More than two dozen science communicators convened on campus at the University of Maryland (UMD) from July 31 to Aug. 2 for a workshop focused on the fundamentals of quantum science and the subtleties of explaining it.
The workshop, called The Schrödinger Sessions Revisited: Quantum Information Meets Science Communication, was hosted by JQI and supported by a grant from the American Physical Society’s Innovation Fund. It was one of six quantum-focused projects sponsored in honor of 2025 being designated the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ). Workshop participants included science writers, science journalists, science illustrators and authors of children’s books about science, along with several attendees who work on science policy.
“Quantum physics has a reputation for being challenging to understand and explain,” says Chris Cesare, the Director of Communications and Outreach at JQI and the lead organizer of the event. “We wanted to give professional science communicators, who already know how to connect with their own audiences, the confidence to add quantum science into their content and coverage. We were thrilled that APS was willing to support our idea.”
In addition to Cesare, UMD alumni Emily Edwards, an associate research professor at Duke University and an affiliate of Duke Quantum Center, and Chad Orzel, the R. Gordon Gould associate professor of physics and astronomy at Union College, also organized the event.
The workshop featured presentations and panel discussions by UMD experts, alumni and invited outside speakers. The opening day introduced quantum science and its history in the 20th century and pointed to many of its important impacts, from long-established technologies like GPS and MRI machines to more modern applications like quantum computing and quantum sensing. Talks about cosmology and high-energy physics rounded out the day. The second day included sessions about the practice of communicating quantum science and the nuts and bolts of building qubits—the basic units of quantum information that form the information-processing heart of quantum devices. The final half-day of the workshop featured an interactive session on the foundations of quantum physics with a presentation and an open-ended discussion about the philosophical questions that quantum science often invites. Many of the workshop’s sessions were recorded and will be available on YouTube—a chance for anyone to benefit from the insights and expertise shared during the event.
In a post-workshop survey, participants unanimously reported that the workshop left them with a better understanding of q
(Credit: Bailey Bedford/JQI)uantum information science and that they felt more confident in their ability to communicate quantum physics. Many attendees expressed their eagerness to attend a follow-up event that would build upon what they learned at the workshop and delve deeper into particular quantum topics.
“Overall, this was a great workshop,” one participant said anonymously in the post-workshop survey. “I went from quantum zero to hero in the span of a few days. I really learned a lot and do appreciate this opportunity.”
The workshop followed nearly a decade after two earlier workshops, also called The Schrödinger Sessions, which brought science fiction writers to campus in 2015 and 2016. Since those earlier events, which Edwards and Orzel also organized, progress and investment in quantum information science have been accelerating at a rapid pace, supercharged by the passage of the National Quantum Initiative Act in the U.S. in 2018.
“It was really fun to celebrate a century of quantum discoveries with such a great group of communicators and content creators,” says Edwards, who also serves on the steering committee for IYQ. “During the workshop speakers talked about the basics and applications, but it is also worth noting that the last century of progress was only possible because governments, industries, and academic institutions decided that investing in fundamental physics would benefit humanity."
Original story: https://jqi.umd.edu/news/jqi-hosts-quantum-workshop-science-communicators