Originally published on LinkedIn
Visiting Congress for the American Physical Society
Jan 30, 2025 | Charles Tahan
This is an archived copy of a LinkedIn post. The original is at the link above.
I visited congress yesterday on behalf of the American Physical Society and the Division of Quantum Information (https://engage.aps.org/dqi/ (saved copy)).
We must keep the science flowing!
I want thank my colleagues for electing me to the chair line of DQI. The rise of quantum information as a new field is no better paralleled by the exponential growth of DQI from nothing to a topical group to a very large division of APS.
Thinking about this reminded me of an ancient 2008 article I wrote on “quantum information and industry” for the newsletter of this new topical group: https://research.tahan.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/winter08.pdf (saved copy). [I cringe to even read it.] At the time, I was fresh out of my PostDoc in my first real job as a SETA for DARPA at Booz Allen Hamilton. (They made me wear a suit! Every day! …good training for the White House years later.)
I estimated at the time that there were around 100 positions in the quantum information “industry”. Oh, how far we have come. Now I work at Microsoft building quantum computers, one of thousands and thousands of people working in a global quantum information industry. There is much still to do, but at least we have a lot of friends now to do it with.
We all look forward to the reauthorization of the National Quantum Initiative Act and continued support of America’s scientific enterprise. Thank you to the congressional offices who heard us out.
https://www.youtube.com/live/P-RLduRG07g?feature=shared (copy on this site)
http://charlie.tahan.com/ostp/assets/Tahan-Written-Testimony.pdf
