Charles Black Leads C2QA Research on Scalable Quantum Computing

Insider Brief

• Charles Black, director of Brookhaven National Laboratory’s Co-design Center for Quantum Advantage (C2QA), is applying decades of materials science and semiconductor research to quantum computing.
• C2QA researchers are investigating superconducting materials, including tantalum, to improve qubit performance and develop quantum hardware compatible with scalable manufacturing.
• Black’s work at C2QA builds on research at Brookhaven’s Center for Functional Nanomaterials and IBM focused on nanoscale materials, semiconductor devices, and manufacturing.

PRESS RELEASE — When Charles (Chuck) Black was a doctoral student at Harvard University, he, like many other physicists, used superconducting materials as vehicles for exploring fundamental physics questions. The materials — which can conduct electricity without losing energy when cooled to very cold temperatures — had niche technology applications at the time. But Black never expected to work with them again after earning his degree.

Now, 30 years later, superconductors have emerged as a leading platform for quantum computing — and Black leads a national research center that is using them to help build practical quantum computers.