I consider myself a quiet guy — on a Friday night you can usually find me at home doing crossword puzzles. Public speaking doesn’t come naturally to me, and I’ve never really liked it. Like many people, I get really nervous. So, how did I find myself standing at a podium in front of hundreds of people in Fukuoka, Japan?

The National Quantum Coordination Office released a summary of the Oct. 7^th, 2020 National Q-12 Education Partnership Kick-off Event  today. This summary describes the Partnership and key take-aways from the Kick-off. The discussions focused on Materials for QIS Education, Careers in QIS, Outreach for QIS, and Professional Development for QIS Teachers. Video of the Kick-off Event is available at https://q12education.org/q12kickoff, along with the agenda, ways to learn more and how to get involved.

Roughly each month I write “from” a different research center about the NQCO’s progress coordinating Quantum Information Science (QIS) activities. Learn more about the Q-SEnSE Quantum Leap Challenge Institute by going to https://www.colorado.edu/research/qsense/

As the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory steps up in its role as the Navy’s Quantum Information Science Research Center, NRL is participating in two quantum collaboration meetings focusing on intragovernmental collaboration. For more information, click on the news story here.

FT. MEADE, Md., Oct. 29, 2020 — The quantum world hosts a rich variety of physics that could enable functionality far beyond what traditional technologies can achieve. By probing and manipulating phenomena that occur at the single particle scale, the emerging field of quantum information science (QIS) aims to create new forms of computing, sensing, and communications that could revolutionize how we process and transmit data. The US recently launched the National Quantum Initiative (NQI) to foster collaboration across multiple government agencies in order to strengthen US leadership in QIS and support the next generation of quantum scientists and engineers.

In response to requests from mission customers, NSA is publicly sharing guidance on quantum key distribution (QKD) and quantum cryptography (QC) as it relates to securing National Security Systems (NSS). Sharing guidance that was previously kept within internal government channels represents one aspect of NSA’s efforts to be more transparent in the way that we secure our nation’s most sensitive systems and engage with the greater cybersecurity community.

Strengthening U.S. Leadership in Quantum Information Science

THE WHITE HOUSE

The NQIAC has been established to provide advice and guidance on a continuing basis to the President, the Secretary of Energy, and the National Science and Technology Council Subcommittee on Quantum Information Science (QIS), the National Quantum Initiative (NQI) program, and on trends and developments in quantum information science and technology, in accordance with the National Quantum Initiative Act (Pub. L. 115-368) and Executive Order 13885. This notice announces a meeting of the National Quantum Initiative Advisory Committee (NQIAC).

In March of this year, the Department of the Navy designated the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory as the Navy’s Quantum Information Research Center.