QBL undergraduate intern Srila Palanikumar receives distinguished UT-Austin research award
04/18/2025
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QBL undergraduate intern Srila Palanikumar receives the College of Natural Sciences Research Distinction Award from the University of Texas at Austin. This award is given to fewer than five percent of UT-Austin's graduating seniors in recognition of excellence in academics, research, entrepreneurship, and/or service and leadership at UT or the greater Austin community. Srila was recognized for her ongoing QBL research projects in studying potential instantiations of quantum algorithms for nucleic acid processing and in dissecting the photophysical properties of neuroproteins. She also highlighted the research poster she presented at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Quantum Computing User Forum in 2024 on using the quantum Fourier transform for enhancing MRI image processing workflows. Srila will join the QBL on a year-long postbaccalaureate research fellowship following her graduation this May. Congrats Srila!
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Dr. Kurian headlines Science Advances release and launch of CEQUAL with Dante Lauretta at Howard University
03/27/2025
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The QBL, in partnership with colleagues at the University of Arizona, UC-Santa Barbara, Harvard, and Google Quantum, is organizing a Center for Exploring Quantum Aspects of Life (CEQUAL), the culmination of a vision ten years in the making. The launch event, hosted by the QBL and held at the Howard University Interdisciplinary Research Building, coincides with the release of Dr. Kurian’s sole-author Science Advances research article, “Computational capacity of life in relation to the universe,” and engages cross-disciplinary faculty and administrators from across units: Physics and Astronomy, Mathematics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, IBM-HBCU Quantum Center, Microbiology, College of Medicine, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Divinity, Research Administration, University Communications, and collaborative partners from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, University of Maryland, Johns Hopkins, AAAS Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion, and others. Dr. Dante Lauretta, a Regents Professor at the University of Arizona and researcher renowned for his contributions to planetary science, cosmochemistry, and NASA’s OSIRIS-REx sample return mission from asteroid Bennu, delivers a lecture to Howard University faculty, scientists, staff, and trainees. Dr. Lauretta's lecture is followed by a lunch reception, where attendees discuss their expertise in relation to the quantum origins, evolution, and information processing of life.
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Dr. Kurian delivers opening lecture on the physics of water for 2025 Guy Foundation Spring Series
03/12/2025
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Dr. Philip Kurian, QBL founding director, presents “Living water and the quantum” at the 2025 Guy Foundation Spring Series on Water as a Quantum Biomolecule. He addresses the role of "the elephant in the room" played by water in the origins, organization, and development of living systems. Unlike all other solvents, water should seem wondrously weird to us, as it exhibits a suite of properties crucial to life's emergence and yet extremely uncommon in a single pure substance. The relative strengths of various types of chemical "bonds" are compared, highlighting the significance of the hydrogen bond, entropic forces organizing nonpolar solutes, and bespoke hydrogen bond networks forming in a terahertz dance around peptides and whole proteins. The common origins of nucleic acid, protein, and lipid precursors arising from the Kiliani-Fischer homologation chemistry requires periodic delivery of cyanosulfidic reagents in a primordial soup, with just a dash of ultraviolet light, sketching comparisons with deep-sea hydrothermal vents on Earth and brines for extremophilic life on the celestial bodies Ceres, Europa, and Enceladus. Supercriticality and collective electrodynamic effects are shown to serve as organizing speedups in the aqueous milieu. You can access the video here.
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QBL team present at the Gordon Research Conference in Tuscany
03/02/2025
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The QBL staff attends the 2025 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Technology and Theory at the Intersection of Quantum Science and Biological Mechanisms in Lucca, Italy, from March 2-7. Pictured from far left, Dr. James Murray (QBL K-12 liaison and intern coordinator) and Hamza Patwa (senior QBL intern) present posters on "Exploring quantum life: Creating tailored research experiences for QBL interns" and "Quantum-enhanced photoprotection in neuroprotein architectures emerges from collective light-matter interactions," respectively, while Dr. Kurian (QBL founding director) gives a talk on "Quantum optical mega-networks in biological architectures, and the computational capacity of life." Dr. Marco Pettini (QBL senior scientist, center) and colleagues were able to join the discussions, as were QBL research sponsors from the Guy Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, who also supported the GRC.
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QBL director gives invited lecture, meets with stakeholders and students at Arizona Astrobiology Center
02/05/2025
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Dr. Kurian presents “Biological qubit-light architectures and the computational capacity of life” at the University of Arizona Astrobiology Center in Tucson. His lecture explored how the evolution and information processing of quantum matter in the electromagnetic field provides insights into the origins of life—both on Earth and in extraterrestrial environments. During his visit to Tucson, Dr. Kurian met with key stakeholders, including Dante Lauretta, Principal Investigator of the OSIRIS-REx mission and a Regents Professor at the University of Arizona, to discuss a shared vision of quantum biology, and hung out with students at the Astrobio Lounge.
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Lighting the way to a new Alzheimer’s treatment
12/03/2024
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Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility features the QBL project "Computing superradiance effects in biomacromolecular dynamics in aqueous environments," as part of Summit supercomputer’s bonus year of major scientific achievements. SummitPLUS has enabled the QBL to achieve unprecedented understanding of the role of quantum optical effects in neural and aneural protein fibers, as pathways for information processing through physical degrees of freedom offered by the interaction of light and quantum matter. See related video here or here.
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Mini-review published on UV ultraweak photon emissions
11/29/2024
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Awarded the Guy Foundation 2023 Onion Prize and presented at an APS Section Fall 2024 meeting, Dr. Nathan Babcock’s mini-review on "Open quantum systems theory of ultraweak ultraviolet photon emissions: Revisiting Gurwitsch’s onion experiment as a prototype for quantum biology" was published in Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal. Taking a historical perspective, this work integrates compelling evidences that UV ultraweak photon emissions in living cells can trigger cell division through open quantum system resonance effects, thereby enhancing cell signaling even amidst substantial background noise.
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Dr. Kurian and the QBL team present at Alfred P. Sloan Matter-to-Life grantee meeting in NYC
10/14/2024
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Members of the QBL group attended the Sloan Matter-to-Life grantee meeting at Rockefeller Center in New York City from October 14th-16th. This venue provided a platform for knowledge exchange and collaboration among grant recipients and members of the Max Planck School Matter to Life. Dr. Philip Kurian presented the team's latest research findings on exploratory morphologies and synchronization indices during biocomputation of the slime mold Physarum polycephalum. QBL postdoc Dr. Suyash Bajpai presented a poster on optimizing slime mold solutions to NP-hard problems, and QBL intern coordinator Dr. James Murray presented his efforts in preparing young learners for quantum information science, quantum biology, and physics of life curricula. QBL intern Mr. Muhammad Chawla was also in attendance.
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QBL work featured on Laser Focus World
09/27/2024
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Justine Murphy discusses the QBL’s most recent publication "Quantum-enhanced photoprotection in neuroprotein architectures emerges from collective light-matter interactions," as part of the Photonics Hot List on the YouTube channel Laser Focus World. You can access the video here.
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QBL study on neuroprotein architectures challenges conventional view of amyloid in Alzheimer’s
08/26/2024
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QBL research on "Quantum-enhanced photoprotection in neuroprotein architectures emerges from collective light-matter interactions" was published in Frontiers in Physics. Congrats to senior undergraduate intern Hamza Patwa, a 2024 Barry Goldwater Scholar who served as first author, on his first paper! This research builds on a previous QBL study published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry that details how a certain quantum effect—single-photon superradiance—can survive the turbulent environment of the human body in massive networks of the amino acid tryptophan. The new study in Frontiers shows that these tryptophan networks have an even stronger ability to harness superradiant effects in amyloid fibrils—the primary target of many Alzheimer’s treatments—than in other neuroproteins, suggesting that amyloid aggregation may be a photoprotective response, rather than a cause of the disease. The new QBL study was also covered by Optica and BioPhotonics.
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Video credit: Quantum Biology Laboratory: Nathan Babcock and Philip Kurian
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QBL joins Quantum Thermodynamics Hub at QTD2024 at the University of Maryland-College Park
08/05/2024
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Dr. Kurian and QBL trainees attended the 2024 Quantum Thermodynamics Conference, hosted by the University of Maryland-College Park. Conference topics explored the interplay of quantum mechanics and thermodynamics. Dr. Kurian gave a lecture on Quantum-enhanced photoprotection in neuroprotein architectures in thermal environments. Dr. Suyash Bajpai presented a poster on Optimizing slime mold solutions to NP-hard problems using synchronization indices, and Mr. Hamza Patwa presented a poster on Single-photon superradiance in cylindrical collectives of two-level systems at thermal equilibrium.
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Photo credit: Bruce Rosenbaum and Jim Su
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QBL work featured on PBS Space Time
07/25/2024
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Australian astrophysicist Matt O’Dowd discusses the QBL’s recent publication “Ultraviolet Superradiance from Mega-Networks of Tryptophan in Biological Architectures”, as part of this video series by PBS Digital Studios. You can access the video here.
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QBL postdoc and graduate student mentor present at Princeton-TAMU Quantum Summer School in Casper, WY
07/15/2024
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Dr. Suyash Bajpai and Ms. Joi Malone gave oral presentations at the Princeton-Texas A&M University Summer School on Quantum Physics (QSS) at Casper College in Wyoming, held from July 15th-July 26th. These QBL team members discussed the remarkable ability of the slime mold Physarum polycephalum to solve the travelling salesman problem (Bajpai) and an investigation of magnetosensitive proteins with optically pumped quantum sensors (Malone).
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QBL director gives plenary lecture and members present in all-QBL session at Molecular Biophysics Workshop in France
07/01/2024
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Dr. Philip Kurian and QBL trainees attended the Molecular Biophysics Workshop in Montpellier, France, from July 1st-4th. QBL members kicked off an all-QBL opening conference session (Emerging topics in quantum phenomena and quantum devices) with lectures from postdoc Dr. Suyash Bajpai on "Optimizing slime mold solutions to NP-hard problems using synchronization and morphological indices"; from QBL postdoc alumnus Dr. Matteo Gori, who discussed "Exploring many-body dispersion in biomolecular complexes through quantum field theory perspectives"; and from QBL undergraduate intern Hamza Patwa, who gave a talk on "Quantum-enhanced photoprotection in neuroprotein architectures emerges from collective light-matter interactions." As the QBL founding director, Dr. Kurian headlined the July 4th plenary session with a lecture on "Quantum optical mega-networks in biological architectures, and the computational capacity of life," joining the following group of conference plenary speakers and distinguished scientists: Prof. Judith P. Klinman, Prof. Jack Tuszyński, Prof. Martina Havenith, and Prof. Cecilia Clementi.
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QBL welcomes new interns for summer and fall 2024
06/01/2024
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After a competitive application process, the QBL onboarded three new undergraduate interns and one graduate student mentor as the first cohort supported by the QBL’s five-year grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to support its growing research traineeship program. To learn more about the program or to apply, please click here. Applications are accepted from exceptional candidates on a rolling basis.
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QBL work featured on Science News with Sabine
05/12/2024
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German physicist and science communicator Sabine Hossenfelder discusses the QBL’s most recent work on quantum optical effects in microtubules, as part of her YouTube channel Science News with Sabine. You can access the video here.
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QBL study on quantum fiber optics in the brain published, selected as Editors’ Choice by Science magazine
04/19/2024
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QBL research on "Ultraviolet Superradiance from Mega-Networks of Tryptophan in Biological Architectures" was published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry and selected as both a feature cover by The JPC and as Editors’ Choice by Science magazine. QBL postdoc alumnus Dr. Nathan Babcock and QBL research associate Dr. Gustavo Montes Cabrera served as the first and second authors, respectively, along with our collaborators at the Università degli Studi di Firenze (Italy) and at EPFL (Switzerland). Supported by The Guy Foundation in the UK, this work represents the world-first demonstration of collective quantum optical behavior in a micron-scale protein aggregate, and constitutes the first experimental confirmation of single-photon superradiance in naturally occurring cytoskeletal filaments at room temperature.
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QBL intern Hamza Patwa selected as a Goldwater Scholar
03/29/2024
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QBL undergraduate intern Hamza Patwa is named a recipient of the 2024 Barry Goldwater Scholarship – the most prestigious undergraduate scholarship in the natural sciences, mathematics, and engineering in America. Established to identify college sophomores and juniors who show exceptional promise of becoming our next generation of research leaders in these fields, the Goldwater Scholarship supports the costs of tuition, fees, books, and room and board up to a maximum of $7,500 per full academic year. Hamza was selected in part due to the quality of his ongoing undergraduate research experience in the QBL, which has included a complete submission of his first publication (as first author) to a scientific journal. He will work this summer in quantum foundations research with Dr. Luis Barbado in Prof. Časlav Brukner’s group at the University of Vienna.
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QBL members attend Harvard ITAMP Winter School on Quantum Thermodynamics at Biosphere 2 in Tucson, AZ
02/24/2024
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QBL team members Dr. Suyash Bajpai, Mr. Hamza Patwa, and Dr. Philip Kurian attend the Harvard University ITAMP (Institute for Theoretical AMO Physics) Winter School on Quantum Thermodynamics at Biosphere 2 in Tucson, Arizona, from February 18th - 24th. This year’s winter school focused on quantum thermodynamics, a field that sits at the intersection of old-style thermodynamics and quantum information, and included lectures by Nicole Yunger Halpern (NIST/UMD) and QBL collaborator Kanu Sinha (University of Arizona). QBL members explored multiple areas of overlap between quantum thermodynamics and research activities in the QBL, including eigenstate thermalization, non-Markovian baths, fluctuation phenomena in open quantum systems, and work extraction in nonequilibrium settings. Hamza Patwa presented a poster on single-photon superradiance in cylindrically symmetric structures.
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Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the HU Graduate School support augmentation of the QBL’s nascent internship program
02/06/2024
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The QBL receives a five-year grant from the Sloan Foundation to support its growing undergraduate internship program. Complementing the QBL’s current Sloan Matter-to-Life award, and with a cost-match from the Howard University Graduate School, this internship grant will enable the QBL to nurture the talents of emerging young scientists through the creation of tailored research experiences to “explore quantum life.” Interns will gain hands-on research experience, mentoring from senior scientists, and participation in ongoing scientific projects in the QBL and with collaborators in the Washington metropolitan area, domestically, and across the globe. Dr. James Murray, the QBL's K-12 liaison and intern coordinator, will continue to provide mentoring, academic/career guidance, and whole-person support services to program participants. Interested applicants may Contact Us with a resume and cover letter outlining their specific goals and overlap with QBL research areas.
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QBL welcomes new postdoctoral scholar with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
01/02/2024
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Dr. Sanghita Sengupta – an expert in quantum condensed matter physics – joins the Quantum Biology Lab, most recently from the Donostia International Physics Center in Basque Country, Spain. She will be working on our Sloan-funded project investigating matter-to-life transitions in the multinucleate slime mold, Physarum polycephalum.
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QBL director co-leads final session at KITP program
12/19/2023
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Pictured from left to right with colleagues Dr. Marilù Chiofalo (Pisa), Dr. Luca Celardo (Firenze), and Dr. Susanne Yelin (Harvard), Dr. Kurian co-leads the concluding discussion on quantum effects in biological systems at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics program Out-of-equilibrium Dynamics and Quantum Information of Many-body Systems with Long-range Interactions.
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QBL receives Frontier and SummitPLUS awards
12/13/2023
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The 2024 Frontier and SummitPLUS allocations will grant the QBL more than 50,000 node hours at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility. Dedicated to computing many-body dispersion and superradiance effects in biomacromolecular dynamics in aqueous environments, these significant resources will facilitate the study of protein architectures found in viruses, slime molds, and mammalian brains.
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Dr. Nathan Babcock awarded 2023 Guy Foundation Onion Prize
12/13/2023
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To celebrate the centenary of Alexander Gurwitsch’s seminal experiment on non-chemical communication between onion roots, the UK-based Guy Foundation sponsored a research competition aimed at reimagining Gurwitsch’s original experiment and its scientific importance. Dr. Babcock, a postdoctoral research associate in the QBL, submitted an award-winning reinterpretation of Gurwitsch's original findings and its reproductions in the context of modern advances in quantum theory and photonics. Drawing from a wide body of original source material, Nathan recast Gurwitsch's conclusions about the implications of the onion experiments in terms of open quantum systems theory and is now working closely with the award adjudicators to revise his prize manuscript for peer-reviewed publication.
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QBL undergraduate showcases summer internship work at APS section meeting
11/10/2023
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QBL undergraduate intern Jasmine El Mrabti gives an oral presentation, entitled “A Many-Body Dispersion Approach to the Pre-Reaction DNA-EcoRI Catalytic Complex,” at the 2023 Fall Meeting of the Southeast Section of the American Physical Society. Jasmine conducted her computational study under the supervision of QBL postdoctoral scholar alumnus Dr. Matteo Gori, in collaboration with the Theoretical Chemical Physics group at the University of Luxembourg. When asked about her internship experiences with the QBL, she reports that they have “easily been one of the most transformative periods of my life…I feel like I now have a direction in physics, but more importantly I feel with certainty that I belong in the field.”
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Prof. Časlav Brukner presents on relational objectivity and the quantum measurement problem via Wigner’s friend thought experiment
10/03/2023
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Dr. Časlav Brukner, professor of quantum foundations and quantum information theory at the University of Vienna and scientific director of the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI-Vienna), presents on the contextual ambiguity of quantum state assignment as highlighted by the “Wigner’s friend” thought experiment, in order to address the quantum measurement problem. According to the standard postulates of quantum mechanics, which do not specify when to apply unitary quantum evolution and when to apply the state-update rule (so-called wavefunction collapse), a contradiction arises between the state assignment of Wigner’s friend and that of Wigner, illustrating the consequences of establishing “facts of the world” in different community “bubbles” of observers. Dr. Brukner’s group derives a no-go theorem, which asserts that our universe cannot maintain all of four fundamental aspects: locality, universality of quantum mechanics, freedom of choice, and observer-independent facts.
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Dr. Pratibha Dev presents to QBL on applying machine learning to solve decades-old problem for the development of novel quantum materials
09/05/2023
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Dr. Pratibha Dev, Professor of Physics at Howard University and former National Research Council fellow at the Naval Research Laboratory, presents on using machine learning techniques to solve a longstanding problem in condensed matter physics. This open problem, recognized at least as early as Linus Pauling in 1929, is how to predict the structure of complex ionic crystals, including the class of quantum materials known as transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). A solution to this problem would greatly enhance understanding and engineering of the structural properties of novel or experimentally unrealized TMDs. In this presentation, Dr. Dev shows how her group’s insightful use of high-throughput quantum mechanical computations with machine learning-based algorithms predicts the symmetry phase preferences of two-dimensional TMDs, hence addressing the limited predictive power of the so-called “Pauling rules” for these crystals.
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Dr. Masashi Aono lectures on slime mold-inspired algorithms for challenging optimization problems
08/14/2023
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Dr. Masashi Aono, a project professor at Keio University and CEO of Amoeba Energy Company in Japan, presents "Amoeba-inspired combinatorial optimization engine for trajectory planning of thousands of self-driving robots" for a QBL Quantum Sciences lecture, hosted in collaboration with the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University. This presentation explores an amoeba-inspired optimization engine designed for combinatorially explosive situations like the traveling salesman and satisfiability problems, crafted with a primary focus on next-generation manufacturing and logistics with semi-autonomous robots. This unique approach mirrors the problem-solving techniques of the ancient slime mold, Physarum polycephalum, a single-cell but multinucleate syncytial organism that exhibits complex spatiotemporal oscillatory dynamics. The lecture includes an introduction and Q&A moderated by the QBL director, comparisons to quantum annealing architectures, and a rich discussion across physics, biology, engineering, and computer science including Dr. Suyash Bajpai, Dr. Nirosha Murugan, Dr. Patrick McMillen, Dr. Doug Blackiston, Dr. Georgia Dunston, and others. You may contact us to receive announcements of future QBL Quantum Sciences lectures.
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QBL members attend Princeton-TAMU Quantum Summer School and Quantum Science Camp in Casper, WY
07/28/2023
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QBL team members Dr. Suyash Bajpai, Mr. Hamza Patwa, Dr. James Murray Jr., and Dr. Philip Kurian attend the Princeton-Texas A&M University Summer School on Quantum Physics (QSS) and Quantum Science Camp (QSC) at Casper College in Wyoming from July 17th-July 28th. The QSS has been directed for several decades by Dr. Marlan Scully and Dr. M. Suhail Zubairy (pictured in photo with QBL members and future QBL student James Murray III), both distinguished professors of quantum optics at Texas A&M University and joint authors of a classic text in the field. In the QSC, high school students and teachers are exposed to the quantum sciences through lectures by Dr. Zubairy and colleagues from his precalculus-only text Quantum Mechanics for Beginners (Oxford UP, 2020). QBL team members present on laser-induced filamentation in dense gases (Bajpai), single-photon superradiance in cylindrical structures (Patwa), quantum gravity (Patwa), a quantum biology unit of study for fourth and fifth graders (Murray), quantum optical mega-networks in biological architectures (Kurian), and the computational capacity of life and observable matter in the universe (Kurian).
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QBL welcomes new postdoctoral scholar with support from the HU Office of Research
07/10/2023
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Thanks to support from the Howard University Office of Research, Dr. Suyash Bajpai -- a specialist in nonlinear quantum optics -- joins the Quantum Biology Lab with his newly minted Ph.D. from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA.
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“Answering life’s deepest questions”, the QBL is profiled in Howard Magazine
06/07/2023
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QBL members and their research activities are highlighted in the Spring/Summer 2023 issue of Howard Magazine. The article discusses the many applications of the QBL’s work, including – in the words of Dr. Kurian – “new treatment paradigms for cancer and dementia, fast optical sensors for detecting viral pathogens, advanced light-harvesting and photoprotective devices for energy capture and storage, unconventional platforms for quantum computing, and reevaluation of fundamental physical limits on digital and neurobiological information processing.”
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QBL director presents at The Science of Consciousness 2023 Quantum Biology workshop
05/22/2023
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Dr. Kurian presents “Living systems as transducers of light: Quantum (optical) biology at the macroscale” at the TSC 2023 Quantum Biology workshop in Taormina, Sicily, alongside distinguished speakers Jim Al-Khalili, Johnjoe McFadden, Giuseppe Vitiello, and Travis Craddock. The workshop brings together scientists with diverse expertise, spanning biology, physics, chemistry, neuroscience, and quantum theory. It focuses on processes in biology that demand quantum theories for prediction, with extensions to brain function and conscious information processing. The speakers highlight a range of topics, including reactive oxygen species production and bioenergetics, quantum tunneling effects in biological systems, the interaction of classical and quantum states of light with life, quantum optics in neurobiology, quantum field theory dynamics in biology, and the potential role of cytoskeletal vibrations in cognition.
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QBL K-12 liaison selected to participate in Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) teachers' conference
04/01/2023
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Dr. Murray attends the KITP teachers' conference after a competitive selection process. This venue allows high school physics teachers and other educational professionals to interact with leading research scientists from around the world. The conference topic is “What’s in a crystal? A quantum universe” and takes place in Santa Barbara, CA.
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Dr. Kurian presents special seminar at Texas A&M University
03/24/2023
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Dr. Kurian delivers a special seminar describing some of the QBL’s latest work, entitled "Ultraviolet superradiance from mega-networks of tryptophan in biological architectures." His seminar is held at Texas A&M University's Institute for Quantum Science & Engineering (IQSE), directed by Prof. Marlan Scully (of the Scully-Lamb quantum theory of the laser). After the talk, Dr. Kurian met with several distinguished luminaries in the audience, including Prof. Suhail Zubairy and Prof. Shaul Mukamel, as well as other IQSE scientists and trainees.
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Seven QBL staff members awarded support to attend first ever Gordon Research Conference in quantum biology
03/14/2023
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Congratulations to Dr. Muneer Abbas, Dr. Nathan Babcock, Dr. Matteo Gori, Dr. Khatereh Azizi, Dr. James Murray, Vincent Madhlopa, and Jasmine El Mrabti, who each received either a Carl Storm Fellowship or speaker support to attend the Gordon Research Conference: Emerging Methodologies to Investigate Quantum Effects in Biology! Each investigator will present a poster at the GRC taking place in Galveston, TX, on March 19-24, 2023.
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QBL director selected as Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) Fellow
02/14/2023
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Dr. Kurian is selected to be part of the second cohort of KITP Fellows. Funded by the Heising-Simons Foundation, the KITP Fellows program was inaugurated in 2022 and supports bi-directional exchange between the UC Santa Barbara-based physics institute and minority-serving institutions. Dr. Kurian will advance QBL research directions and training opportunities through his participation in two KITP programs: Out-of-equilibrium Dynamics and Quantum Information of Many-body Systems with Long-range Interactions and Deep Learning from the Perspective of Physics and Neuroscience.
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QBL receives major award from Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for Matter-to-Life research
01/06/2023
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The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation awards $1M to the QBL as part of its “Matter-to-Life” Program. The grant will support the lab in studying how self-organizing processes give rise to goal-oriented behaviors in the reassembly, agential decision-making, and information-processing activity of the multinucleate slime mold Physarum polycephalum. The QBL will work in collaboration with colleagues from the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University. News of the Sloan Foundation award to the QBL was featured in the Howard University Newsroom, The Sway, and The Quantum Insider.
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Dr. Kurian shines light on quantum worlds at TEDxBrookland (Washington, DC)
10/08/2022
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Philip Kurian, founding director of the Quantum Biology Lab, presents What's Your Reality? Shining Light on Quantum Worlds at this TEDx event - Striving Toward Excellent Minds - in the iconic Brookland neighborhood of Washington, DC. Dr. Kurian's TED talk takes us on a journey from the commonplace (trees and rainbows) to the quantum (electron), exploring our observational capacities, the supra-natural, challenges for our scientific models and philosophical frameworks, the limitlessness of Truth, and the co-relations of interacting communities of human subjectives. To watch the lecture, please access the video by clicking the picture.
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QBL welcomes Malawian graduate student from Eswatini
09/27/2022
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Microbiology specialist Mr. Vincent Madhlopa joins the Quantum Biology Lab, most recently from Eswatini Medical Christian University.
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Prof. David Lidzey and Dr. Tersilla Virgili present new effects in optical microcavities with applications to organic quantum batteries
07/26/2022
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Prof. David Lidzey, professor of physics and director of the Electronic and Photonic Molecular Materials Group at the University of Sheffield (UK), and Dr. Tersilla Virgili, a researcher at the Institute of Photonics and Nanotechnologies of the National Research Council (Italy), deliver a joint presentation to the QBL and wider network on "New effects in optical microcavities: From strong-coupled living bacteria to organic quantum batteries." To watch the lecture, with an introduction by Dr. Kurian and Q&A throughout, please access the video.
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QBL at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics
07/02/2022
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Dr. Kurian participates in scientific discussions at KITP (Santa Barbara, CA) during the program Emerging Regimes and Implications of Quantum and Thermal Fluctuational Electrodynamics.
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Theoretical physicist and author Carlo Rovelli discusses the relational view of quantum physics and quantum gravity
05/17/2022
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Prof. Carlo Rovelli, author of the global bestsellers The Order of Time, Helgoland, and the recently released There Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important Than Kindness, presents "The Relational Interpretation of Quantum Physics and Its Implications" to the QBL community. This lecture illustrates the advantages and radicality of interpreting quantum theory as the discovery of a deeply relational structure undergirding physical reality. He explains why this view helps in constructing a quantum theory of gravity and why it deflates radical dualities such as those assumed to give rise to the “hard” mind-body problem. To watch the lecture, with an introduction by Dr. Kurian and wide-ranging Q&A spanning technical physics, conceptual insight, and guiding philosophical frameworks, please access the video.
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Dr. Kurian discusses recentering our knowledge systems in a relational cosmos at AAAS Science for Seminaries event
04/30/2022
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Dr. Kurian delivers a keynote lecture on "Science is Not Enough to Save Us: Recentering our Knowledge Systems in a Relational Cosmos” for an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion (DoSER)-sponsored public engagement event organized by Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. His presentation explores the dualities between subjectivity and objectivity, spiritual and physical, mind and matter, and potentia and manifestation, examining Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, and the usual suspects but also engaging Søren Kierkegaard, Martin Buber, and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o in the search for a coherent and global description of reality. His discussion centers on our collective representations of the physical world, whose observational capacities and subjectivities count in our measurements, and how communities of subjectives form networks that construct bodies of knowledge. Communicating how a relational interpretation of quantum physics relinquishes the demand for universal objectivity, Dr. Kurian establishes the significance, mystery, and capaciousness of Truth in the cosmos.
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Dr. Gori presents at Institute for Pure & Applied Mathematics on multiscale approaches in quantum mechanics
04/01/2022
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Dr. Gori presents "Second-Quantization of Many-Body Dispersion Formalism: Towards Modeling of Million Atom Systems in Arbitrary Environments" at IPAM in Los Angeles, California. His presentation illustrates how a quantum field theoretical approach can provide insights into the structure, stability, and dynamical properties of physical, chemical, and biological systems interacting with complex environments.
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The Quantum Biology Laboratory is moving forward by reaching back
03/10/2022
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Dr. James Murray, K-12 Liaison in the QBL and Principal of William Rowen Elementary School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, partners with QBL scientists to establish a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) lab focused on training the next generation of students in quantum information science. Murray envisions the Quantum STEAM Lab—which includes 3D printers, 3D scanners, virtual reality headsets, a green room to create VR experiences, robotics, and science learning spaces to explore quantum concepts—as the first step toward a nationwide school movement integrating immersive learning experiences and cutting-edge science. Dr. Philip Kurian, principal investigator and founding director of the QBL, and Dr. Georgia Dunston, professor emerita and senior advisor in the QBL, both give remarks at the Quantum STEAM Lab’s virtual dedication ceremony.
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Prof. Vlatko Vedral entangles whole organisms to qubits in QBL Quantum Sciences lecture
01/26/2022
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Vlatko Vedral presents "Schrödinger’s tardigrade? Hybrid quantum technologies and living organisms entangled to quantum bits" for the QBL's Quantum Sciences lecture series. His presentation describes the basics of witnessing entanglement and contextualizes some of our present understanding of macroscopic quantum phenomena, in particular the few-millikelvin, ultra-low pressure superconducting qubit experiments with the wondrous, cryptobiotic “slow steppers” known as tardigrades. The lecture includes an introduction by Dr. Babcock and Q&A moderated by Dr. Kurian, which features a rich discussion including Templeton Prize winner Paul Davies, National Medal of Science recipient Judith Klinman, Nobel laureate William Phillips, and others. You may contact us to receive announcements of future QBL Quantum Sciences lectures.
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QBL director interview: "Searching for the brain's quantum network"
featured in SPIE Photonics Focus
01/01/2022
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Interviewed by the international society for optics and photonics, Dr. Kurian talks about the QBL's groundbreaking work in their search for quantum optical networks in the brain.
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QBL staff present at the African Physical Society joint conference
11/18/2021
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Dr. Kurian lectures on “Light and information as scaffold for organizing life" and Dr. Nathan Babcock presents on "Photonic Cooperativity and Coherence in Microtubule Architectures" at the Joint Virtual Meeting of the African Light Source, African Physical Society, and Pan African Conference on Crystallography.
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Dr. Babcock introduces speakers in Guy Foundation 2021 Autumn Series
11/03/2021 and 11/17/2021
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Dr. Nathan Babcock, postdoctoral scholar in the QBL, delivers overview prolegomena to introduce Professor Margaret Ahmad, Director of Research for the Institute of Biology Paris-Seine at Sorbonne University, and Professor Christoph Simon of the Institute for Quantum Science and Technology and Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, in the Guy Foundation 2021 Autumn Series.
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Prof. Tristan Hübsch introspects quantum foundations in opening QBL lecture
10/26/2021
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Dr. Tristan Hübsch presents "Introspections on Quantum Introspection" for the Quantum Biology Lab's inaugural lecture. This presentation describes investigations since his 1998 publication "Quantum mechanics is either non-linear or non-introspective" and highlights the Gödelian incompleteness inherent in all fundamental physics, and in axiomatic systems in general. To watch the lecture, with an introduction by Dr. Kurian and Q&A including Dr. William Phillips, who shared the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics, please access the video.
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QBL kicks off Biological Mentality Workshop
09/27/2021
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Dr. Kurian delivers the opening lecture for the Fifth Annual Workshop on Biological Mentality, an eclectic group of scientists, mathematicians, and philosophers. Other speakers in the series include Christoph Simon, Jack Tuszynski, MacArthur Fellow Stuart Kauffman, and Templeton Prize winner George F. R. Ellis.
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QBL research associate receives Ph.D. with distinction
09/16/2021
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Congratulations to Dr. Khatereh Azizi! As a QBL research associate joint with the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy, Dr. Azizi successfully defended her dissertation, with high marks, on "Mass transport through nano-structured membranes."
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QBL seminar at the Politecnico di Torino
09/10/2021
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Dr. Kurian, with support from Dr. Babcock, presents the QBL’s latest results at a seminar to the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Turin on "Cooperative quantum effects from THz to GHz: Evolution of superradiant states in mechanically oscillating tubulin architectures.”
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QBL presents at the UCLA Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute
06/30/2021
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Dr. Kurian delivers a virtual lecture to the UCLA Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute on "What is life today? Light and information as scaffold for organizing whole intelligences, and the future of quantum immortality."
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QBL receives NIH grant to develop ultrafast detector for extant and emerging pathogens
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QBL presents at 2021 Congress of the Canadian Association of Physicists
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QBL director appointed to UCLA Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute
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QBL presents at the RPI Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy Colloquium
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National Academies Workshop in Quantum Biology
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QBL to present at APS March Meeting
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QBL director kicks off Guy Foundation Spring Seminar Series for 2021
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Source: The Guy Foundation
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QBL to lead theory efforts on collaborative NSF grant
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QBL welcomes Canadian postdoctoral scholar from UK
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QBL director appointed to National Academies organizing committee
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QBL presents at Leverhulme QB-DTC seminar series
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QBL presents at the JQI special seminar
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QBL becomes first group outside UK to receive Guy Foundation grant
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American Physical Society March Symposium
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Dr. Gori gives seminar to the Department of Biochemistry in the Howard University College of Medicine
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QBL welcomes its first international postdoctoral scholar
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DOE Argonne Leadership Computing Facility awards QBL one million
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QuEBS 2019 in Puebla, Mexico
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QBL researchers visit collaborators at ICTP in Italy
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UCLA Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics Workshop: Machine Learning for Physics
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NSF selects quantum biology collaborative for Quantum Leap Challenge Institute conceptualization grant
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Dr. Dunston and Dr. Kurian invited to keynote ASU March forum
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QBL receives first major award from DARPA
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