FSU Quantum Initiative Hosts 2025 Dirac Quantum Discussions
Author: Susana Rodriguez
FSU’s 2025 Dirac Quantum Discussions (DQD) Symposium welcomed over 100 participants from FSU and other universities, all united by their interest in the quantum research field. Topics ranging from computing and engineering to chemistry and physics of materials were covered during the three-day event. The participation was the largest since the start of the annual DQD symposia in 2022, marking the event as a major success of the FSU Quantum Initiative. Among the invited speakers were Yale University’s Steven Girvin, IBM’s Abhinav Kandala, Purdue University’s Sabre Kais, and many others. During the highly popular daily poster sessions, graduate students and postdocs shared their research and networked with the other quantum scientists.
The symposium also aligns with the International Year of Quantum as pronounced by the United Nations. The Year of Quantum brings attention to the advancement of quantum research and its current practical applications and contributions. FSU similarly seeks to bring together a community of scientists, researchers, and students working in the areas of quantum science and engineering. Many attendees of the symposium discussed their interests and research during coffee breaks and lunches, where lively conversations took place.
One of the invited speakers was Dr. Hanna Terletska, an associate professor of physics at Middle Tennessee State University, who earned her PhD in Physics at FSU under the guidance of Dr. Vladimir Dobrosavljevic. Hanna has been interested in quantum physics ever since her time as an undergraduate student. “I think that was the reason I went to grad school, because I really like it,” she explained. When referencing the FSU faculty, she said “I had very good professors who were very dedicated.” Now, Hanna looks to bring quantum research to young minds nationwide.
Hanna’s focus is on quantum materials and quantum information. “As a computational physicist, my job is to develop numerical tools to understand, model, and control quantum materials, enabling their use in emerging technologies,” she explains. “We are living in an era where harnessing quantum effects is key to advancing next-generation technologies.” She emphasizes that quantum science “will have a profound impact on various fields, including materials research, quantum computing, cybersecurity, networking, and sensing.”
“For the United States to remain at the forefront of innovation, we must invest in cutting-edge research facilities, cultivate a highly skilled workforce, and expand opportunities beyond top-tier universities to include smaller institutions. … right now, the demand for trained professionals far exceeds the available workforce.”
Part of Hanna’s presentation at the symposium had to do with strategies being used by MTSU – a newly designated R2 institution – to expand access to quantum science education. “Talent exists everywhere, but opportunities do not. If we fail to provide students with the necessary training, we are failing them,” Hanna said. Supported by NSF ExpandQISE and ExLENT grants and the DOE federal grants, she leads the Middle Tennessee Quantum Consortium to develop pathways for students into quantum science through internships, summer programs, and other opportunities.
“FSU has outstanding facilities, and the [FSU Quantum] initiative itself fosters a broad range of expertise across multiple disciplines,” she responded when asked about FSU’s potential in quantum research. Hanna’s goal to inspire young minds to pursue quantum science is one that FSU shares, and one that was promoted during the symposium.
Another speaker. Dr. Sabre Kais, from North Carolina State University and Purdue University, spoke about quantum machine learning for complex many-body systems and materials. Sabre was at the onset of the development of Purdue University’s quantum centers. “I started (at Purdue) back in 2000, almost 25 years ago. At the beginning we were developing quantum algorithms to solve problems in chemistry that are hard to solve in classical computing.” Sabre mentioned that their first paper on quantum research was published in 2005 and then in 2010 they had the first quantum center at Purdue supported by NSF to solve problems in chemistry.
When speaking on his current role at North Carolina State University, Sabre said “NCSU has a new quantum initiative, and they would like to build and expand this initiative to have many departments and many centers.” FSU similarly is seeking to encourage interdisciplinary research and education in quantum science and engineering.
Kais has an optimistic view on the future of quantum research. “I think it’s very exciting because back in 2000, when we started, it was an academic subject with people doing just theoretical work and now we see this explosion in the field. It’s in many departments, in science, engineering, finance, with many applications. There’s a huge amount of funding going into this field because of the potential applications in the future,” he explained, “if you look at the whole world, every country, they have an initiative in quantum.”
In his own research, Kais hopes to advance the field of physics, chemistry, and to practical applications like solar cells. In reference to the practical applications of quantum research for the general population, Kais believe that “all will benefit from the development of these fields.”
An industry speaker, Dr. Abhinav Kandala from IBM presented evidence for the utility of quantum computing before fault tolerance. Abhinav is an experimental physicist leading the capabilities and demonstrations team at IBM. He elaborated on his role in quantum computing, where his team is “trying to build better computers and to solve problems with these computers – or even identify problems, what problems we can do with these computers – that we can’t with regular computers.”
Abhinav understands the complexities involved in bringing this technology to the public in a way that has practical applications. “Even when I was growing up, when there was the next generation Intel processor that would come, I thought, “what’s the need for this? I can send my emails at the same pace, I can play my computer games at the same pace, I can stream YouTube at the same pace. But if you take a longer view of it, if our civilization didn’t have almost this obsession with building increasingly powerful computing tools even before we knew what to do with them, we wouldn’t have a lot of the technologies we have today.”
For now, quantum computing is mostly used in extremely technical settings for specific problems and results. Still, Abhinav acknowledges the role of experimentation in modern progress, saying, “we wouldn’t have the smartphone revolution, we wouldn’t have ChatGPT, we wouldn’t have any of that. All of these have been enabled because people actually went out and built something even before knowing what to do with it.”
When thinking about the future of quantum research, Abhinav stressed the importance of new perspectives and inspiring younger generations. “There’s never a monopoly on good ideas, you always need young, fresh ideas coming into a field. This is a field that’s grown steadily but you always have these breakthrough moments, often happening from an influx of new, fresh ideas.”
The FSU Quantum Initiative shares this belief and seeks to bring new ideas by welcoming new faculty members and students into its community in the coming years. In the future, FSU Quantum plans to open participation in the DQD Symposium to anyone interested in quantum research and spread these symposia across the entire state of Florida. The Dirac Quantum Discussions will continue to offer great opportunities to hear firsthand about advancements in the field, meet world-renowned scientists, and network with peers.