Harley Johnson, Ph.D., CEO of the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park (IQMP), delivered an IIDAI Seminar on November 6, 2025. The event included in-person participation from University of Illinois faculty, staff, students, and postdocs, as well as remote attendance from IBM leadership and researchers in Yorktown Heights, NY. In his talk, Harley outlined IQMP’s vision and mission, emphasizing its role in accelerating quantum technology commercialization, strengthening the regional and national quantum ecosystem, and advancing microelectronics innovation through close industry-academia collaboration. He also encouraged UIUC researchers to engage with IQMP through two primary avenues, highlighting opportunities for joint research, technology translation, and strategic program development. The key messages from his seminar are summarized as follows.
Located within the former U.S. Steel South Works site on the South Side of Chicago, the IQMP is a first-of-its-kind park built for quantum technology scale-up and related quantum and advanced microelectronics research and development. The Park will support the full ecosystem of companies, researchers, suppliers, end-users and other partners working to facilitate the development and commercialization of quantum technologies, including the world's first fault-tolerant quantum computers.
The project officially broke ground on September 30, 2025, and the IQMP has already begun establishing the state as a global hub for quantum innovation. At its core is IBM Quantum System Two, the world’s most advanced quantum computing system. Anchor tenant PsiQuantum, along with Infleqtion, Pasqal, and participants in the DARPA–Illinois Quantum Proving Ground program, will deploy their systems in the Park. Until construction of the IQMP facility is complete, IBM Quantum System Two will be hosted at the Hyde Park Lab.
Quantum computers have the potential to impact many of the biggest computational challenges in health care, energy, transportation, financial services, agriculture and national security. This technology will be a tool that engineers and scientists could someday leverage to help get life-saving drugs to patients faster, develop new approaches to green energy, design new efficient and cost-effective materials and more.
This is an exciting moment, and UIUC researchers are encouraged to engage through two avenues: the National Quantum Facility (NQF) and the National Quantum Algorithm Center (NQAC). The NQF is a University of Illinois-owned facility operated by the IQMP to accelerate quantum research and discovery in a shared experimental user facility. It will support a variety of quantum technologies from early-stage startups to established companies and research institutions, providing access to advanced infrastructure like industrial scale cryogenic cooling. The NQAC is a membership-based organization that connects industry end-users of quantum technology with quantum companies, academics, national labs and partners to advance how quantum adds value to companies and society.
Academic researchers looking to get involved now can apply for the NQAC’s new RFP which will provide seed funding for academic-industry quantum algorithms projects. For those planning ahead, academic researchers will eventually be able to access shared experimental research facilities at the NQF.