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Meet our faculty
Dave Wineland (NIST)
The faculty who started DQC share a long history of collaboration. In 1995, National Institute of Standards and Technology physicists Christopher Monroe and David Wineland led the demonstration of the first ever quantum logic gate, using trapped atomic ions as qubits (Wineland received the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics partly based on this work). A few years later, this work caught the attention of Bell Labs physicist-engineers Jungsang Kim and Richart Slusher.
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In 2004, when Kim joined Duke’s Electrical and Computer Engineering department, he proposed a semiconductor chip and optical systems approach to ion trapping, creating Duke’s first quantum information lab. Shortly after that, Kim and Monroe (then at the University of Maryland), started a collaboration that continues to this day.
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(Bell Labs)
Robert Calderbank, renowned for his development of the wireless error-correcting codes we use on our cell phones, is also known for his co-invention of quantum error-correcting codes when he was at Bell Labs in the 1980s-90s. Calderbank joined Duke’s Computer Science, Mathematics, and Electrical and Computer Engineering departments in 2010. Around the same time, Ken Brown, then at Georgia Tech (along with Slusher), was pioneering quantum control and error correction approaches specifically for trapped ion architectures.
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(Georgia Tech)
In 2010, following Monroe’s work on photonic interconnections at Michigan and Maryland, Brown, Kim, and Monroe developed a forward-looking and unique approach to a quantum computer architecture. They joined forces in large IARPA programs, MUSIQC and EURIQA, with a vision to develop a practical, scalable quantum computer. The trio has attracted over $170 million in government contracts since 2007, and in 2016 Kim and Monroe launched IonQ, a company bringing their tech to market.
In 2018, Brown joined the Duke faculty alongside theoretical physicist Iman Marvian, an expert in quantum information theory and quantum thermodynamics. Brown is also the Director of the NSF-funded STAQ program (Software-Tailored Architectures for Quantum co-design), a seven-site consortium of quantum theorists and experimentalists, including Monroe and Kim.
The same year, Monroe spearheaded efforts in Washington D.C. to launch the U.S. National Quantum Initiative, authorizing funding of more than $1.2 billion for focused research and development goals in quantum technology. The initiative is also coordinating quantum efforts in the Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, along with coordination from the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community.
In 2020, all of these experts joined together at DQC, and launched the laboratory facility in 2021. Since that time, DQC has grown to include experts in quantum simulation, algorithms, sensing, education, and more.