My scientific journey as a quantum scientist may have begun at birth in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, nurtured by a biophysicist mother and black hole physicist father, who had come from India to America as a haven for scholarly pursuit.
They returned to their homeland, where I spent a happy childhood. I was able to return to the United States for a liberal arts and science education at Cornell University, thanks to one of many federal grants that is now on the line.
The allure of quantum physics led me to earn my PhD at University of California- Santa Barbara, and then joyfully settled me in my current home in Illinois as a practicing faculty member at University of Illinois for two decades, running my own research group.
Who cares about quantum mechanics? I do, along with hundreds of thousands of others across the globe. And its future in this country is at a crucial juncture.
This year, the proclaimed International Year of Quantum Science and Technology by the United Nations, involves worldwide celebration across the globe, from classrooms to public spaces to conferences to festivals and the recent World Quantum Day , which was established in 2021.
In a grand, exquisitely-lit auditorium 20 minutes by foot from the Eiffel Tower in Paris, a gathering of researchers, educators, youth, Nobel laureates, and diplomats earlier this year exalted over quantum wonders. The opening ceremony, hosted at the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) headquarters, sent a soulful message of global cooperation and peace.
Returning to the United States from the Paris opening ceremony, I was riding on a high as a member of its steering committee and also apprehensive about safeguarding my passport in light of new immigration policies—as a U.S. citizen of South Asian heritage.
Around 15,000 recently attended The American Physical Society’s Global Physics Summit in Anaheim, Calif., the largest gathering of physicists ever. Attendees witnessed major quantum-based discoveries, such as new states of matter in nanomaterials and insights into dark energy, some that could alter the perception of the universe and others that will take quantum technologies to new heights.
As always, hundreds of sessions formed an extravaganza of fundamental and applied quantum science on topics ranging from atomic clocks to magnetic activity in the brain to quantum sensors in space. “QuantumFest” brought the enchantment of quantum mechanics through live action, performance, and even circus embodiment.
I am one of tens of thousands of quantum pilgrims sojourning geographic and conceptual landscapes across the decades here in America. In these groups, young researchers work with established scientists, and collaborators from many different countries and continents. The unique voices and richness of perspectives, and their beautiful synergy, form our core and are essential for science and society.
The century-old quantum revolution radically altered how humans understand light, matter, and the universe. Quantum mechanics– one of the strangest descriptions of nature– seeps into nearly every part of human existence.
America has played a shining role in this quantum saga. In 2018, the U.S. National Quantum Initiative , which received enthusiastic bipartisan support, seemingly sealed our continued leadership.
At the APS Global Physics Summit, I gave a brief welcome at the opening reception and a deep love for the community overcame me, but also an aching for how new U.S. governmental policies were hacking away at its foundation. Attacks against higher education and its freedom, cuts to research funding, and aggressive visa and immigration policies are dismantling scientific progress and whole communities.
While the population of attendees had grown, many colleagues were absent due to travel restrictions and safety concerns. Yet, the scientists who attended were drawn together in their united explorations, each with their own journeys.
Many have sought refuge in this country as immigrants from horrifically adverse conditions. The backdrop of World War II and its bloodbath formed a severe instance. Quantum legends, such as Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi, Hans Bethe, and Walter Kohn fled European dictatorship and made America their home. I would encounter Bethe and Kohn during my student days and I deeply admire how they conducted their practice and lives with profundity and grace.
Developments in quantum mechanics during the war led to harnessing nuclear energy, not only for the greater good but also to create the most destructive of weapons. In a complex global race, the United States produced the first atomic weapon through the Manhattan project which employed over 130,000 people. Dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan laid bare horror and devastation beyond hitherto imagined. The pall of nuclear arms continues to heavily surround the globe.
The quantum revolution was seeded in the early 1900s by Max Planck in Germany when he postulated that light radiated in bundles, energy quanta, to explain the universal radiation pattern emerging from stars, heated metal, and even each of us. Soon after, surges of creative ideas and rapid developments proliferated through scientific and engineering circles worldwide, shaping societies across generations.
Light, conceived as particle-like, brought the photoelectric effect to focus, which fuels current solar panels and spacecraft wings. Electrons conceived as waves gave rise to the modern picture of atoms and elements taught in high school chemistry.
Understanding communities of quantum particles led to semiconductor technology present in all our current electronic devices and to lasers, which underlie barcode readers and light sabers of “Star Wars” fame.
Today, enchanting states of matter—superconductors, magnets, and more–not only form the basis of MRI machines and photodetectors, they are the building blocks of quantum communication and quantum computation, two frontrunners of an on-going second quantum revolution.
There is no single path guiding a moral compass. But one thing is clear, as exemplified by this year’s quantum celebration: the more informed the public, the better equipped all are for the present and future.
I will never lose faith in humanity and the ability to find the radiance that unites us. Contemplating life beyond this speck of space and time, many have more than faith when they glean how light and matter come together in the cosmos and on Earth, making individuals who they are, resonating with peace.