Inside UT’s Quantum Ecosystem: From Breakthroughs to Possibilities

In UT's largest academic building, Welch Hall, advanced quantum research facilities are coming online, from a quantum materials characterization lab that opened in 2024 to a new underground facility on which work has already begun. Meanwhile, UT researchers across campus are leading discoveries in quantum materials, quantum computing, quantum sensing and a whole range of advances tied to how atoms and electrons behave at the smallest of scales and how they interact with light.

Quantum may not be a word you use every day, but quantum science plays a leading role in your everyday experiences in the modern world. Understanding quantum mechanics allowed earlier researchers to anticipate what electrons would do in silicon -- which in turn enabled the development of semiconductors and all the computing devices that use them. Ditto for the relationship between quantum mechanics and a whole suite of other technologies, ranging from MRIs to GPS.

Now, scientists and engineers believe a new set of advances are right around the corner when it comes to computing, medical science and clean energy -- with the next generation of technologies leaning on quantum discoveries and advances from UT and around the world.

The quantum research facility under construction now will help identify new quantum phases of matter and represents just one example of mind-bending quantum research from UT that dates to the 1970s and is equally strong today.

Here, we will travel through time, explaining the milestones of quantum science grounded by UT and introduce ongoing quantum research at the University that promises to unlock continued innovations. To help illustrate the quantum leaps with links to the University, we're spotlighting some of the history, faculty members and initiatives transforming this field.

Earlier Theoretical Physicists Helped Put UT on the Quantum Discovery Map

The renowned UT physicist John A. Wheeler developed the field's understanding of quantum demolition, a type of measurement in quantum mechanics that supplies data about a system but eventually disrupts or destroys the quantum state being measured. The group of graduate and postdoctoral students he trained also made significant contributions to the field, such as theoretical physicist David Deutsch, who pioneered the field of quantum computing by laying out mathematical principles for a universal quantum computer. This led him to be dubbed the "father of quantum computing," although it was many years later before the first quantum computer was built. Quantum computing uses properties of tiny particles, such as atoms, to solve complex problems that standard computers can't handle.

Another pioneer in Wheeler's circle was Wojciech Zurek (Ph.D. '79), who developed the theory of decoherence in quantum mechanics. Quantum decoherence disrupts fragile quantum states before they can be harnessed for useful computations. In addition, he cofounded the field of quantum-error correction, which encodes quantum data to detect and fix errors. Zurek is still conducting quantum research as a laboratory fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

Another Wheeler protégé could be the subject of a potential "Jeopardy!" question in the science category: Who came up with the term "qubit," the term for a component that processes and stores information in a quantum computer? Answer: Benjamin Schumacher (Ph.D. '90).

According to Science News, Schumacher introduced the notion of a bit of quantum information, or a qubit, in a paper he presented during the early 1990s.

"Schumacher worked out more than just a clever name [qubit]; he proved a theorem about how qubits could be used to quantify the quantum information sent through a communication channel," Sciences News reported.

Current Physicist Allan MacDonald Made the UT Discovery That Has Inspired Labs Around the Globe

Fifteen years ago, theoretical physicist Allan MacDonald, the Sid W. Richardson Foundation Regents Chair in Physics #1 at UT, gave a breakthrough twist to the fields of quantum physics and material science.

In 2011, MacDonald and postdoctoral researcher Rafi Bistritzer published findings about their investigation of what happens when two sheets of graphene - made of a single layer of carbon atoms - are stacked with a slight rotational offset.

MacDonald and Bistritzer carried out their research using supercomputers at UT's Texas Advanced Computing Center. Their simulations revealed that at a precise 1.1-degree twist, electrons slow dramatically and behave in unusual ways, a discovery that spawned the field of twistronics (twisted two-dimensional materials).

In 2018, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology confirmed that graphene arranged at MacDonald's "magic angle" can superconduct at less extreme temperatures than what's required for superconductors today. (Superconductivity refers to electric current flowing without the loss of energy.) This finding has paved the way for advancements in quantum computing and energy efficiency.

In recognition of his twistronics research, MacDonald shared the 2020 Wolf Prize in Physics with Bistritzer, now a physics professor at Tel Aviv University, and Pablo Jarillo-Herrero, an experimental physicist at MIT; earlier this year MacDonald and Jarillo-Herrero were awarded the Frontiers of Knowledge Award. Both prizes are among the top international awards a physicist can receive.

MacDonald said many milestones have been achieved since the discovery of the "magic angle," but the most important is the ability to intentionally twist two sheets of materials at any angle, not just at 1.1 degrees.

This greater control of twist angles offers "a new and very powerful way" of changing the properties of electrons inside 2D materials and the interaction of those properties with light, MacDonald said. This could lead to advancements in fiber-optic data transfers and quantum computing, he said.

Computer Scientist Scott Aaronson Defines Emerging Possibilities and Boundaries of Quantum Computing

Computer science theorist Scott Aaronson, UT's David J. Bruton Jr. Centennial Professor of Computer Science, is a leading authority on quantum supremacy, a concept he helped develop. It refers to the ability of a quantum device to solve a problem that a traditional computer can't solve in a reasonable amount of time. And he set forth many of the theoretical foundations of quantum supremacy experiments.

In recognition of his work in quantum supremacy, Aaronson received the 2020 ACM Prize in Computing and was recently elected to the National Academy of Sciences, a top-tier honor in the field of computing. Quantum supremacy, which relies on the principles of quantum mechanics, holds the potential to yield breakthroughs in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and energy, and it also redraws the boundaries of computing.

Aaronson and his UT research group aren't trying to build a research-grade quantum computer. ( They cost anywhere from $10 million to $50 million to build.) Instead, group members concentrate on answering the question: "What can we do and what can we not do with a quantum computer?"

"Most of what we do is theory," said Aaronson, "but if we have any experiment that is worth doing, which sometimes we do, we can call up whoever on Earth has the best hardware to … run our experiment."

In his prize-winning research, ​​Aaronson showed that elements of computational complexity theory can illuminate key aspects of quantum physics, helping define the limits and capabilities of quantum computers.

How Texas Quantum Institute Is Charting the Course of Quantum Research at UT

Fifty years after John A. Wheeler's arrival in Austin, what's on the horizon for quantum research at the University?

Elaine Li, a physicist holding a Welch Foundation Chair in Science, co-directs the Texas Quantum Institute (TQI), an umbrella organization for the University's quantum research. Among other goals, she and her co-director (Xiuling Li, Truchard Foundation Endowed Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering) want to boost quantum research conducted at UT and partner with others to construct a quantum initiative in line with other work on campus and across the state.

The University has taken big steps in recent years. First, in 2023, quantum technologies company Infleqtion signed a memorandum of understanding with Texas Institute for Electronics for development of qNexus, a center of excellence for quantum manufacturing. Then in late 2025, Gov. Greg Abbott announced a $4.8 million Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund grant for TQI to establish the Qlab, a quantum-enhanced semiconductor metrology facility in Austin. "Metrology has been identified by the U.S. Department of Commerce as the key enabling technology for the semiconductor industry," Li said. This facility will be managed by TQI in collaboration with UT-MRSEC, Microelectronics Research Center and Texas Materials Institute.

These developments are the latest chapter amid the myriad innovations in UT's storied history of quantum research, which has evolved well beyond the days of John A. Wheeler. Today, as University researchers are exploring areas such as quantum algorithms, quantum materials and quantum metrology, the promise of a new technological era beckons.

"We like to say we're at the onset of the second quantum revolution," Elaine Li added. "The first quantum revolution happened last century, and that's made a lot of technology possible. The second quantum revolution may do even more."