Princeton to lead major federally-funded institute to unlock quantum computing challenges

The U.S. National Science Foundation announced today that Princeton University will lead one of eight major initiatives to accelerate the development of quantum computing.

The Princeton-led Quantum Leap Challenge Institute will devise techniques for fabricating hardware and develop education and workforce training programs that deepen U.S. leadership in quantum science and engineering. The research institute will gather experts from wide-ranging fields to break a single, critical bottleneck — the manufacture of core components for quantum processors.

“The whole community has been using essentially the same materials technology for about a quarter century,” said Nathalie de Leon, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Princeton and co-director of the Princeton Quantum Initiative, who will direct the new institute. That technology has worked well for experimental prototypes and small-scale systems. But to build quantum computers at a scientifically useful scale, she said, the most basic elements must be reinvented.

The Princeton-led institute will receive $27.9 million in NSF funding over five years, according to the agency. The research team harnesses expertise from three broad disciplines — materials science, quantum devices and semiconductor processing — spanning two dozen laboratories across nine research institutions.