Quantum Science’s Next Infrastructure Challenge: People

A strand of hair cuts across a laser beam, creating interference fringes on the wall of a science museum in New York City. High school students use the spacing between bands to calculate the hair’s width. It’s a simple optics exercise, but the result hints at something stranger: a photon that takes two paths at once.

By week’s end, the students will be programming logic gates on a quantum computing simulator. This is Stony Brook University’s (SBU) quantum information science and technology (QIST) summer camp, which develops skills in a field advancing fast, but still missing from many classrooms.

“Students can’t consider careers in quantum information science if they’ve never heard of it,” said Angela Kelly, professor of physics and science education at SBU. “If we’re serious about workforce development, we must reach students before college.”

That’s the logic behind a unique model at SBU, where Kelly, alongside fellow professors Dominik Schneble and Tzu-Chieh Wei, is developing a quantum education system like no other. While the journey through education and into work is often described as a pipeline, SBU’s approach is better visualized as a network, with interconnected nodes working toward a common goal.

Instead of a fixed route, SBU’s model opens the door to students wherever they are. From high school outreach to graduate training, the program equips students with technical fluency and real-world skills. By adapting to life’s branching paths, SBU aims to nurture the quantum talent that other programs would miss.

Read the full story in Nature.