QS_feynmanOn January 26 and 27th, IQIM hosted programs honoring Richard Feynman and marking 50 years since he received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on quantum electrodynamics. IQIM also presented current work and discussed some of the possibilities they hope to explore in the Quantum Frontier. One Entangled Evening included a video tribute to Feynman by Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates; a song and dance about quantum mechanics performed by artist Gia Mora and John Preskill, the Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics at Caltech and director of IQIM; and a screening of a short video titled Anyone Can Quantum, narrated by actor Keanu Reeves and featuring actor Paul Rudd playing a game of “quantum chess” with renowned physicist Stephen Hawking. All videos and a highlight reel from the evening are available here.

A one-day seminar, the Quantum Summit, on January 27 featured scientists and leaders of industry discussing current work exploring quantum physics. One highlight of the seminar was the panel discussion Why quantum computing, and why now? Moderated by Jennifer Ouellette, senior science editor at Gizmodo.com the panel included: Ray Beausoleil, HP Laboratories; Charles Bennett, IBM Fellow; Parsa Bonderson, Microsoft; Jim Clarke, Intel; Raymond Laflamme, Institute for Quantum Computing; Hartmut Neven, Google. Watch a video of the panel discussion read more about events including a summary of discussion during the Quantum Summit in the Caltech News story.