Should Ukraine commit to quantum science?
Quantum offers an opportunity to leverage existing strengths and join a global trend
Every day people die in Ukraine from russian bombs. Soldiers, many of whom were in peaceful professions, are sacrificing lives to defend their land and their families. The focus of Ukrainian society is on the Victory for Ukraine, and they are slowly winning. While russia will not prevail, the war is still going to last for some time. Yet, amid the fighting and the uncertainties that it brings, many in Ukraine are already rebuilding. They are right: it is important to preserve and sustain the country now, so that the future growth does not start from scratch.
Kseniia Minakova from Kharkiv Polytechnical University and colleagues are clearing out debris in their lab after a Russian bombing (from https://www.katc.com/news/covering-louisiana/tulane-teams-up-with-ukranian-school-to-collaborate)
When I think about where I could help besides donating money to defenders, I arrive at the idea that I should seek collaborations with researchers in Ukraine. I haven’t lived there for 30+ years. But I am from Ukraine. My parents, grandparents and great grandparents were scientists and engineers in Ukraine. I have built my career in the West doing research in quantum physics, so I made it my goal to reach out to the members of the quantum research community in Ukraine.
Many academic institutions around the world responded to the russian invasion by offering positions to Ukrainians who were able and willing to leave the country. #ScienceForUkraine was a hashtag on Twitter that people used, several organizations popped up that aggregated PhD, postdoc, visiting researcher positions available to Ukrainians. It played a huge role: I know several people who would not have been in academia today without these opportunities extended to them.
But even more researchers remain in Ukraine, either by choice or circumstance. For instance, males of draft age are forbidden from crossing the border. A fraction are able to carry on their work despite the war. A lot of Ukrainians are displaced internally, they have moved to another part of Ukraine and are away from their places of work.
It is harder administratively for western academic institutions to support someone who is physically in another country, mostly because there was not much need to do this in the past and therefore the policies do not exist. However, several grant initiatives by professional societies and government agencies, as well as sponsor matching programs such as Universities for Ukraine have had success sending cash to researchers in Ukraine. These efforts should be expanded because there is an acute need to keep the existing projects afloat, before they are terminated and before people look for other ways to make a living, not by doing research.
When it comes to quantum science, Ukraine has a long history of excellence. Since the discipline was built during the course of the XXth century, a lot of what is known as Soviet, or even russian achievement was in fact done in Ukraine. Quantum physicists such as Bogoliubov, Shubnikov, Landau, Yanson, Omelyanchuk worked in Ukraine. Upon gaining independence in 1991, Ukraine did not prioritize science and technology. This is typical for many states that broke away from the USSR. As a result, Ukraine now has an academic system that retains many of the features that do not match with how the outside world is set up. For instance, universities generally give a high level of education and graduates are competitive when it comes to actual STEM skills. But many of the research labs and centers are structured the same way as pre-independence, because there was never enough investment made to reimagine them drastically.
There is a genuine thirst for reform in all dimensions of society in Ukraine. The country needs to pass many of them to join the EU, and people want them to simply live better. While a lot of the western support now goes towards defense, it is likely that as the russian invasion falls apart plans will be made to invest into an expansive domestic agenda, including in the technological research sector. So reform there is likely. Making quantum science and engineering one of the vectors of this effort is the right move for Ukraine for two principal reasons:
Ukraine has a great potential to contribute in this area, in terms of untapped talent, knowledge base and expertise.
Quantum is currently on the minds of policymakers and industry leaders around the world, so why not go where the world seems to be going?
Globally, governments roll out quantum initiatives and flagships to the tune of billions of dollars. This is motivated by both the threats that quantum information technologies pose to national security, as well as by the opportunities in computing, sensing, cryptography, materials, finance, and medicine. Quantum is a fairly inclusive concept that covers many fields. Industry is committing to it. Large companies such as Google, IBM, Amazon and Intel all have quantum projects. Major newspapers and magazines write about it regularly. Smaller startup companies number in the hundreds.
As with most cutting edge trends, there is absolutely no way of telling how many useful applications will this bring 10 or 20 years from now, but quantum is in fact where things are happening today. There can totally be Ukrainian quantum startups, and branches of large industrial projects in Ukraine. Ukraine is already part of a major EU initiative, Horizon Europe, which does include quantum. The United States should also think about how we can partner with Ukrainian assets towards the goals that our government sets for itself.
But it is researchers that are working in Ukraine now, or planning to come back in the foreseeable future, who will be responsible for the development of science in Ukraine. It is important to listen to them and try to understand what their vision might be. I asked several of them about what they need. Understandably, for the most part they have no time to think in vague broad strokes, be overly optimistic or even just waste energy on anything beyond their pressing needs. Some of the labs are actually damaged or destroyed by russian bombing. Others have no electricity. Even if everything is alright at the basic level, there are unaddressed concerns about salary cuts, about equipment that is broken or missing, supplies and chemicals that need to be procured. Some of their group members may be situated abroad and communication with them is complicated by time zones and inability to walk into the office and find them there.
One superficial issue is the question of branding. Ukrainians, perhaps due to their relatively weak integration into the global research process, do not call what they do ‘quantum science’. They use a variety of earlier names that are all now merging into ‘quantum’ in the West. But the actual research base is there! Check out this US-Ukraine quantum workshop taking place Aug 28 - Sept 1 online, you will see many presentations from Ukrainian universities. Several schools are setting up quantum curricula at the undergraduate and master's levels. I personally am impressed with how much they are already doing, especially given the modest scale of their funding. I think a lot of it is pure personal motivation and optimism, great things to have and to nurture.
Of course if the investment increases, it will be possible to expand the scope of activities, across research, education as well as knowledge transfer to industry. Will there be a Ukrainian national quantum initiative, or quantum strategy? Will there be quantum centers and institutes? Will Ukraine choose to focus on hardware, networks, software, foundations or all of the above? In any case, it would have to be a major undertaking to get anything new going. For example, the country currently does not have a cleanroom for making quantum chips, it costs $15-30M to set one up. Who will be able to pitch in?
At this moment in time, with many eyes on Ukraine, it is possible to find partners and supporters, who are willing to spend time, energy and resources if they see that it can make a difference. Myself, I don’t know if we will ever build a quantum computer that lives up to its promise. But I think that quantum science and technology, being a legitimate global trend, can serve the needs of Ukraine well, and give it a chance to shine.