University Senate unanimously approves new quantum science master's program

Upper West Side NY

09 March, 2022

5:49 PM

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Columbia Daily Spectator BY LOUGHLIN BROWNE MARCH 8, 2022 Columbia's University Senate unanimously approved a new quantum science and technology master's program administered by the School of Engineering and Applied Science during its meeting on March 4. The joint venture between SEAS and Arts and Sciences, spearheaded by Columbia's Quantum Initiative, is one of the first of its kind in the nation and will prepare students with both foundational education and experimental research. The program will feature tracks in both physics and engineering and will include 30 points over three or four semesters. The decision was encouraged by explorations into the demand for students trained in the field of quantum mechanics that found there was "tremendous interest" from the technology industry. Quantum mechanics involves studying the mathematics of subatomic particle interactions that include quantized energy, wave-particle duality, and the uncertainty principle. Physics Department Chair Dmitri Basov said that the new program builds off of the principles expressed by quantum mechanics almost 100 years ago and applies them to the creation of quantum devices. "We are sort of in quantum revolution 2.0 now with quantum devices just at the horizon," Basov said. "Columbia has played a key role in quantum revolution one, including the discovery of laser principle and magnetic resonance physics behind magnetic resonance imaging … and we certainly want to lead the way in quantum revolution two." The new program will focus on the development of new technological devices through "conceptual breakthroughs in the application" of quantum science. Basov noted that the "most interesting" devices "are those you and I cannot imagine at the moment." However, real-world applications in communications, calculations, simulation abilities, and precise measurement are also currently being pursued. Alexander Gaeta, a professor of applied physics and materials science and a professor of electrical engineering, explained that quantum cryptography, for example, is a field in its "infancy" that is "encoding secure keys" and protects against decrypting. The interactions and reactions of atoms and molecules, as "quantum mechanical things," could be modeled "if, say, you wanted to develop new drugs." Quantum uncertainties in precision and momentum could be "squeez[ed], so that you can make a very accurate measurement, of course at the expense of the other domain." "There are very large-scale problems [that] would take the age of the universe to solve with a classical computer … [which], using quantum mechanical principles, you can solve in a finite amount of time," Gaeta said. The new program is a response to increasing demand in the field of quantum technology. At the University Senate meeting, education committee co-chair James Applegate said that companies are eager to hire scientists with expertise in this developing field. Members of the Quantum Initiative have had conversations with household-name technology companies who have supported the program's development. "There is a huge demand for quantum cadres … for qualified personnel who can make it work. So, there is interest from companies with household names like Google and IBM, and there is interest from companies that you have never heard about because they're right now in the form of a startup of one or two persons but they're the future Googles," Basov said. "To say that it's a research frontier is not an overstatement … and we are excited to be training students who are proficient with the state of the art of what's coming out from the labs as opposed to just some long ago created knowledge." Staff writer Loughlin Browne can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow Spectator on Twitter @ColumbiaSpec. Founded in 1877, the Columbia Daily Spectator is the independent undergraduate newspaper of Columbia University, serving thousands of readers in Morningside Heights, West Harlem, and beyond. Read more at columbiaspectator.com and donate here.