Linke Returns to UMD as the New Director of its National Quantum Laboratory

Norbert Linke, a senior investigator in the NSF Quantum Leap Challenge Institute for Robust Quantum Simulation (RQS) who co-leads the institute’s efforts in scalable quantum simulations for science and technology, is returning to the University of Maryland after three years as a professor of physics at Duke University. 

At UMD, Linke will hold the first IonQ Professorship, an endowed position designed to support faculty focused on quantum computing research and advancing quantum strategy in the state of Maryland and beyond. 

He will also serve as director of the National Quantum Laboratory (QLab), a partnership between IonQ and UMD that was established in 2021 to advance the field of quantum computing by supporting broad community access to the wealth of expertise and technology concentrated in and around the UMD campus.

Linke’s vision for QLab is rooted in the principle of “Quantum for All,” aiming to broaden access to quantum resources. This aligns with Maryland’s $1 billion Capital of Quantum Initiative, highlighting the state’s commitment to fostering innovation in quantum technologies.

Although Linke will physically be working at UMD, he remains active with Duke researchers through RQS. Using QLab access to IonQ systems, he is currently exploring holographic quantum circuits with Senior Investigator Crystal Noel and Co-PI Christopher Monroe, a project that aligns with RQS’s research challenges of quantum simulations facing the environment and scalable quantum simulations for science and technology.

QLab nurtures relationships with research groups and companies that have quantum computers to help educators, researchers, and entrepreneurs access those quantum computers and the expertise needed to use them.

“In terms of quantum, we have everything here,” says Linke about Qlab’s capabilities. “We have the experts in quantum error correction and all the domains of applications: high energy physics, chemistry, computer science. And we have hardware expertise in trapped ions and neutral atoms and superconducting qubits and photonics. So, this is a natural place where all these things flow together, and we have the backing from the state government and from various federal agencies.”

QLab isn’t just for quantum computing researchers; it is also working with people in fields like image recognition, finance and medical research to explore how quantum computers might be beneficial to their fields and help them get their footing when working with quantum technology. Past projects include using quantum computers to investigate new materials for use in batteries, internships for undergraduate and master’s students, and a program where UMD undergraduate students study the intersection of machine learning and quantum computing.

QLab can help connect individuals with experts to refine their ideas and get them running on a company’s specialized equipment once they have access. Linke says that the interactions of researchers producing new quantum algorithms with the companies and labs developing quantum computers are beneficial for both sides. It lets the companies determine how their devices behave when tackling real problems and what improvements are most needed to deliver useful results, and on the other side, researchers get to test their work and make sure it is grounded in the technologies currently being developed.

“Anyone who's thinking of trying some quantum applications, it's worth reaching out and seeing if it can be tested,” Linke explains. “The goal in the end is maybe this will turn into a startup that you found later, or it may turn into a major research initiative that a grant giving agency might fund, and so on. But the first idea is to just allow people's ideas to be tested on real quantum hardware.”

Linke is assuming the QLab leadership role from Franz Klein, the founding director of the lab, who is staying on to manage company relationships and other QLab projects. Thomas Barthel, a condensed matter theorist who likewise moved from Duke to UMD, is going to drive the lab’s research agenda forward and coordinate its outward facing activities.

As Linke leads QLab, he’ll continue his own quantum computing research, bringing one postdoctoral researcher and two graduate students in his experimental research group from Duke to UMD. Linke’s group studies trapped-ion quantum computers, which employ individual charged atoms—ions—as their basic building blocks. They work to improve the ways that ions are manipulated and utilized in quantum computations and to develop new technologies. The improvements his research group has made help make quantum computers less prone to errors. 

—This article was adapted from a story by the Joint Quantum Institute; additional reporting by the UMIACS communications group