Key Points:
- ORNL received the IEEE Quantum Technical Community Distinguished Synergy Award recognizing its collaborative approach to advancing multiple quantum disciplines.
- The award highlights that ORNL connects multidisciplinary expertise, leading research facilities and partners across government, industry and academia to address complex quantum science challenges.
- These collaborations are helping move quantum technologies from discovery toward practical applications, including hybrid quantum-classical computing and quantum networking.
The Department of Energy's (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has received an award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) recognizing its collaborations across government, industry and academia to advance quantum materials, computing, networking and sensing.
ORNL earned the IEEE Quantum Technical Community Distinguished Synergy Award for pioneering a collaborative quantum ecosystem that unites sectors to accelerate advancements across multiple quantum disciplines from scientific discovery to real-world impact.
The award was presented Sept. 17 during IEEE Quantum Week in Toronto. Travis Humble, director of the Department of Energy's Quantum Science Center (QSC) and an ORNL distinguished scientist, accepted the award on the laboratory's behalf.
"ORNL's strength in quantum science has always been rooted in bringing together exceptional people, capabilities and partners to pursue challenges that no single institution can solve alone," ORNL Director Stephen Streiffer said. "This recognition reflects the strength of that collaborative approach and the contributions of our researchers and partners across universities, industry and government. Together, we are advancing quantum science and building capabilities that can strengthen U.S. leadership in this important field."
Decades of leadership across quantum materials, computing, networking and sensing at ORNL have created a breadth of expertise and capabilities that position the laboratory to connect disciplines and institutions. ORNL's user facilities, leadership-class computing and programs such as the QSC, Quantum Computing User Program, Quantum Computing User Forum, and Quantum Accelerated Internet Testbed bring together researchers from various sectors around shared scientific challenges.
The laboratory's quantum research builds on a history of creating capabilities that are designed to be shared. ORNL's Spallation Neutron Source and High Flux Isotope Reactor provide powerful tools for investigating quantum materials , while the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences enables researchers to synthesize, characterize and manipulate materials at the atomic scale. The Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility provides another dimension, connecting high-performance computing (HPC) with emerging quantum processors and enabling researchers to explore hybrid quantum-classical approaches to scientific computing .
"By bringing together leadership-class computing, emerging quantum technologies and expertise from across ORNL and our partners, we are helping define how hybrid quantum-HPC systems can tackle scientific challenges that neither technology could address as effectively alone," said Gina Tourassi, associate laboratory director for ORNL's Computing and Computational Sciences Directorate. "That convergence is an important part of ORNL's vision for the future of scientific computing."
The combination of capabilities has supported advances across the quantum landscape, including research into quantum spin liquids and other quantum materials, application benchmarks - or tests that evaluate how well quantum computers can solve problems - in chemistry and materials science, and hybrid computational platforms that integrate quantum processors with high-performance computing systems.
"Quantum information science sits at the intersection of many disciplines, and progress depends on bringing those communities together," said Nicholas Peters, head of ORNL's Quantum Information Science Section. "ORNL has built an environment where materials scientists, physicists, computer scientists, engineers and industry partners can combine their expertise, test new ideas using unique capabilities and carry promising technologies forward. That ability to connect people and disciplines is central to how we approach quantum research."
ORNL also helps coordinate quantum research nationally. As headquarters of the QSC, one of DOE's National Quantum Information Science Research Centers, the laboratory helps coordinate researchers from national laboratories, universities and industry around challenges in quantum computing and related technologies. Other ORNL-led efforts expand access to commercial quantum computing systems, create forums for cross-disciplinary exchange and provide testbeds where researchers and technology developers can evaluate emerging quantum networking technologies.
ORNL's collaborative approach has also helped move quantum technologies from discovery toward deployment. The laboratory has pioneered hybrid quantum-high-performance computing and advanced quantum communications over deployed fiber networks. Through a long-standing partnership with Chattanooga-based telecommunications provider EPB and other collaborators, ORNL conducted a series of quantum networking demonstrations that helped establish the technological foundation for EPB's launch of the first commercial quantum network in the United States. ORNL and EPB continue to work together to explore quantum networking technologies for critical infrastructure protection.
Across ORNL's quantum enterprise, infrastructure, multidisciplinary communities and sustained partnerships work together to accelerate discovery and move scientific advances toward real-world application. The IEEE Quantum Technical Community Distinguished Synergy Award recognizes this broader contribution that is not defined by a single technology or discovery, but by a collaborative ecosystem that has repeatedly enabled advances across quantum materials, computing, networking and sensing while strengthening the nation's capacity to turn quantum science into impact.
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the Department of Energy's Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science .
