Agenda
Sunday, August 2, 2026
| Time | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. | Welcome Reception (*optional) *Heavy hors d’oeuvres served in lieu of dinner | Conference Hotel Lobby |
Monday, August 3, 2026
| Time | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 7:30 – 8:15 a.m. | Registration | General Session Room |
| 8:15 – 8:25 a.m. | Welcome to SQC 26 Gina Tourassi, CCSD Associate Laboratory Director and Cynthia Jenks, PSD Associate Laboratory Director *Working Breakfast | General Session Room |
| 8:25 – 8:30 a.m. | Session I Introduction: Quantum Networking Yanbao Zhang, ORNL, Joe Lukens, Purdue University, and Mariam Kiran, ORNL | General Session Room |
| 8:30 – 9:15 a.m. | Plenary Speaker: Galan Moody, University of California, Santa Barbara Presentation Title: Heterogeneous Integrated Photonics for Quantum Networking | General Session Room |
| 9:15 – 9:30 a.m. | Morning Break | |
| 9:30 – 11:15 a.m. | Breakout Session I – Quantum Networks QIS Focused Moderator: Yanbao Zhang, ORNL 9:30 – 9:55 a.m. Speaker I: Matthieu Bloch, Georgia Tech University Presentation Title: Quantum Ring States 9:55 – 10:00 a.m. – Q&A 10:00 – 10:25 a.m. Speaker II: Scott Glancy, NIST Presentation Title: Quantum Position Verification with Remote Untrusted Devices 10: 25 – 10:30 a.m. – Q&A 10:30 – 10:55 a.m. Speaker III: Peach Lu, Qunnect and Purdue University Presentation Title: Quantum Hardware for Deployed Fiber Networks 10:55 – 11:00 a.m. – Q&A 11:00 – 11:15 a.m. – Panel Discussion | General Session Room |
| 9:30 – 11:15 a.m. | Breakout Session II – AI/ctrl for Quantum Networks Moderator: Mariam Kiran, ORNL 9:30 – 9:55 a.m. Speaker I: Jianqing Liu, North Carolina State University Presentation Title: Quantum Network Control and Applications in Classical Wireless Systems 9:55 – 10:00 a.m. – Q&A 10:00 – 10:25 a.m. Speaker II: Brian Kirby, Army Research Lab Presentation Title: Quantum state characterization via machine learning 10: 25 – 10:30 a.m. – Q&A 10:30 – 10:55 a.m. Speaker III: Gayane Vardoyan, University of Massachusetts, Amherst Presentation Title: Learning to Control Quantum Networks 10:55 – 11:00 a.m. – Q&A 11:00 – 11:15 a.m. – Panel Discussion | Roy McDonald Jr. Ballroom |
| 9:30 – 11:15 a.m. | Breakout Session III – Quantum Photonics Hardware Moderator: Ben Lawrie, ORNL 9:30 – 9:55 a.m. Speaker I: Joseph Lukens, Purdue University Presentation Title: Frequency bins and integrated photonics: the quantum rainbow connection 9:55 – 10:00 a.m. – Q&A 10:00 – 10:25 a.m. Speaker II: Erin Sheridan, Air Force Research Lab Presentation Title: I’ll have the works! What quantum networking means at AFRL 10: 25 – 10:30 a.m. – Q&A 10:30 – 10:55 a.m. Speaker III: David Hucul, Air Force Research Lab Presentation Title: Heterogeneous Quantum Networks 10:55 – 11:00 a.m. – Q&A 11:00 – 11:15 a.m. – Panel Discussion | Mountain Room |
| 11:15 a.m. – 12:45 p.m. | Diamond Sponsor Presentations Diamond Sponsor Speaker I: Andrea Delgado, Qblox Presentation Title: Software Challenges in Scalable Quantum Control Diamond Sponsor Speaker II: Al McLean, IonQ Presentation Title: Building the Quantum Technology Platform with IonQ *Working Lunch | General Session Room |
| 12:45 – 1:00 p.m. | Group Photo | Conference Hotel Courtyard |
| 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. | Poster Session | Roy McDonald Jr. Ballroom |
| 2:00 – 2:15 p.m. | Afternoon Break | |
| 2:15 – 2:30 p.m. | Session II Introduction: Quantum Advantage for National Security Craig Moss, ORNL and Mike Hayduk, Air Force Research Lab | General Session Room |
| 2:30 – 3:00 p.m. | Plenary Speaker: Allyson O’Brien, DARPA Presentation Title: Mitigating National Security Risks with Quantum Systems | General Session Room |
| 3:00 – 3:40 p.m. | Panel Session I: Quantum for Alternate PNT Moderator: Mike Hayduk, AFRL Panelists: Dan Chatelain, AFGSC Carter Christopher, ORNL Mike Slocum, AFRL | General Session Room |
| 3:40 – 4:20 p.m. | Panel Session II: Enabling Quantum Communications on Classical Infrastructure Moderator: Nick Peters, ORNL Panelists: Erin Sheridan, AFRL Phil Evans, ORNL Allyson O’Brien, DARPA | General Session Room |
| 4:20 – 5:00 p.m. | Panel Session III: Quantum-Enabled Secure End-to-End Operations for Decision Superiority Moderator: Teja Kuruganti, ORNL Panelists: Nick Peters, ORNL Jason Schaake, Leidos Joe Tischler, Univ of Oklahoma | General Session Room |
| 5:00 – 7:30 p.m. | Keynote Presentation Speaker: Sabre Kais, North Carolina State University Presentation Title: A Journey Through Open Problems in Quantum Information and Quantum Computing *Working Dinner Reception | General Session Room |
| 7:30 p.m. | Adjourn |
Tuesday, August 4, 2026
| Time | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 8:00 – 8:15 a.m. | Registration | |
| 8:15 – 8:25 a.m. | Recap of Day 1 and Review of Day 2 *Working Breakfast | General Session Room |
| 8:25 – 8:30 a.m. | Session III Introduction: Quantum Computing Daniel Claudino, ORNL, Ashlyn Burch, ORNL, and Lex Kemper, North Carolina State University | General Session Room |
| 8:30 – 9:15 a.m. | Plenary Speaker: Kevin Obenland, MIT Presentation Title: Application Driven Evaluation of Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing Architectures | General Session Room |
| 9:15 – 9:30 a.m. | Morning Break | |
| 9:30 – 11:15 a.m. | Breakout Session I – Quantum Simulations of Materials Moderator: Yan Wang, ORNL 9:30 – 9:55 a.m. Speaker I: Yongxin Yao, Ames National Laboratory Presentation Title: Quantum-Classical Embedding and Adaptive Variational Quantum Algorithms for Correlated Electron Systems 9:55 – 10:00 a.m. – Q&A 10:00 – 10:25 a.m. Speaker II: Arnab Banerjee, Purdue University Presentation Title: Quantum Computing meets Spectroscopy in Quantum Magnets 10: 25 – 10:30 a.m. – Q&A 10:30 – 10:55 a.m. Speaker III: Nick Mayhall, Indiana University Presentation Title: Using Pauli-based circuit simulation tools for chemistry simulation 10:55 – 11:00 a.m. – Q&A 11:00 – 11:15 a.m. – Panel Discussion | General Session Room |
| 9:30 – 11:15 a.m. | Breakout Session II – HPC/QC/AI Architectures Moderator: Daniel Claudino, ORNL 9:30 – 9:55 a.m. Speaker I: Laura Schulz, Argonne National Laboratory Presentation Title: The Missing Middle of Quantum Supercomputing: From Fault-Tolerant Hardware to a Managed Scientific Resource 9:55 – 10:00 a.m. – Q&A 10:00 – 10:25 am Speaker II: Mitsuhisa Sato, RIKEN Center for Computational Science Presentation Title: JHPC Quantum platform and applications for Quantum-HPC hybrid computing 10: 25 – 10:30 a.m. – Q&A 10:30 – 10:55 a.m. Speaker III: Katie Klymko, National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center Presentation Title: Delivering Quantum Computing to NERSC’s Scientific Community: User Access and Hardware Assessment Through the QUEST Program 10:55 – 11:00 a.m. – Q&A 11:00 – 11:15 a.m. – Panel Discussion | Roy McDonald Jr. Ballroom |
| 9:30 – 11:15 a.m. | Breakout Session III – Quantum Computing Hardware Moderator: Ashlyn Burch, ORNL 9:30 – 9:55 a.m. Speaker I: Huanqian Loh, Duke University Presentation Title: Non-Equilibrium Dynamics in a Rydberg Quantum Simulator 9:55 – 10:00 a.m. – Q&A 10:00 – 10:25 a.m. Speaker II: Chris Yale, Sandia National Laboratory Presentation Title: Spins and Ladders: Building Qubit-Boson Computing in the QSCOUT Trapped-Ion Testbed 10: 25 – 10:30 a.m. – Q&A 10:30 – 10:55 a.m. Speaker III: Olivier Pfister, University of Virginia Presentation Title: AI-driven, deterministic non-Gaussian resource generation for fully scalable photonic quantum computing 10:55 – 11:00 a.m. – Q&A 11:00 – 11:15 a.m. – Panel Discussion | Mountain Room |
| 11:15 a.m. – 12:45 p.m. | Diamond Sponsor Presentations Diamond Sponsor Speaker I: Elisha Svetitsky, Quantum Machines Presentation Title: Fast-Feedback Qubit Calibration Interleaved with Quantum Circuits Diamond Sponsor Speaker II: Mike Piech, Rigetti Presentation Title: Rigetti’s Relentless Progress to Quantum Advantage *Working Lunch | General Session Room |
| 12:45 – 12:50 p.m. | Session IV Introduction: Quantum Sensing Josh Damron, ORNL, Haocun Yu, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and Katyayani Seal, Single Quantum | General Session Room |
| 12:50 – 1:35 p.m. | Plenary Speaker: Victor Acosta, University of New Mexico Presentation Title: Precision measurement and spectroscopy with solid-state spins | General Session Room |
| 1:50 – 3:35 p.m. | Breakout Session I – Superconducting Quantum Sensors Moderator: Katya Seal, Single Quantum 1:50 – 2:15 p.m. Speaker I: Karl Berggren, MIT Presentation Title: Superconducting Nanowire-Based Single-Photon Detectors 2:15 – 2:20 p.m. – Q&A 2:20 – 2:45 p.m. Speaker II: Nirjhar Sarkar, ORNL Presentation Title: Disorder Engineering of NbTiN SNSPDs via He Ion Implantation 2:45 – 2:50 p.m. – Q&A 2:50 – 3:15 p.m. Speaker III: Petro Maksymovych, Clemson University Presentation Title: Atomic-Scale Andreev Sensing for Quantum Materials 3:15 – 3:20 p.m. – Q&A 3:20 – 3:35 p.m. – Panel Discussion | General Session Room |
| 1:50 – 3:35 p.m. | Breakout Session II – Quantum Sensors for Fundamental Physics Moderator: Josh Damron, ORNL 1:50 – 2:15 p.m. Speaker I: Xing Wu, Michigan State University Presentation Title: Towards Quantum Control and Sensing with Radioactive Molecules for Fundamental Symmetry Tests 2:15 – 2:20 p.m. – Q&A 2:20 – 2:45 p.m. Speaker II: Dalziel Wilson, University of Arizona Presentation Title: Cavity optomechanical dark matter detectors: A pathfinder experiment 2:45 – 2:50 p.m. – Q&A 2:50 – 3:15 p.m. Speaker III: Chris Overstreet, Johns Hopkins University Presentation Title: Ytterbium atom interferometry for dark matter searches 3:15 – 3:20 p.m. – Q&A 3:20 – 3:35 p.m. – Panel Discussion | Roy McDonald Jr. Ballroom |
| 1:50 – 3:35 p.m. | Breakout Session III – Spin-Based Quantum Sensors Moderator: Haocun Yu, UT, Knoxville 1:50 – 2:15 p.m. Speaker I: Yueh-Chun Wu, ORNL Presentation Title: Quantum Defects Meet Quantum Materials: Engineering hBN Spin Ensembles for Relaxometry Quantum Sensing 2:15 – 2:20 p.m. – Q&A 2:20 – 2:45 p.m. Speaker II: Abdelghani Laraoui, University of Nebraska Presentation Title: Probing Spin Dynamics of van der Waals Magnets Using Nitrogen-Vacancy Magnetic Microscopy 2:45 – 2:50 p.m. – Q&A 2:50 – 3:15 p.m. Speaker III: Chunhui Du, Georgia Tech University Presentation Title: Quantum Sensing of Quantum Materials 3:15 – 3:20 p.m. – Q&A 3:20 – 3:35 p.m. – Panel Discussion | Mountain Room |
| 3:35 – 3:45 p.m. | Transition to NQISRC Panel Session | |
| 3:45 – 5:15 p.m. | Featured Session I: NQISRC Directors Panel Moderator: Cynthia Jenks, ORNL Panelists: Travis Humble, QSC Bert de Jong, QSA Martin Holt, Q-NEXT Anna Grassellino, SQMS Charles Black, C2QA | General Session Room |
| 5:15 p.m. | Adjourn *Dinner on your own |
Wednesday, August 5, 2026
| Time | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 8:30 – 8:40 a.m. | Recap of Day 2 and Review of Day 3 *Working Breakfast | General Session |
| 8:40 – 8:45 a.m. | Session V Introduction: Quantum Materials Matt Brahlek, ORNL, Joon Sue Lee, University of TN, Knoxville, and F. Joseph Heremans, Argonne National Laboratory | General Session |
| 8:45 – 9:30 a.m. | Plenary Speaker: F. Joseph Heremans, Argonne National Laboratory Presentation Title: Materials co-design for scalable solid-state quantum technologies | General Session |
| 9:30 – 9:45 a.m. | Morning Break | |
| 9:45 – 11:30 a.m. | Breakout Session I – Materials for Superconducting Circuits Moderator: Joon Sue Lee, UT, Knoxville 9:45 – 10:10 a.m. Speaker I: Divine Kumah, Duke Presentation Title: Emergent Superconductivity at Oxide Heterointerfaces 10:10 – 10:15 a.m. – Q&A 10:15 – 10:40 a.m. Speaker II: Mihir Pendharkar, Stanford Presentation Title: Beyond Conventional Superconductor Deposition, and What It Might Mean for Qubits 10: 40 – 10:45 a.m. – Q&A 10:45 – 11:10 a.m. Speaker III: Kevin Grossklaus, MIT Presentation Title: Identifying and Reducing Sources of Loss in Superconducting Qubits Through Materials and Device Processing Choices 11:10 – 11:15 a.m. – Q&A 11:15 – 11:30 a.m. – Panel Discussion | General Session |
| 9:45 – 11:30 a.m. | Breakout Session II – AI for Quantum Materials Moderator: Matt Brahlek, ORNL 9:45 – 10:10 a.m. Speaker I: Tiffany Kaspar, PNNL Presentation Title: Improving quantum materials synthesis: Artificial intelligence for on-the-fly analysis and control during oxide molecular beam epitaxy 10:10 – 10:15 a.m. – Q&A 10:15 – 10:40 a.m. Speaker II: Sumner Harris, ORNL Presentation Title: AI Agents for Materials Synthesis: Hypothesis Generation and Self-Improving Processes 10: 40 – 10:45 a.m. – Q&A 10:45 – 11:10 a.m. Speaker III: Rob Moore, ORNL Presentation Title: Autonomous Science Ecosystems and AI-Enabled Quantum Materials Discovery 11:10 – 11:15 a.m. – Q&A 11:15 – 11:30 a.m. – Panel Discussion | Roy McDonald Jr. Ballroom |
| 9:45 – 11:30 a.m. | Breakout Session III – Materials for Quantum Networks Moderator: F. Joseph Heremans, Argonne National Laboratory 9:45 – 10:10 a.m. Speaker I: Bogdan Dryzhakov, ORNL Presentation Title: Scalable Nonlinear Materials Platforms Toward Quantum Photonic Integrated Circuits 10:10 – 10:15 a.m. – Q&A 10:15 – 10:40 a.m. Speaker II: Linbo Shao, Virginia Tech University Presentation Title: Lithium Niobate Integrated Phononics 10: 40 – 10:45 a.m. – Q&A 10:45 – 11:10 a.m. Speaker III: Andy Mounce, Sandia National Laboratory Presentation Title: QICK-DAWG: A Low-Cost Open-Source FPGA Platform for Quantum Defect Control 11:10 – 11:15 a.m. – Q&A 11:15 – 11:30 a.m. – Panel Discussion | Mountain Room |
| 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. | Diamond Sponsor Presentations Diamond Sponsor Speaker I: Adam Holmes, Nvidia Presentation Title: Designing the Accelerated Quantum Supercomputer With AI and Digital Twins *Working Lunch | General Session Room |
| 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. | Featured Session II: Quantum Computing Contributed Talks Speaker I: Matthew Feldman, ORNL Speaker II: Mark Byrd, ORNL Speaker III: John Sorebo, Synopsys Speaker IV: Rick Mukherjee, University of Tennessee, Chattanooga Speaker V: Sarah Chehade, The Wiser Speaker VI: Frank Mueller, North Carolina State University Speaker VII: Vicente Leyton Ortega, ORNL Speaker VIII: Shaked Regev, ORNL | General Session Room |
| 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. | Featured Session II: Quantum Materials Contributed Talks Speaker I: An-Ping Li, ORNL Speaker II: Cheng Gong, University of Maryland Speaker III: Yinong Zhou, Auburn University Speaker IV: Kevin Roccapriore, AtomQ Speaker V: Mina Yoon, ORNL Speaker VI: Spencer Gellerup, ORNL | Roy McDonald Jr. Ballroom |
| 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. | Featured Session II: Quantum Networking/Sensing Contributed Talks Speaker I: Nagi Rao, ORNL Speaker II: Aneesh Ramaswamy, ORNL Speaker III: Anil Patnaik, AFIT Speaker IV: Katya Seal, Single Quantum Speaker V: Claire Marvinney, ORNL Speaker VI: Yan Wang, ORNL | Mountain Room |
| 3:00 – 3:15 p.m. | Afternoon Break | |
| 3:15 – 4:15 p.m. | Featured Session III: Regional and National Priorities in QIS: from basic research to deployed technologies Moderator: Susan Hubbard, Deputy for Science & Technology, ORNL Panelists: Resham Kulkarni, BER Rima Oueid, Office of Technology Commercialization Nathan Buttrey, TNECD Wilfred Ngwa, ARPA-H Shaun Gleason, ORNL | General Session |
| 4:15 – 4:30 p.m. | Wrap-Up Discussion and Closeout of SQC 26 | General Session |
| 4:30 p.m. | SQC 26 Concludes |