This is the "super group"! Those young scientists who are "entangled" with quantum

Xinhua News Agency, Hefei, May 3, Title: This is the "super team"! Those young scientists who are "entangled" with quantum

Xinhua News Agency reporters Dai Wei and Cao Jiayue

In 1900, in Germany, the 42-year-old Planck first proposed the "quantum theory", and the once indestructible Newtonian mechanics was cracked by a beam of light from the microscopic world.

More than 100 years later, China. "Mozi", "Jiuzhang", "Zu Chongzhi"... Standing at the new starting point of the "Second Quantum Revolution", my country's quantum science and technology has made frequent good news and has become an important force in the international quantum scientific research landscape.

Behind these achievements are a group of young scientists who have the "greater interests of the country" in their hearts. They use their youth to sharpen their ambition to serve the country, bravely scale the pinnacles of science and technology, and become a "super team" in the field of quantum research in my country.

"In scientific research, failure is commonplace"

"The success you see in textbooks is just an occasional event, and failure is the norm." Rong Xing, a 39-year-old professor at the University of Science and Technology of China, said that how people face failure divides them into different types. "You need to have a spirit of revolutionary optimism," he said with a smile.

Before the age of 22, the word "failure" seemed to be out of Rong Xing's vocabulary. In 2001, at the age of 18, he was admitted to the School of Physics of the University of Science and Technology of China, and was later recommended to study for a master's and doctoral degree at the same university.

In 2005, Rong Xing, a first-year graduate student, chose scientific instruments as his research direction and began to explore the infinite "entanglement" with quantum. He entered this field with great anticipation, but what awaited him were unprecedented challenges.

"The functions of the instruments were limited, the plans were repeatedly overturned, and the experimental results were not as expected..." Rong Xing said that at that time, my country's research in this field was far behind the international level. Due to the lack of experimental instruments and experimental samples, even doing experiments was a luxury.

Ten years passed in a flash, and Rong Xing survived sleepless nights and repeated failures. After hard work, he and his colleagues used the magnetic resonance equipment they developed independently to achieve the highest precision spin control in the world. "Scientific research can achieve phased results, but there is no end." Rong Xing said that as a young scientist, he should continue to carry forward the spirit of scientists and strive to write an answer sheet for the era of scientific and technological self-reliance.

“Let scientific and technological achievements serve more people”

In 2009, Sun Fangwen, a young scientist who had just entered his thirties, made a choice that could change his life.

After completing his postdoctoral studies at Columbia University in the United States, he gave up the generous treatment abroad and returned to his alma mater, the University of Science and Technology of China.

"I didn't think too much about it at the time, because Teacher Guo wanted me to come back," said Sun Fangwen, referring to Guo Guangcan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a quantum information scientist.

Selection, since 1997.

That year, Sun Fangwen took the college entrance examination. "Except for physics, my math and chemistry scores were not ideal," he said. Even so, he was admitted to the University of Science and Technology of China with high scores.

When choosing a major, he chose physics without hesitation, as it was the major he would "perform normally".

After four years of undergraduate study and six years of graduate study, he came to a crossroads in his life when he graduated with a doctorate. It was Professor Guo's support and passion for scientific research that made him truly devote himself to the field of quantum sensing and continue to learn, research and further his studies.

The year he returned to China, he made a wish: in another 10 years, our scientific research results will catch up with the world's advanced level.

Ten years later, the wish finally came true.

The quantum sensing technology that Sun Fangwen participated in researching has basically achieved independent control in recent years, and the possibility of transforming the results has been seen.

"Research results cannot just lie on paper, they must serve people." Sun Fangwen said that it may take decades from theoretical breakthroughs to their transformation into technological applications.

"But if one day, I can see the research results enter our lives, I think it's worth it," said Sun Fangwen.

“I only want to do this one thing in my life.”

On October 26, 2021, Zhu Xiaobo breathed a sigh of relief.

The University of Science and Technology of China announced that my country has successfully built a 66-bit programmable superconducting quantum computing prototype "Zu Chongzhi No. 2", which can solve the "quantum random circuit sampling" task more than 10 million times faster than the world's fastest supercomputer. This makes China the only country to have reached the "quantum supremacy" milestone in two technical routes.

Zhu Xiaobo is the specific person in charge of the "Zu Chongzhi No. 2" project.

In 2008, Zhu Xiaobo, who was already an associate professor at the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, gave up his teaching position and went to Japan for further studies. He was 32 years old that year.

Five years later, he declined his mentor's request to stay and returned to the Institute of Physics.

Three years after returning to China, Zhu Xiaobo joined the University of Science and Technology of China and began to develop a superconducting quantum computing prototype.

In the following years, dozens of researchers joined the team. They made great contributions to the development of quantum computing in my country with their inspiring "good news". "China cannot fall behind in this race that concerns the future of mankind, and we dare not stop," said Zhu Xiaobo.

"Everything we do today is for the future. I hope that the efforts of our generation can contribute to building a strong country in science and technology." Zhu Xiaobo feels that he is lucky to be doing something worth fighting for in his limited life. "I only want to accomplish this one thing in my life," he said.

Source: Xinhuanet