Celebrating a century of quantum science: 2025 will be the International Year of Quantum!
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United Nations approve a proposal for 2025 to be declared the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ)
Although the first scientific use of the term “quantum” appeared in the early 1920s, introduced by the physicists Max Born, Werner Heisenberg, and Wolfgang Pauli, then working at the University of Göttingen in Germany, it wasn’t until July 1925 when a seminar paper by Heisenberg appeared, now considered to have set the foundations for a new, or modern, theory of quantum mechanics. This was shortly followed by the publication in the same year of Born and Jordan’s paper "On quantum mechanics" which - alongside its sequel "On quantum mechanics II" by Born, Heisenberg, and Jordan - developed Heisenberg's theory further into the first complete formulation of quantum mechanics as we know it today.
Almost a hundred years have passed since and a lot has happened during this time, most notably the translation of quantum theory into technology applications that have transformed our lives. The so-called first quantum revolution that underpinned technology development in the 20th century gave us transistors - the foundations of modern IT infrastructure and of course the internet - and lasers. These technologies were inspired by quantum theory and how nature works at the subatomic scale, but were not directly exploiting quantum behaviour as such. This is now changing and a new quantum revolution is underway.
The 21st century has witnessed massive effort and resource invested in harnessing quantum phenomena – principles such as superposition or entanglement – in order to create and commercialise new technology applications in the areas of quantum communications, quantum computing, and quantum sensing, imaging and metrology. The science underpinning these technologies is by now well understood; despite this, the engineering challenge of transforming the theory into practical application is not insubstantial.
In the UK, this activity has been made possible through the National Quantum Technologies Programme aimed at delivering the commercialisation of these emerging technologies to boost the UK economy and achieve genuine societal benefits across all sectors – from healthcare and finance, to defence and security, manufacturing, environmental monitoring and mining of new materials, energy efficiency, and beyond. Through substantial government investment over the last decade (2014-2024), the national programme has brought together the country’s leading academic expertise in this area, working closely with industry, leading laboratories such as the National Physical Laboratory and RAL Space, organisations such as the National Cyber Security Centre and National Quantum Computing Centre, and government departments such as DSIT and DIT, to achieve the government’s vision of turning the UK into a quantum-enabled economy by 2035.
The United Nations’ recognition of the importance of quantum science and technology in transforming our everyday lived-in experience will translate into a year of global celebrations of this milestone with a focus on quantum education and highlighting the opportunities available in this space for younger people.
The Quantum City community is very excited about the possibilities for outreach this anniversary offers in 2025. We are hopeful you can join us for the journey!