2026 Misel Family Public Lecture
Public Lecture
"The Second Quantum Revolution and the Race to Build “Impossible” Computers"
Professor Steven Girvin
Yale University
Wednesday, October 28, 2026 at 7:00 p.m.
McNamara Alumni Center, Memorial Hall
The first quantum revolution brought us the great technological advances of the 20th century—the transistor, the laser, the atomic clock and GPS, the global positioning system. We now realize that this 20th century hardware does not take full advantage of the power of quantum machines. A second quantum revolution is underway based on our relatively new understanding of how information can be stored, manipulated, and communicated using strange quantum hardware that is neither fully digital nor fully analog. This talk will give a gentle introduction to the basic concepts that underlie this quantum information revolution and describe major challenges as well as recent remarkable experimental progress in the race to build quantum machines for computing, sensing and communication.
Unable to attend in person? Watch the recording on YouTube
Physics and Astronomy Colloquium
Introduction to 'Circuit QED'
Thursday, October 29, 2026 at 3:35 p.m.
The fundamental quantum interactions between matter and electromagnetic fields have profound effects: the energy levels of atoms are modified by the Lamb shift due to zero-point fluctuations of the vacuum and excited atoms decay by spontaneously emitting photons. The study of these effects in quantum electrodynamics (“QED”) has now been extended to “Circuit QED” in which giant millimeter-sized artificial atoms (superconducting qubits) are coupled to microwave photons trapped inside electrical circuits. Remarkable theoretical and experimental developments in circuit QED in recent decades have opened up a completely new regime in which to study non-linear quantum optics and given us the means to build advanced quantum computers and simulators. It is also now possible to detect single microwave photons even though their energy is smaller than that of optical photons by five orders of magnitude. This has led to two recent quantum sensing breakthroughs: detection of the NMR signal from the flipping of a single nuclear spin, and new techniques to speed up the search for axion dark matter.
Please register through the UMN Events Calendar (registration is encouraged but not required).
Read more about Professor Girvin on his webpage or watch one of his previous lectures on YouTube.