Center for Quantum Networks

Building the Quantum Internet.

The Quantum Internet

The University of Arizona has been awarded a five-year, $26 million grant from the National Science Foundation, with an additional five-year $24.6 million option, to establish and lead a new National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center – called the Center for Quantum Networks – with core partners Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Yale University.

CQN aims to lay the foundations of the quantum internet, which will revolutionize how humankind computes, communicates and senses the world by creating a fabric to connect quantum computers, data centers and gadgets using their native quantum information states of "quantum bits," or qubits. Qubits offer dramatic increases in processing capacity by not just having the 0 or 1 state of the classical bit, but also allowing what is termed a "superposition" of both states at the same time.

UArizona Experts

Saikat Guha

CQN Director and Principal Investigator

Associate Professor of Optical Sciences

saikat@email.arizona.edu
520-621-6997

Saikat Guha's background lies at the intersection of information theory and quantum optics. His research interests lie in investigating fundamental quantum limits of photonic information processing with applications to optical communications, imaging, sensing and computation.

Jane Bambauer

CQN Co-Deputy Director

Professor of Law

janebambauer@email.arizona.edu
520-626-6004

Jane Bambauer's research assesses the social costs and benefits of big data, and questions the wisdom of many well-intentioned privacy laws. Her own data-driven research explores biased judgment, legal education and legal careers.

Zheshen Zhang

CQN Testbed Co-Lead

Assistant Professor of Optical Sciences

zsz@email.arizona.edu
520-621-6070

Zheshen Zhang's research encompasses a broad swath of the experimental and theoretical aspects of quantum information science. He studies new materials and light-matter interactions that give rise to unique quantum phenomena.

Bane Vasic

Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

vasic@ece.arizona.edu
520-626-5550

Bane Vasic’s research focuses on quantum error correction, with an emphasis on noisy decoding elements, belief propagation approaches, codes on graphs, trapping sets and error floor of iterative decoding algorithms. His pioneering work on structured low-density parity check error correcting codes based on combinatorial designs has enabled low-complexity iterative decoder implementations.

Allison Huff

Director of the CQN Engineering Workforce Development Program

Assistant Professor of Family and Community Medicine

allison@optics.arizona.edu
520-626-4839

Allison Huff's research focuses on the impact of acculturation and sociocultural factors on substance use and abuse, particularly in underrepresented minorities.

Catherine Brooks

CQN Engineering Workforce Development Program

Director of the School of Information

Associate Professor in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences

cfbrooks@arizona.edu
520-621-3565

Catherine Brooks' research interest focuses on day-to-day language use in social contexts, including the instructional or social uses of communication technologies, the varied opportunities for the co-construction of knowledge, relationships and identities, as well as new possibilities for science communication.

Quntao Zhuang

Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

zhuangquntao@.arizona.edu
520-621-8690

Quntao Zhuang's research lies at the intersection of quantum optics, quantum algorithms, and foundational studies of photonic entanglement and its uses in information processing. Specifically, he focuses on quantum sensing enhanced by entanglement, quantum communication systems, quantum Shannon theory, quantum key distribution, quantum chaos and information scrambling, and quantum resource theories.

Linran Fan

Assistant Professor of Optical Sciences

lfan@optics.arizona.edu
520-621-0174

Linran Fan's research focuses on integrated quantum photonic devices, with an emphasis on generation of multiphoton entangled states of light and squeezed light on chip, quantum-state-preserving frequency conversion on chip, and on-chip photon detectors. He is developing on-chip photon control technology using nonlinear optical, mechanical, and electrical effects at nanometer scale, with targeting applications in communications, information processing, imaging and sensing.

Stephen Fleming

CQN Director of Innovation Ecosystem

stephenfleming@arizona.edu
404-939-3536

Stephen Fleming trained as a physicist and spent 15 years in operations roles at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Nortel Networks and a venture-funded optical fiber startup. He has 25 years of experience as a technology-focused venture capitalist and angel investor. Fleming moved to Tucson in 2017 to take a newly created position as vice president for strategic business initiatives at the University of Arizona, where he focused on improving the university's engagement with the private sector.

About the James C. Wyant College of Optical Sciences

The James C. Wyant College of Optical Sciences is internationally recognized for its innovative and unusually comprehensive research programs. The college's research encompasses a broad set of technologies and techniques for exploiting the properties and applications of light, touching virtually every field of science and industry. The faculty are innovative and decorated – and constantly expanding the boundaries of optics knowledge.

This is the third Engineering Research Center led by the University of Arizona. The other two are the ERC for Environmentally Benign Semiconductor Manufacturing, led by the College of Engineering, and the Center for Integrated Access Networks, led by the James C. Wyant College of Optical Sciences.

CQN will be bolstered by the Wyant College's recent endowments – including the largest faculty endowment gift in the history of the University of Arizona – and the planned construction of the new Grand Challenges Research Building, supported by the state of Arizona.