News from NSF QuBBE
In the news... 10/2/2026
The Chicago Tribune highlights our quantum workforce training efforts with a front page article .
Falling Walls Breakthrough of the Year 9/9/2026
Congratulations to David Awschalom on winning the Falling Walls Science Breakthrough of the Year in Physical Sciences for his work turning molecules and proteins into qubits, including the fluorescent-protein spin qubit developed with Peter Maurer.
Award 8/31/2026
Laura Gagliardi has been awarded the 2027 ACS Henry H. Storch Award in Energy Chemistry.
In the news... 8/26/2026
The NSF QuBBE renewal was featured in The Quantum Insider, HPCwire, and Quantum Computing Report.
NSF QuBBE Renewed! 8/25/2026
The U.S. National Science Foundation has renewed NSF QuBBE with a $37.5 million, five-year investment (September 1, 2026 - August 31, 2031) to advance quantum sensing from proof-of-principle measurements toward robust tools for biology and medicine. Read the NSF announcement and the UChicago News story.
NSF CAREER Award 8/12/2026
Congratulations to Josh Weinstein on receiving an NSF CAREER award to study how tissues organize in three dimensions.
NSF CAREER Award 8/10/2026
Congratulations to Peter Maurer on receiving an NSF CAREER award to bring biological qubits to the single-molecule realm by tackling photobleaching and readout fidelity.
Paper Published 8/3/2026
Peter Maurer and Aaron Esser-Kahn have published new work in Advanced Materials showing that shifts in nanodiamond qubit resonances, long attributed to heat from cellular activity, instead arise from a surface charge effect - opening a new route to taking a cell's vital signs. Read the PME story.
Paper Published 7/30/2026
Giulia Galli and collaborators have published new open-source software that predicts energy transfer between spin defects in solids.
Eni Award 7/13/2026
Laura Gagliardi has been named the recipient of the 2026 Eni Award for Energy Frontiers.
Paper Published 7/13/2026
Laura Gagliardi's group, working with IBM, has published a hybrid classical-quantum workflow that uses quantum hardware alongside classical multireference methods to reveal molecular ground states.
Quantum Horizons Conference 6/29/2026
Allison Squires and Peter Maurer present NSF QuBBE quantum sensing research at Quantum Horizons, a UChicago PME and Argonne conference that drew 265 attendees from 118 institutions to Chicago.
In the news... 6/25/2026
Valerie Goss and Chicago State University's quantum workforce programs are highlighted by the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park's Quantum on Campus series, including CSU's first quantum certificate recipient, who went on to Pfizer.
Paper Published 6/24/2026
Bozhi Tian's lab has published an artificial 'leaf' in Nature Photonics that harvests light to power a wireless biomedical device.
Quantum Academy 6/22/2026
Chicago Public Schools teachers begin the six-week NSF QuBBE Quantum Academy, led by Minjung Ryu, pairing hands-on research in UChicago labs with development of quantum science curriculum modules for their high school classrooms.
CQuEST Launch 6/10/2026
Chicago State University launches CQuEST, its Quantum Education, Science and Technology Center directed by Valerie Goss, uniting CSU's quantum research, credentials, and workforce programs. The center follows IBHE approval in December 2025 of CSU's Quantum Information Science and Engineering minor and certificate, the first quantum credentials at an Illinois public university.
CNRS Fellow-Ambassador 6/4/2026
Giulia Galli has been appointed to the fourth cohort of CNRS Fellow-Ambassadors.
Big Brains Podcast 5/28/2026
David Awschalom joins a Big Brains live event on quantum technology and Chicago's role in the quantum ecosystem.
CZI BioHub Chicago 5/19/2026
Josh Weinstein receives a Biohub grant to explore how DNA can serve as an information-bearing medium for studying molecular activity in living tissue.
Schrödinger Medal 5/5/2026
Laura Gagliardi has been named the 2026 Schrödinger Medalist by WATOC, marking the centenary of the Schrödinger equation.
Paper Published 5/1/2026
David Mazziotti and Greg Engel have published in Physical Review Research entanglement witnesses of condensation for enhanced quantum sensing showing how condensation-like collective entanglement of spin qubits could amplify signal contrast in optically detected magnetic resonance.
Berggren Center 4/8/2026
Julian Solway begins the next phase of his career as co-director of the Berggren Center, translating quantum science to the clinic.
Sloan Research Fellowship 2/17/2026
Congratulations to Peter Maurer on being named a 2026 Sloan Research Fellow.
Paper Published 2/5/2026
Giulia Galli and collaborators have published a theoretical study identifying the microscopic origins of surface noise that limits diamond quantum sensors.
Congratulations 2/2/2026
Congratulations to Bozhi Tian for receiving the 2026 Marian and Stuart Rice Research Award.
Berggren Center 2/2/2026
Greg Engel and Julian Solway discuss how the Berggren Center is building the new field of quantum medicine and training a generation of bilingual scientists.
Big Brains Podcast 1/8/2026
Peter Maurer discusses the protein qubit and the future of quantum biosensing on the Big Brains podcast.
Named Professorship 1/5/2026
Margaret Gardel has been named the Edward L. Ryerson Distinguished Service Professor.
John Stewart Bell Prize 12/12/2025
Congratulations to Misha Lukin on sharing the 9th John Stewart Bell Prize for pioneering quantum simulation and quantum computing with neutral atoms in optical tweezer arrays.
Physics Breakthrough 12/11/2025
Peter Maurer, David Awschalom, Laura Gagliardi, and Aaron Esser-Kahn's research on fluorescent-protein spin qubits has been named one of the top 10 physics breakthroughs of 2025.
Award 11/12/2025
CECAM has awarded Giulia Galli the 2025 Berni J. Alder prize.
Patrusky Lecture 11/8/2025
David Awschalom is presenting the 13th Patrusky Lecture at ScienceWriters 2025 in Chicago.
TEDxChicago 10/22/2025
David Awschalom speaks at TEDxChicago on how quantum technologies may impact your life.
Keynote Lecture 10/21/2025
Greg Engel gives the keynote lecture at AbbVie's company-wide "Celebration of Science" on the future of quantum sensing in biomedicine.
In the news... 9/30/2025
Illinois Quantum researchers, industry leaders, and government officials break ground on Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park
In the news... 9/12/2025
The fluorescent-protein spin qubit from Peter Maurer's and David Awschalom's groups is featured in Science News, following coverage by Phys.org and The Quantum Insider.
Big Brains Podcast 8/21/2025
Greg Engel discusses quantum biology and the coming era of quantum medicine on the Big Brains podcast.
Award 8/20/2025
Congratulation to John Anderson for receiving the Harry Gray Award for Creative Work in Inorganic Chemistry by a Young Investigator from the American Chemical Society.
Paper Published 8/20/2025
Peter Maurer, David Awschalom, Laura Gagliardi, and Aaron Esser-Kahn have published the first fluorescent-protein spin qubit in Nature, turning a protein that cells can build themselves into a quantum sensor. Read the PME story.
Gordon Conference 8/3/2025
Susanne Yelin, Misha Lukin, and Valerie Goss attend and present at The Gordon Conference, Quantum Control of Light and Matter, at Salve Regina University, in Newport, RI, Aug 3-6
Berggren Center 7/5/2025
Thea Berggren donates $21 Million for establishment of Berggren Center for Quantum Biology and Medicine to be co-directed by Greg Engel.
Quantum Sensing Summer Program 7/1/2025
Valerie Goss led Quantum Sensing Summer Program brings high school students to Chicago State to learn about quantum technology.
Sabbatical at UChicago 6/30/2025
Valerie Goss completes her Sabbatical at UChicago working in Peter Maurers Laboratory
Harper Lecture 6/5/2025
Greg Engel, Julian Solway, and Alex Pearson give a Harper Lecture on the future of Quantum in Biology and Medicine.
National Academy of Sciences 5/30/2025
Margaret Gardel has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
Paper Published 5/28/2025
Adam Cohen's group has published in JACS the mechanism of a giant magnetic field effect in the red fluorescent protein mScarlet3, a framework for designing magnetic-field-sensitive proteins for magnetometry and magnetogenetics.
Paper Published 5/22/2025
Peter Maurer and Aaron Esser-Kahn, with collaborators, have published in PNAS a core-shell nanodiamond quantum biosensor, inspired by QLED televisions, that improves the quantum properties of nanodiamond sensors inside living cells.
Award 4/24/2025
Laura Gagliardi has been awarded the 2025 Solvay Chair in Chemistry.
American Academy of Arts and Sciences 4/23/2025
Congratulations to Hongkun Park on his election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Colloquium 2/6/2025
Misha Lukin is presenting a new frontier of quantum computing for the Princeton Quantum Initiative's Hamilton Colloquium Series.
Physics Breakthrough of the Year 12/20/2024
Misha Lukin and Dolve Bluvstein's demonstration of quantum error correction using an atomic processor with 48 logical qubits has tied for the 2024 Physics Breakthrough of the Year.
In the news... 10/28/2024
Work from Alex High, Peter Maurer, Aaron Esser-Kahn, David Awschalom, and Joe Heremans on bonding diamond membranes directly to other materials for quantum sensing and electronics is featured in UChicago News.
DOE Early Career Award 9/11/2024
Congratulations to Allison Squires on receiving a DOE Early Career Award to learn how cyanobacteria tune their light-harvesting antennae.
Award 8/12/2024
Congratualations to Giulia Galli for being awarded the 2024-2025 Joseph O. Hirschfelder Award.
Sabbatical at UChicago 8/1/2024
Valerie Goss starts her Sabbatical at UChicago working in Peter Maurers Laboratory
Award 7/18/2024
Congratualations to Julian Solway on earning the Gold Key Award from Biological Sciences Division.
CZI BioHub Chicago 7/10/2024
CZ Biohub Chicago funds NSF QuBBE investigators, including Aaron Esser-Kahn, Peter Maurer, and Alex Pearson for quantum-enabled identifiers to track individual immune cells; Samantha Riesenfeld and Allison Squires for inflammatory biomarker detection; and Margaret Gardel for characterizing inflammatory responses.
SandboxAQ 6/24/2024
SandboxAQ, a leader in AI and quantum applications, will collaborate with the Chicago Quantum Exchange specifically at the University of Chicago-based U.S. National Science Foundation Quantum Leap Challenge Institute for Quantum Sensing for Biophysics and Bioengineering (NSF QuBBE).
Award 4/18/2024
Chicago Quantum Exchange receives NSF award of $1 Million for quantum technology development.
NSF Quantum Showcase 4/1/2024
Valerie Goss , Greg Engel, and Chloe Washabaugh represent NSF QuBBE at the NSF Quantum Showcase.
AIMBE Fellow 3/27/2024
Bozhi Tian has been elected to the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering Colleges of Fellows.
NSF IMSI Workshop 3/25/2024
David Mazziotti and Laura Gagliardi are speaking at NSF's Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation workshop: Machine Learning in Electronic-Structure Theory.
APS Meeting 3/3/2024
CSU students, faculty, and staff attend the APS meeting in Minneapolis, MN.
LSAMP Meeting 2/24/2024
Harriet Omodayo and Valerie Goss present "Nanodiamond binding on nanostructures" at ILSAMP Conference in Lisle, IL.
LSAMP Meeting 2/24/2024
Sommasi Egbuna and Archie Peters present "Quantum Key Distribution" at ILSAMP Conference in Lisle, IL.
LSAMP Meeting 2/24/2024
Paul Agyebo Gilberts and Jacqueline Stevens present "NSF QuBBE-Enhancing Quantum Information Science and Technology through Workforce Development among underrepresented communities on the South Side of Chicago" at ILSAMP Conference in Lisle, IL.
Congratulations 7/31/2023
Congratulations to Greg Engel for being named a 2023 American Chemical Society Fellow.
Award 7/7/2023
Laura Gagliardi has received the 2023 Pauling Medal Award for Outstanding Achievements in Chemistry.
NSF Quantum Showcase 5/4/2023
Valerie Goss , Greg Engel, and Chloe Washabaugh represent NSF QuBBE at NSF Quantum Showcase. This interactive event brought together more than 35 researchers, educators, and students from across the country to discuss ongoing research, education & workforce initiatives.
Welcome 5/30/2023
Welcome to Dr. Kamran Mobarhan, who is joining NSF QuBBE as the Director of Business Management and Strategic Initiatives for the NSF QuBBE Quantum Leap Challenge Institute.
In the news... 5/18/2023
Work from the Mazziotti group looking at quantum dynamics in biology featured on CBS news.
NSF QuBBE Summer Researcher Launches 5/4/2023
Congratulations to NSF QuBBE summer researcher Mya Nash on launching her graduate career at UChicago.
CZI BioHub Chicago 3/2/2023
The Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative is launching a new $275M BioHub in Chicago to address immunity and inflammation with quantum sensing as a key technological pillar.
12/2/2022
Greg Engel, Valerie Goss, and Peter Maurer presented at the National Quantum Initiative Center Summit at the White House to focus on building the country's capabilities and workforce in Quantum Science and Engineering.
Congratulations 4/29/2022
Congratulations to Bernadette Miao, an undergraduate with the Tian Group, who has been selected as a UChicago Student Marshal -- the highest undergraduate distinction at the University.
Congratulations 4/20/2022
Congratulations to Bernadette Miao, an undergraduate student working on subcellular biological modulation with the Tian Group, who has been selected for the Goldwater Scholarship.
German Academy of Sciences 4/2/2022
Congratulations to Laura Gagliardi, who was elected as a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.
NDSEG Fellowship 4/5/2022
Congratulations to Caitlin Bellora who was selected for a DOD NDSEG Fellowship.
NSF Fellowships 4/1/2022
Congratulations to Caitlin Bellora, Olivia Wedig, and Katelyn Feuling who were selected for NSF GRFP Fellowships.
Service Award 1/15/2022
Congratulations to Julian Solway, who won the 2021 University of Chicago Department of Medicine Distinguished Service Award
PQE Conference 1/13/2022
Peter Maurer is presenting a talk on NSF QuBBE at PQE 2022 in Snowbird, Utah.
New Industrial Affiliate 1/10/2022
Welcome to Toptica Photonics! Toptica is joining NSF QuBBE as a new Industrial Affiliate, and we look forward to partnering with them on workforce development, quantum photonics, and biosensing.
NSF QuBBE Seminar 1/5/2022
Our inaugural NSF QuBBE seminar speaker, Adam Cohen, presented his work on mapping and controlling neural systems.
NSF QuBBE KickOff Meeting 1/4/2022
KickOff Meeting! Our first kickoff meeting with all PIs surveys the array of science across NSF QuBBE and created new connections for collaboration and convergence. We had hoped to be in person for this, but COVID forced us to go virtual.
Italian Academy of Sciences 12/17/2021
Laura Gagliardi Elected to Italian National Academy of Sciences.
APS Rahman Prize 10/21/2022
Giulia Galli Awarded Rahman Prize from American Physical Society
Fellowship 9/24/2021
Congratulations to Nikita Onizhuk in Giulia Galli's group on receiving one of Google's PhD Fellowships in Quantum Computing. Nikita's work focuses on how properties of novel spin defects in materials can be used as quantum substrates.
NSF QuBBE Launches 9/2/2021
NSF QuBBE has officially launched! Here is the NSF announcement. and here is an article from UChicago News on NSF QuBBE
NSF QuBBE Funded! 9/1/2021
NSF QuBBE has been funded and will launch on September 2, 2021.
Site Visit 4/28/2021
Greg Engel, Valerie Goss, Allison Squires and Peter Maurer participated in the NSF virtual reverse site visit exploring the details of NSF QuBBE.
Proposal Submitted 2/1/2021
The team has submitted a proposal (>500 pages) detailing our vision for science, workforce development, and outreach focused on opportunities for emerging quantum science to attack grand challenges in biology and medicine.
It starts with a vision... 9/1/2020
The team coalesced around a shared vision for NSF QuBBE: We see an opportunity for quantum sensing to revolutionize biological understanding.