Kavli Invited Talk: Translating scientific discoveries to society through industrial partnerships

Quantum science has the potential to enable transformative innovations across a wide range of industries, from medicine and materials to finance and security. But how do we translate rapidly emerging scientific discoveries into impactful technologies? A promising approach centers on building industrial partnerships before research leaves the lab and leveraging industry-standard materials and processes to address fundamental challenges in quantum information science. This talk will highlight examples of symbiosis between industrial development and scientific discovery in areas from quantum sensing to networking. We will first describe the development of an electronic spin qubit based on a fluorescent protein expressed in living cells [1]. In this case, addressing a coherent spin state within a mature bioimaging platform has attracted attention from pharmaceutical and medical imaging communities motivated by applications in disease detection and targeted drug delivery. We will then describe the development of optically addressable spin qubits that operate at the same frequencies as existing telecommunications networks [2] or are integrated in classical semiconductor electronic devices to enable in situ modification of quantum properties [3] and increase spin coherence. Whether working toward applications in biosensing or scalable quantum networks, compatibility and collaboration with industrial approaches can enable identification of both practical barriers and solutions to advancing quantum science and technology [4]. From exploring whether manufacturing methods or supply capacities exist to ramp up production of an innovation to determining future workforce requirements, industrial development and academic research are not siloed projects, nor should they be. By leveraging complementary strengths, we can accelerate our ability to move scientific discoveries to society.