Pacific Northwest National Lab gets $2 mln grant for quantum information science

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) was among several organizations that was awarded a research grant for quantum information science (QIS) by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

The $2 million grant for PNNL will help fund its new quantum computing chemistry project.

“This award will be used to create novel computational chemistry tools to help solve fundamental problems in catalysis, actinide chemistry, and materials science,” principal investigator Karol Kowalski said. “By collaborating with the quantum computing experts at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the University of Michigan, we believe we can help reshape the landscape of computational chemistry.”

Kowalski’s proposal was one of 84 selected by the DOE to further the nation’s research in QIS. Overall, the DOE awarded $218 million in grant funding.

PNNL’s research will take place over the next three years. In the meantime, PNNL is working with Microsoft to improve capabilities in computational chemistry.

“We are working with Microsoft to combine their quantum computing software stack with our expertise on high-performance computing approaches to quantum chemistry,” Sriram Krishnamoorthy who leads PNNL’s side of this collaboration, said. Microsoft, through its work with PNNL, will release an update to the Microsoft Quantum Development Kit. The kit will include a new chemical simulation library developed with PNNL.

“Development and applications of quantum computing to catalysis problems has the ability to revolutionize our ability to predict robust catalysts that mimic features of naturally occurring, high-performing catalysts, like nitrogenase,” Wendy Shaw, the lab’s division director for physical sciences, said about the application of QIS to her team’s work.