Governor's Chair Professor
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) are searching for a highly accomplished researcher and educator to join the UTC quantum program as a Governor’s Chair Professor in Quantum Information Science and Engineering (QISE) with a joint appointment at ORNL.
Established in 2006 and funded by the state of Tennessee and ORNL, the prestigious Governor’s Chair program, managed by the UT-Oak Ridge Innovation Institute, attracts scientific luminaries to broaden and enhance the research partnership that exists between the UT system and ORNL, the nation’s largest multiprogram science laboratory, managed by UT-Battelle LLC for the US Department of Energy.
Governor’s Chair in Quantum Information Science and Engineering
The UTC Governor’s Chair in Quantum Information Science and Engineering (QISE) will have a joint appointment with the ORNL Computational Sciences and Engineering Division. Within that division is the Quantum Information Science Section, focused on foundational quantum theory and experimentation in quantum computing, quantum networking and quantum sensing. The section applies its expertise to address national priorities in energy, security and scientific discovery.
The UTC Governor’s Chair will focus on cutting- edge R&D and on expanding the collaboration in QISE among ORNL, UTC and the rapidly emerging quantum techno-economic ecosystem in Chattanooga. That includes the Chattanooga Quantum Collaborative (CQC), established in 2024 to support team efforts to leverage quantum assets and mobilize partnerships for the benefit of the region, its communities and businesses.
UTC is an integral part of CQC and has been making significant investments to create capacity to perform use-inspired R&D in QISE and to offer QISE educational programs at all levels. The new Governor’s Chair will have the opportunity to actively engage in governance and programming of CQC efforts and in collaborations to advance the Chattanooga quantum ecosystem. Relationships between ORNL, CQC and other entities in the Chattanooga ecosystem that developed to advance and demonstrate the value of this emerging technology are widely recognized and poised for growing impact.
The Quantum Program at UTC
In 2022, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga launched an initiative to establish a QISE program of excellence with a strong focus on education and workforce development, and on use cases of QISE in urban systems and energy systems. This includes innovations in cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, mobility and transportation, safe and resilient energy supply; and related applications.
In 2023, when UTC connected to the EPB Quantum Network powered by Qubitekk via a node within a quantum technology laboratory on campus, it became the first American university to host a permanent connection to a commercially available quantum network.
EPB is Chattanooga’s city-owned electric utility and communications company, and Qubitekk Inc. is a supplier of products for generating, preparing, distributing, detecting, correlating and storing photonic qubits. The two companies developed the fiber optic network with quantum devices to generate, distribute, preserve and measure photonic quantum states between nodes on the network, a proving ground for new quantum solutions.
UTC entered into a 10-year partnership agreement with EPB in 2023. The initiative led to establishing the UTC Quantum Center with equipment to advance distributed quantum sensing, access to quantum computing cloud environments; integration of experiential learning in QISE, and to work with Chattanooga-area agencies to develop quantum talent and workforce including with outreach to underserved and rural communities.
The UTC Quantum Center has activities in four main areas that are managed to ensure that the enterprise is well-connected in the community and sustainable:
- Infrastructure
- Education
- Use-case driven research and development (R&D)
- Business Development (BD)
Staffing
UTC has recruited an early-career faculty member in QISE specializing in quantum sensing. An AMO theoretical physicist pursuing R&D in quantum computing joins UTC in fthe Fall 2024 to lead the Quantum Center. Recruiting for two research faculty positions, and three3 post-doctoral positions is underway.
Seven faculty members in four departments (Mathematics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Chemistry and Physics) are participating in the QISE R&D and curriculum development.
Resources and Facilities
The UTC Quantum Center is supported by a community project funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) through the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST). A Memorandum of Understanding between UTC and ORNL regarding collaborative activities in QISE was signed in June 2024. Lab space for Quantum Networking and Communications is in the UTC Multi-Disciplinary Research Building (MDRB). The MDRB includes faculty offices, student cubicles, a 1,500-square foot computer room, a conference/meeting room accommodating 25 people, an 80-seat auditorium; and two secure expandable suites of rooms dedicated to proprietary research, including ITAR-compliant space.
The Quantum Networking and Communications lab provides access to the quantum network deployed by EPB1. Optimized for the C-band (1530–1570 nm) and being reconfigurable, this network provides a perfect testbed for implementations of quantum communications, distributed quantum computing and quantum sensing on a commercial metro-scale fiber-optic infrastructure.
The 10-year agreement between UTC and EPB allows for scheduling access to all equipment on the network. The equipment in the lab at UTC includes, among other resources, entangled photon pair sources, and an 8-channel superconducting nano-wire single photon detector (SNSPD). Technical support by Qubitekk and EPB is available on-demand 24/7.
Lab space designated for UTC Quantum Sensing research is in Grote Hall on campus. Grote is a recently renovated education and research complex that houses 28 laboratories. It is equipped with an advanced temperature and humidity control system and has excellent vibration and ambient light isolation design for quantum sensing experiments.
It supports research using discrete-variable (DV) and continuous-variable (CV) paradigms in free space, complementing the DV capability we have in the Quantum Networking and Communications lab in fiber-optic. Work is planned to expand the lab to include CV paradigm in fiber-optic by building a single-mode squeezed state (SMST) light source at 1570 nm, the wavelength used by the EPB quantum network.
Integrating the SMST light source into the network infrastructure will enable quantum sensing experiments in both CV and DV paradigms in free space and fiber optic, which will significantly enhance R&D and educational capacity.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory QISE
The Quantum Information Science Section within the ORNL Computational Science and Engineering Division is focused on foundational quantum theory and experiment in the areas of quantum computing, quantum networking,g and quantum sensing. The section addresses national priorities in energy, security and scientific discovery and is comprised of three groups which combine theory, simulation and experiment.
The section is working to develop platforms that utilize continuous variable (CV, for example, encoding in a continuum such as position and momentum) as well as discrete variables (DV, for example, the most widely studied two-level system, a qubit). Specific quantum computing platforms include CV cluster states generated by warm rubidium vapor four wave mixing, DV linear optics in discretized frequency (in optical fiber as well as integrated photonic circuits) and trapped ions.
In addition to in-house developed platforms, ORNL has world-leading expertise at developing algorithms for science and at getting the most out of noisy intermediate- scale quantum information processing platforms available through the Quantum Computing User Program, to make proof-of-principle demonstrations of quantum computing functionality of interest to the U.S. DOE’s Office of Science. These are critical steppingstones to eventually developing large-scale integration of quantum computing with more traditional high-performance computing, in which ORNL is a world leader.
ORNL has further developed several leading platforms for generating squeezed light to realize quantum sensors which routinely surpass the shot noise limit. ORNL also is a leader in developing CV-quantum key distribution (QKD) and showing that QKD can be used in critical infrastructure in partnership with EPB, among other locations.
Finally, ORNL is home to one of the largest dark fiber testbeds in the world, (more than 200 km in deployed 15-km increments) to develop substantially all the critical pieces of quantum repeaters, including solid-state doped quantum memory, hybrid CV/DC quantum repeater research, and linear optical frequency processing at telecommunications wavelengths to enable the eventual quantum internet.
The QIS currently has 36 full-time staff and postdocs. It is anticipated that the section will move into new lab space at ORNL that will bring its total experimental space to approximately 10,000 square feet, much of which will be low-vibration and low-electromagnetic interference space.
Chattanooga
Chattanooga is widely recognized as one of the most innovative U.S. cities and is among the first American cities to be officially recognized by US Ignite as a Smart Gigabit Community. This designation indicates a commitment by the community to leverage advanced science, mathematics, engineering, computing, and networking technologies to improve city processes and the quality of life for all citizens.
Chattanooga’s ongoing dedication to advancing technology has attracted dozens of startups to join well-established companies already in Chattanooga, such as Volkswagen, Amazon, Novonix, Unum, McKee Foods, U.S. Xpress, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Coca-Cola Bottling Company United.
Economic development includes successful innovation in areas such as advanced manufacturing, resilient and secure electric grid, decarbonizing transportation and mobility, and healthcare.
UTC plays a significant role in these efforts through R&D, entrepreneurship, workforce development and through growing the number of public-private partnerships.
For further information or guidance on applying, please email [email protected].