Global Experts Map the Real Future of Quantum Technology in APS “Quantum Connect” Finale

The American Physical Society (APS), in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Science Diplomacy Hub, closed its Quantum Connect Webinar Series with a high‑profile panel on “Quantum Physics: The Future of High‑Energy Particles,” bringing together leading voices from CERN, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Institute for Advanced Study, and European universities. Framed as part of the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology 2025, the event explored how quantum theory is reshaping high‑energy and particle physics while also redefining the broader quantum technology landscape.​

Panelists described a field transformed in less than a decade: quantum hardware has evolved from demonstration‑scale devices of a few qubits to platforms with well over a hundred qubits, allowing realistic tests of quantum algorithms for event reconstruction at the Large Hadron Collider and for specialized industrial tasks like supply‑chain optimization. At the same time, quantum sensors—ranging from superconducting single‑photon detectors for quantum key distribution to nitrogen‑vacancy diamond devices for navigation and brain‑field mapping—were presented as the earliest commercially meaningful quantum technologies, already moving from laboratories into real‑world deployments.​

Speakers also cautioned against conflating visible progress with the notion that universal quantum computers are about to outclass classical machines across the board, stressing that “killer apps” remain confined to narrow, carefully structured problems. Several panelists emphasized that today’s most significant value from quantum computing may be its role as a challenge to complacent classical algorithms and as a powerful marketing signal in finance and industry, rather than as a ubiquitous computational replacement.​

A dominant theme was the human side of the quantum revolution: success, the panel argued, will depend on cultivating professionals who combine solid foundations in quantum physics with skills in AI and machine learning, experimental techniques such as lasers and vacuum systems, and the “soft” abilities needed to collaborate across disciplines from microwave photonics to high‑performance computing. To meet this need, efforts are under way to develop primers, shared glossaries, and curated educational materials, including within a 115‑institution international collaboration on quantum sensors for particle physics coordinated from CERN.​

Throughout the discussion, panelists urged students and early‑career researchers to embrace uncertainty, curiosity, and hands‑on experimentation, arguing that the most exciting careers may arise in areas of quantum technology that do not yet have names. They also sought to correct public misconceptions that quantum tech is synonymous with computing, stressing that quantum sensing, communication, and hybrid classical‑quantum workflows are likely to shape society well before fully scalable fault‑tolerant quantum processors arrive.​

Source: American Physical Society – Quantum Connect Webinar Series, “Quantum Physics: The Future of High‑Energy Particles”