President Biden Announces Members of the National Quantum Initiative Advisory Committee

The following news release was originally issued by the The National Quantum Coordination Office. IBM's Mark Ritter is the Chairman for XCITe (cross-cutting integration team) and Vice Chair of the Steering Committee for the Brookhaven Lab-led Co-design Center for Quantum Advantage (C2QA). Robert Schoelkopf, from Yale University, leads C2QA’s Devices Thrust, and William Oliver, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is a C2QA scientist who specializes in superconducting qubits and their use in small scale quantum processors. C2QA is one of five U.S. Department of Energy National Quantum Information Science Research Centers (NQISRCs) established in support of the National Quantum Initiative. For more information on Brookhaven’s involvement, contact Denise Yazak (Dyazak@bnl.gov, 631-344-6371).

December 9, 2022—Today, in a Whitehouse.gov Statement, President Biden advanced the National Quantum Initiative by appointing fifteen experts in quantum information science to the National Quantum Initiative Advisory Committee (NQIAC):

  • Dr. Kathryn Ann Moler, Co-Chair
  • Dr. Charles G. Tahan, Co-Chair
  • Dr. Jamil Abo-Shaeer, Member
  • Dr. Fred Chong, Member
  • Dr. James S. Clarke, Member
  • Dr. Deborah Ann Frincke, Member
  • Gilbert V. Herrera, Member
  • Dr. Nadya Mason, Member
  • Dr. William D. Oliver, Member
  • Dr. John Preskill, Member
  • Dr. Mark B. Ritter, Member
  • Dr. Robert J. Schoelkopf, Member
  • Dr. Krysta M. Svore, Member
  • Dr. Jun Ye, Member
  • Dr. Jinliu Wang, Member

The National Quantum Initiative is a whole-of-government program to ensure continued U.S. leadership in quantum information science, which includes potentially revolutionary technologies such as quantum computers, quantum networks, and quantum sensors, which are expected to exceed classical capabilities. The Biden-Harris Administration has identified quantum information science as a critical and emerging technology. For example, at the signing of the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, President Biden highlighted quantum computing, saying that “increased research and development funding is going to ensure the United States leads the world in the industries of the future — from quantum computing, to artificial intelligence, to advanced biotechnology.”

The NQIAC was legislated by the National Quantum Initiative Act to “advise the President […] as well as make recommendations for the President to consider when reviewing and revising the [National Quantum Initiative] Program.” President Biden enhanced the NQIAC through a May 2022 Executive Order, which elevated the committee to a presidential advisory committee, highlighting that the National Quantum Initiative is a whole-of-government effort that rises above any one Federal agency.

The diverse backgrounds and expertise of the members of the NQIAC ensure that it is well-suited to advise the President on “quantum information science and technology research, development, demonstrations, standards, education, technology transfer, commercial application, and national security and economic concerns,” as stated in the National Quantum Initiative Act, as well as to represent the needs of “industry, universities, and Federal laboratories.”

More information about the advisory committee is available on the official NQIAC webpage at https://www.quantum.gov/about/nqiac/, and the page includes information about the first meeting of the advisory committee on December 16, 2022.

Brookhaven National Laboratory is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit science.energy.gov.

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