As we celebrate the 100th birthday of quantum mechanics with the “International Year of Quantum” this year, 2025, we also turn the page to a new chapter of physics as companies and countries race to build the first useful quantum computer. In joining the Otten Group for theoretical quantum information science at the start of this year, I have likewise joined this new chapter of the field. Even with all the excitement, however, as the focus of my study has increasingly narrowed towards the specifics of my niche in quantum computing, I have realized how quickly tunnel vision can set in and obscure the motivation and broader picture for my work. But with the opportunities provided through this fellowship—and the endless curiosity of the children I worked with—I have reconnected with my own curiosity that first motivated me to pursue physics and quantum.
The opportunities of this fellowship afforded me participation in events of all scales: the physics department’s one-day, in-house Physics Fair, the multi-day, campus-wide UW-Madison Science Expeditions expo, and the week-long, single-classroom Summer Science Camp in the nearby Wisconsin Heights school district. Together with the Hybrid Quantum Architectures and Networks (HQAN–an NSF research institute) outreach specialist Sarah Parker at these events, I brought quantum physics demos and experiments to the public and into the middle school classroom. In particular, I want to focus on my experiences with the summer camp at Wisconsin Heights. There, Sarah and I codeveloped and cotaught the five-day quantum physics unit for middle school students.
At times, matching the level of the material with the students’ background proved difficult, but we managed to bridge their understanding with liberal use of analogies and by focusing the content on something familiar–light. By deconstructing the everyday experience of light with diffraction grating spectra and other demonstrations, we introduced quantum concepts like superposition and photons. This new experience of a familiar topic successfully activated that pool of curiosity and thus the subsequent recurrent phrase: “but why?” Channeling the students’ questions and refining them into something testable led to my two groups’ experiments investigating the following: light mixing with their handmade optical elements, and refraction changes with different liquids and with different source light wavelengths. With our assistance, the students collated their results into a poster presentation for other students and parents.
Reflecting on my role in fostering the students’ curiosity with these projects, I realized that I likewise have a responsibility to deliberately cultivate and steward that same curiosity in myself during my own research. I feel reinvigorated in chasing down my own “but why’s,” and I intend to continue outreach to maintain my momentum towards building my research career in quantum computing. Further, as we enter this next 100 years of the field, I hope that my continued work in outreach will welcome a broader generation of students to pursue physics than in the previous 100.