Within 3 years, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) aims to build a fully functioning quantum computer that can perform scientifically useful calculations, the department’s undersecretary for science, Darío Gil, announced last week. However, even scientists working on quantum computing say that objective may be more aspirational than attainable.
Gil’s pledge came at the inaugural meeting in Washington, D.C., of the new federal advisory committee that will provide input to DOE’s basic research arm, the Office of Science. With an annual budget of $8.4 billion, the office is the United States’s single largest funder of the physical sciences.
“By 2028 we will deliver the first generation of fault tolerant quantum computers capable of scientifically relevant quantum calculations,” Gil told the Office of Science Advisory Committee (SCAC, pronounced S-kack), which convened for the first time on 27 March. The proposed quantum computer will be part of a quantum user facility, presumably located at one of the Office of Science’s 10 national laboratories. Gil provided no other details.
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