions to solar physics."I was an associate fellow at the University of Chicago when we initiated the project,and Parker‘s pursuit inspired us on this project,”Tsai said."There are so many more exciting topics to explore,"Tsai continued."Beyond this work,space missions can also provide data for planetary defense.In our related works,we also utilize these data to study questions such as local dark matter density and the possibility of afifth force of nature beyond the Standard Model of Physics.Quantum sensors,including atomic clocks,can improve the precision of these measurements and provide us with stronger tests for fundamental physics." 查看详细>>