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How NYU’s Quantum Institute Bridges Science and Application

<img src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/person-in-white-suit-working-with-semiconductor-equipment-in-a-lab.jpg?id=65322091&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C0"/><br/><br/><p><em>This sponsored article is brought to you by <a href="https://engineering.nyu.edu/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">NYU Tandon School of Engineering</a>.</em></p><p>Within a 6 mile radius of New York University’s (NYU) campus, there are more than 500 tech industry giants, banks, and hospitals. This isn’t just a fact about real estate, it’s the foundation for advancing quantum discovery and application.</p><p>While the world races to harness quantum technology, NYU is betting that the ultimate advantage lies not solely in a lab, but in the dense, demanding, and hyper-connected urban ecosystem that surrounds it. With the launch of its <a href="https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2025/october/nyu-launches-quantum-institute-.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><span>NYU Quantum Institute</span></a> (NYUQI), NYU is positioning itself as <a href="https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2025/october/top-quantum-scientists-convene-at-nyu.html" target="_blank">the central node</a> in this network; a “full stack” powerhouse built on the conviction that it has found the right place, and the right time, to turn quantum science into tangible reality.</p><p>Proximity advantage is essential because quantum science demands it. Globally, the quest for practical quantum solutions — whether for computing, sensing, or secure communications — has been stalled, in part, by fragmentation. Physicists and chemical engineers invent new materials, computer scientists develop new algorithms, and electrical engineers build new devices, but all three often work in isolated academic silos.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image"> <img alt="Three men pose at the 4th Annual NYC Quantum Summit 2025; attendees converse in the background." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1dd6dfe45b73630bb9040545fcdfae7d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="33e2d" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/three-men-pose-at-the-4th-annual-nyc-quantum-summit-2025-attendees-converse-in-the-background.jpg?id=65322345&width=980"/> <small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Gregory Gabadadze, NYU’s dean for science, NYU physicist and Quantum Institute Director Javad Shabani, and Juan de Pablo, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Executive Vice President for Global Science and Technology and executive dean of the Tandon School of Engineering.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Veselin Cuparić/NYU</small></p><p><span>NYUQI’s premise is that breakthroughs happen “at the interfaces between different domains,” according to </span><a href="https://engineering.nyu.edu/faculty/juan-de-pablo" target="_blank"><span>Juan de Pablo</span></a><span>, Executive Vice President for Global Science and Technology at NYU and Executive Dean of the NYU Tandon School of Engineering. The Institute is built to actively force those necessary collisions — to integrate the physicists, engineers, materials scientists, computer scientists, biologists, and chemists vital to quantum research into one holistic operation. This institutional design ensures that the hardware built by one team can be immediately tested by software developed by another, accelerating progress in a way that isolated departments never could.</span></p><p class="pull-quote"><span>NYUQI’s premise is that breakthroughs happen at the interfaces between different domains. <strong>—Juan de Pablo, NYU Tandon School of Engineering</strong></span></p><p>NYUQI’s integrated vision is backed by a massive physical commitment to the city. The NYUQI is not just a theoretical concept; its collaborators will be housed in a renovated, <a href="https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2025/may/nyu-entering-long-term-lease-at-770-broadway.html" target="_blank"><span>million-square-foot facility</span></a> in the heart of Manhattan’s West Village, backed by a state-of-the-art <a href="https://engineering.nyu.edu/research/nanofab" target="_blank">Nanofabrication Cleanroom</a> in Brooklyn serving as a high-tech foundry. This is where the theoretical meets physical devices, allowing the Institute to test and refine the process from materials science to deployment.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image"> <img alt='NYU building exterior with "Science + Tech" signage, flags, and a passing yellow taxi.' class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="605cc71d844927d3fb0a05fb086fedcf" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="bceaa" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/nyu-building-exterior-with-science-tech-signage-flags-and-a-passing-yellow-taxi.jpg?id=65322352&width=980"/> <small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">NYUQI will be housed in a renovated, million-square-foot facility in the heart of Manhattan’s West Village.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Tracey Friedman/NYU</small></p><p><span>Leading this effort is NYUQI Director </span><a href="https://as.nyu.edu/faculty/javad-shabani.html" target="_blank"><span>Javad Shabani</span></a><span>, who, along with the other members, is turning the Institute into a hub for collaboration with private and public sector partners with quantum challenges that need solving. As de Pablo explains, “Anybody who wants to work on quantum with NYU, you come in through that door, and we’ll send you to the right place.” For New York’s vast ecosystem of tech giants and financial institutions, the NYUQI offers a resource they can’t build on their own: a cohesive team of experts in quantum phenomena, quantum information theory, communication, computing, materials, and optics, and a structured path to applying theoretical discoveries to advanced quantum technologies.</span></p><h2>Solving the Challenge of Quantum Research</h2><p><span>The NYUQI’s integrated structure is less about organizational management, and more about scientific requirement. </span><span>The challenge of quantum is that the hardware, the software, and the programming are inherently interconnected — each must be designed to work with the other. To solve this, the Institute focuses on three applications of quantum science: Quantum Computing, Quantum Sensing, and Quantum Communications.</span></p><p>For Shabani, this means creating an integrated environment that bridges discovery with experimentation, starting with the physical components all the way to quantum algorithm centers. That will include a fabrication facility in the new building in Manhattan, as well as the <a href="https://engineering.nyu.edu/news/chips-and-science-act-spurs-nanofab-cleanroom-ribbon-cutting-nyu-tandon-school-engineering" target="_blank"><span>NYU Nanofab</span></a> in Brooklyn directed by Davood Shahjerdi. New York Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand recently secured <a href="https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2026/february/nyu-receives--1-million-in-funding-from-senators-schumer-and-gil.html" target="_blank">$1 million in congressionally-directed spending</a> to bring Thermal Laser Epitaxy (TLE) technology — which allows for atomic-level purity, minimal defects, and streamlined application of a diverse range of quantum materials — to NYU, marking the first time the equipment will be used in the U.S.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image"> <img alt="Two people hold semiconductor wafers during a presentation with audience taking photos." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1a0dbca6c6bb8fb7dbf4d399689b2922" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="d434c" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/two-people-hold-semiconductor-wafers-during-a-presentation-with-audience-taking-photos.jpg?id=65322354&width=980"/> <small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">NYU Nanofab manager Smiti Bhattacharya and Nanofab Director Davood Shahjerdi at the nanofab ribbon-cutting in 2023. The nanofab is the first academic cleanroom in Brooklyn, and serves as a prototyping facility for the NORDTECH Microelectronics Commons consortium.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">NYU WIRELESS</small></p><p>Tight control over fabrication, and can allow researchers to pivot quickly when a breakthrough in one area — say, finding a cheaper, more reliable material like silicon carbide — can be explored for use across all three applications, and offers unique access to academics and the private sector alike to sophisticated pieces of specialty equipment whose maintenance knowledge and costs make them all-but-impossible to maintain outside of the right staffing and environment.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image"> <img alt="3D model of a laboratory layout, highlighting the Yellow Room in bright yellow." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e7c1128703d96de919ed2ce440a97416" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="62d58" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/3d-model-of-a-laboratory-layout-highlighting-the-yellow-room-in-bright-yellow.png?id=65322596&width=980"/> <small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">The NYU Nanofab is Brooklyn’s first academic cleanroom, with a strategic focus on superconducting quantum technologies, advanced semiconductor electronics, and devices built from quantum heterostructures and other next-generation materials.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">NYU Nanofab</small></p><p><span>That speed and adaptability is the NYUQI’s competitive edge. It turns fragmented challenges into holistic solutions, positioning the Institute to solve real-world problems for its New York neighbors—from highly secure data transmission to next-generation drug discovery.</span></p><h2>Testing Quantum Communication in NYC</h2><p>The integrated approach also makes the NYUQI a testbed for the most critical near-term applications. Take Quantum Communications, which is essential for creating an “unhackable” quantum internet. In an industry first, NYU worked with the quantum start-up Qunnect to <a href="https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2023/september/nyu-takes-quantum-step-in-establishing-cutting-edge-tech-hub-in-.html" target="_blank"><span>send quantum information through standard telecom fiber</span></a> in New York City between Manhattan and Brooklyn through a 10-mile quantum networking link. Instead of simulating communication challenges in a lab, the NYUQI team is already leveraging NYU’s city-wide campus by utilizing existing infrastructure to test secure quantum transmission between Manhattan and Brooklyn. </p><p class="pull-quote">The NYUQI team is already leveraging NYU’s city-wide campus by utilizing existing infrastructure to test secure quantum transmission between Manhattan and Brooklyn.</p><p>This isn’t just theory; it is building a functioning prototype in the most demanding, dense urban environment in the world. Real-time, real-world deployment is a critical component missing in other isolated institutions. When the NYUQI achieves results, the technology will be that much more readily available to the massive financial, tech, and communications organizations operating right outside their door.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image rm-float-left rm-resized-container rm-resized-container-25" data-rm-resized-container="25%" style="float: left;"> <img alt="Scientist in protective gear working in a laboratory with samples." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d644b791788af64769a853d0516834e6" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="dc2fb" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/scientist-in-protective-gear-working-in-a-laboratory-with-samples.jpg?id=65322378&width=980"/> <small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">NYUQI includes a state-of-the-art Nanofabrication Cleanroom in Brooklyn serving as a high-tech foundry.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">NYU Tandon</small></p><p><span>While the Institute has built the physical infrastructure and designed the necessary scientific architecture, its enduring contribution will be the specialized workforce it creates for the new quantum economy. This addresses the market’s greatest deficit: a lack of individuals trained not just in physics, but in the integrated, full-stack approach that quantum demands.</span></p><p>By creating a pipeline of 100 to 200 graduate and doctoral students who are encouraged to collaborate across Computing, Sensing, and Communications, the NYUQI is narrowing the skills gap. These will be future leaders who can speak the language of the physicist, the materials scientist, and the engineer simultaneously. This commitment to interdisciplinary talent is also fueled by the launch of the new Master of Science in Quantum Science & Technology program at NYU Tandon, positioning the university among a select group worldwide offering such a specialized degree.</p><p>Interdisciplinary education creates the shared language and understanding poised to make graduates coming from collaborations in the NYUQI extremely valuable in the current landscape. Quantum challenges are not just technical; they are managerial and philosophical as well. An engineer working with the NYUQI will understand the requirements of the nanofabrication cleanroom and the foundations of superconducting qubits for quantum computing, just as a physicist will understand the application needs of an industry partner like a large financial institution. In a field where the entire team must be able to communicate seamlessly, these are professionals truly equipped to rapidly translate discovery into deployable technology. Creating a talent pipeline at scale will provide a missing link that converts New York’s vast commercial energy into genuine quantum advantage.</p><h2>NYUQI: Building Talent, Technology, and Structure</h2><p><span>The vision for the NYUQI </span><span>is an act of strategic geography that plays directly into the sheer volume of opportunity and demand right outside their new facility. </span><span>By building the talent, the technology, and the structure necessary to capitalize on this dense environment, NYU is not just participating in the quantum race, it is actively steering it.</span></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image"> <img alt="Conference room with attendees seated at round tables, facing a presenter on stage." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f5e2ae16e0c5ebc4f0828d52ed639115" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="02b7e" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/conference-room-with-attendees-seated-at-round-tables-facing-a-presenter-on-stage.jpg?id=65322370&width=980"/> <small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Attendees of NYU’s 2025 Quantum Summit.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Tracey Friedman/NYU</small></p><p>The initial hypothesis for the NYUQI was simple: the ultimate advantage lies in pursuing the science in the right place at the right time. Now, the institute will ensure that the next wave of scientific discovery, capable of solving previously intractable problems in finance, medicine, and security, will be conceived, built, and tested in the heart of New York City.</p>