We ask some of our young researchers why they chose a career in science, what they are working on at ORNL, and where they would like to go with their careers.

Researchers have been intrigued by the possibility of quantum computing at least since the early 1980s, going back to the colorful Caltech physicist Richard Feynman’s declaration that “nature isn’t classical, dammit, and if you want to make a simulation of nature, you’d better make it quantum mechanical.”

Quantum materials have a variety of potential uses—in novel sensors or powerful quantum computers, for instance— but they no doubt have uses that we haven’t even considered yet.

Before researchers can experiment with a promising new quantum material, someone has to produce it.

For all its strangeness—or perhaps because of it—quantum mechanics holds enormous technological promise. Computers built on the unique rules of quantum mechanics have the potential to solve problems that are literally unsolvable on even the most powerful traditional computers. Quantum key distribution seems poised to bolster information security, and materials built on the interactions of quantum particles form the basis of extremely sensitive detectors.

On April 5, 2018, physicist Michael Berry delivered the Eugene P. Wigner Distinguished Lecture on the topic “Making Light of Mathematics.” His talk reflected on Wigner’s 1960 paper, “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences.” This is an edited transcript of our conversation following his lecture.

While V-J Day in August 1945 heralded the end of World War II for most of the country, it brought uncertainty to many of the men and women of the Manhattan Project.