[00:00:00] Veronica: Hello, I’m Veronica Combs, and this is the Quantum Spin by HKA. For season four, we decided to do something a little different. In March, we attended the APS Global Physics Summit in Anaheim, California. We took advantage of this amazing event to talk to the leaders in academia, industry, as well as the creative folks who helped make the event such a compelling experience.

[00:00:23] I hope you enjoy these conversations that really reflect what’s happening in the industry right now.

[00:00:29] Today I’m talking to the two directors of the Quantum Fest, which has been a week-long celebration at the APS Global Physics Summit. Smitha Vishveshwara is a professor of physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.

[00:00:44] And Dr. Marilena Longobardi is the managing director at the University of Basel of NCCR Spin, which is the National Quantum Center in Switzerland. Saturday there was a kickoff event that included art and music and conversations and all kinds of spectacular things. Smitha, could you tell us how that all came together and what it included?

[00:01:04] Smitha: Certainly. Quantum Jubilee was the public facing opening event of Quantum Fest, which is a special offering for the 2025 International Year of Quantum Science and Technology as part of this APS gathering. Quantum Jubilee brought together science at its sort of profound and applied level quantum science.

[00:01:31] Mingled with performance, scintillating demonstrations on stage, and as you said, conversations and the like. There were also surrounding exhibits where people could hands-on discover all kinds of wonderful things quantum, like levitation and, seemingly quantum magic, but really, it’s nature at work, at its most profound level.

[00:01:55] On stage we had six hours of programming and really the energy that came alive. We’ve been working on this for a year now, Marilena and me, and a fabulous team of the APS people, volunteers, a production manager and the like. So in these six hours of programming these were divided up into two, three different sessions.

[00:02:18] Quantum Harmonies that included an extended piece, Tinguely Entangled, and then Quantum Journeys that had a theater piece, Quantum Voyages, and amazing things happening aboard this international Space station that were communicated to us from above and through land-based controls that were actually there on stage.

[00:02:42] Veronica: Wow.

[00:02:42] Smitha: Yes. And then Quantum Celebrations was really sort of the extravagance of all the quantum wonders that you have from subatomic to the human scale to the cosmic. We also had Le Petit Cirque, which is a circus group. They were also part of all this, and I think with over 60 people coming together on stage.

[00:03:10] Veronica: And Marilena, you are working on the Tinguely Entangled part of this event?

[00:03:15] Marilena: Yes. Tinguely Entangled is part of our large program of arts and science. The NCCR Spin, the name Tinguely Entangled, is due to the first edition of the show performed at the Tinguely Museum in Basel. This is a multimedia piece including music, visual artists, but also science has been performed in Switzerland, but also in Japan, in Osaka and in Tokyo last week in San Francisco.

[00:03:45] And now in Anaheim. It includes an ensemble of 12 professional musicians, and it’s been designed in collaboration with young researchers working in quantum, in Basel.

[00:04:00] Veronica: How did you come to combine art and science in the University of Basel?

[00:04:04] Marilena: We started these programs a couple of years ago. It included participation in the Berlin Science Week, which is one of the most important science communications first in Europe.

[00:04:19] There is also the Italian Festival of Science Communication, and we have also collaborated with museums.

[00:04:25] And I want to mention Woman in Quantum?

[00:04:28] Veronica: Yes. That was part of the Saturday event as well.

[00:04:30] Marilena: Yes. One of the components of the quantum harmonies was also girls and quantum and women in quantum.

[00:04:37] Veronica: The young woman, she started a Girls in Quantum. She was one of your speakers, right? I’ve read about her work. She’s really impressive.

[00:04:43] Marilena: Yes. Eliza Torres. She’s the CEO of Girls in Quantum. And we met in Switzerland. And now in Anaheim, and she’s really enthusiastic.

[00:04:58] She’s really passionate and she’s growing her network in quantum.

[00:05:03] Veronica: She’s doing really good things for everyone, for girls and for the field.

[00:05:06] Quantum Journeys – what was that part of the program like?

[00:05:09] Smitha: So maybe I can briefly walk you through what happened In Quantum Journeys and followed by Quantum Celebrations. One thing I should say is that throughout, there was a thread, so Marilena and Trity Pourbahrami from the Moore Foundation, and myself.

[00:05:25] We were the host of the day and so we really wanted to take everybody through this journey into the quantum realm through various paths and wanderings, let’s say. In Quantum Journeys, it began with this theater production that in fact my theater collaborator and I, Latrelle Bright, we scripted and it’s really grown now with original music and media.

[00:05:49] And it’s a Tale of Two Explorers, adventuring into the quantum realm, guided by the spirit of wisdom. When we first started scripting this, my son was in the Nutcracker, so the idea was, if you have some spirit taking you through land of whatever it is, these Turkish dancers or snowflakes, why not photons, electrons, and the like.

[00:06:10] And they adventure through the land of light. And then there’s a quantum clue game that is the murder mystery Clue. But now we give quantum interpretation. So what actually happened is that the act of observation that determines the killer or their multiple worlds at once.

[00:06:28] Veronica: Wow.

[00:06:28] Smitha: And then they wandered through the coldest spaces of the universe, which are ultra cold atomic gases that we humans can actually create. Then there’s the raging sea of electrons that actually exists inside metals and are responsible for conduction. So it was really exploring all these quantum phenomena that we as explorers or researchers unearthed through our science. But now it’s a theater piece.

[00:06:59] And imagination and creativity are both part of science and art. The other thing is in moments of strife, these explorers may be drowning in the Fermi sea of electrons or something like that. They call upon quantum sage, and these are real life physicists who come as themselves on stage in their very unique different voices.

[00:07:23] And each one’s spectacular. They come and they share their wisdom and they save the day. One wrote her piece on photons and entanglement in iambic pentameter. The other talked about the secrets of superconductivity, but through opera, because he does opera on the side.

[00:07:40] The performers, they actually came from Urbana Champaign with us and were just such a lovely group. And I think Marilena and I’ll say that feeling of care and community and wonder and awe and love were there throughout, wouldn’t you say?

[00:07:53] Yes. It was a yes. And then after that we had people working on things NASA related; people are doing amazing quantum things aboard the International Space Station. They brought that on to stage, Paul Kwiat, he entangled photons aboard the International Space Station and did a crowdsourced way of showing that happened.

[00:08:14] Veronica: Wow.

[00:08:14] Smitha: Yes. And then some of my colleagues, I have a collaboration. These coldest states of matter, Bose- Einstein Condensates. It was so cool, literally ultra-cool. They create through land-based controls that children were able to do from the audience. They created these things aboard the International Space Station.

[00:08:33] We also had the Nobel Laureate, who originally, one of the three who discovered these common states, come and show us his original data. Everybody in APS, the leadership, they were all so present in their own creative ways. For example, the 2026 APS President, Brad Marston, the Earth Sciences and commence matter is part of his research, he left that session with just this image of our precious earth to contemplate on.

[00:08:59] And then very briefly, the last session, Quantum Celebrations, featured everything from the subatomic to the cosmic. We had circus performers; Le Petit Cirque working together with George Musser from Scientific American, embodying different phases of matter.

[00:09:14] Then we had another with jugglers, and they were showing quantum algorithms. Then we even had, let’s see, there were so many things. There was Cosmic Whispers, Shared Journeys, where some of our gravitational colleagues talked about black holes and then some of the original people who discovered gravitational waves.

[00:09:38] So Barry Barish, another Nobel laureate, and Gabby González, who will be the 2027 APS president, had this conversation. We had many of these cosmic explorers share their personal journey because for us, science is a living, breathing endeavor. There are 15,000 members here at this meeting.

[00:09:59] You see, each one has their own journey. We had all of us share journeys. Finally ,to depict the merging of two black holes, a billion light years away, giving off these gravitational waves. We had a poem accompanied by circus acrobats in midair showing us. Oh wow.

[00:10:19] Oh my goodness. The spinning and the rotating. And then there was a grand finale, a circus finale, celebrating the universal glow that comes from all of us. So quantum science began with trying to understand how we all radiate in a universal way. Be it the universe or you or me. And in homage to that, we had a circus finale that depicted this.

[00:10:44] So that was all of the Quantum Jubilee, and then there were exhibits all around as well so that was the kickoff event.

[00:10:51] Veronica: So had you two worked together previously, how did you come to collaborate on this event?

[00:10:55] Smitha: We are quite the partners in crime. We’ve been in different leadership roles in the APS, and there’s so many amazing things we can do.

[00:11:05] We went to Congress, I was the chair of one of the March meetings with these 10,000 physicists and also (chair of) a division of condensed matter physics. We really have this art, creativity, science, playfulness and caring about our community.

[00:11:21] Marilena: As a scientist, first of all, I think that communicating science is one of the duties of a scientist. I always say to the young researchers, if we find something in the lab or in our theory, it’s not for us, but it’s for everyone. So it’s one of the duties of a scientist to communicate science.

[00:11:42] We should also inspire and we should encourage our colleagues, our friends, to communicate more science. And I think Smitha shares exactly the same motivation and wonder for physics.

[00:11:55] Smitha: Yeah. And we came together, it was one of these big events and we saw each other across the lobby or something, and we’re like, I want to go talk to her. Yes. And then we clicked. Also, the APS meetings team, we worked very closely with them. And they’ve been amazing. We’re all kindred spirits with our fellow physicists with so many people at APS, and they invited us to offer something special for the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology.

[00:12:23] Because APS is quite involved, this is the largest meeting, the APS physics summit. In fact, I think ever. The number of physicists that have come together, 15,000, never, ever before anywhere else. It was only befitting that there’d be something special for this international year. And we were so thrilled that they asked us if we’d do something.

[00:12:47] I think we also like to dream big.

[00:12:49] Of course, it’s not just us, there’s what, maybe 40 people behind the making of this. It took a year and the enthusiasm and the verve that was there to make this happen from all these different parties was really so heartening and wonderful.

[00:13:06] Veronica: And as you mentioned, it wasn’t just Saturday. There are experiential events all week. Save the Cat is one of them, right, Marilena?

[00:13:13] Marilena: Yes, exactly. Save the Cat and Birds of Science and the Quantum Playground. We had this kickoff event on Saturday that was more for general public, but we are also interested in science communication for scientists and inspiring more scientists in science communication.

[00:13:29] We also designed a science communication program here at the meeting for the participants. Save the Cat is one of the components of this program for scientists.

[00:13:44] It’s a journey in time and space to save Schrödinger’s cats. Because at the beginning of the story, there is a story behind this game, the poor spiny Schrödinger’s cat is in his office and the scientists want to put him in a box. So your goal is to save the cat from the box and come back to 2025.

[00:14:06] Birds of Science, I want to also mention this project because this is a collective art and science program for the Global Physics Summit, we are building an installation here at the entrance with origami birds. This was part of our installation in Berlin last year, and I wanted to expand and I wanted to find a way to engage more and more scientists.

[00:14:29] And this is the perfect venue, of course. At this moment, there are scientists attending the Global Summit Meeting, folding their papers, their notebooks and making origami birds to populate our installation.

[00:14:48] And there is also the playground. Which is in the exhibit hall here. There is quantum chess by Google.

[00:14:55] There is the Quantum Casino. There is a booth with Marilu Chiofalo from Italy, from Pisa highlighting the role of women in quantum. There is our installation Hidden Variables of the NCCR Spin.

[00:15:11] Veronica: When I told my family I was coming to a gathering of physicists, they said oh, that must be really boring. And I said, oh my gosh. There’s so much energy and excitement and just things you can see and experiment and learn.

[00:15:23] It’s a really amazing event.

[00:15:24] Marilena: There is also a sculpture. Quantum Steampunk created by an artist in collaboration with some scientists here at the playground.

[00:15:34] Smitha: And it does look very steampunky if you look at it. These are all exhibits that are there through the week, truly.

[00:15:42] And then there are things that happen, for example, Lab Escape. It’s an escape room. You need to use quantum secrets to be able to escape from disasters of all sorts.

[00:15:54] Quantum physics, science and technology there’s been such a surge, you know, and then the thing that’s amazing is when you have 15,000 people and not only just the celebrations for the year.

[00:16:09] The point is you also get to see hands-on, just honest-to-goodness what we’re doing in our research. And so now if you put on the sort of glasses of, oh, let me look at it from the perspective of this global celebration, I think even what we’re doing on ground here, and not only, the hype that’s out there, it’s really, day to day.

[00:16:32] Just so many graduate students, undergrads, all the way to established scientists. I think it’s truly remarkable and stunning.

[00:16:39] Veronica: And you mentioned that some of the motivation behind all of these creative events is to plant a seed for the future.

[00:16:47] Marilena: Yes, this is a seed because we want to inspire more and more events like this and more involvement in science communication. But I want to also highlight that there is a strong bond between art and science.

[00:17:01] You know, I’m Italian, I’m very sensitive to beauty, but I can tell you there is a lot of beauty in science and this beauty is really hidden. Art can help to highlight, to visualize the beauty of science.

[00:17:16] Smitha: Yes, and I should say this also of the art science connection, there’s always this thing of ‘oh one is the left half and the other is right half’. No, both of them require tremendous creativity. And the analytic part as well. The rigor, both. And there’s also poetic inspiration in both of them. You look at the cosmos or you look at the wonders of what makes you who you are.

[00:17:42] And there’s also the human story, and it’s important for both art and science. One thing I will say is that if we connect back to what APS is doing, and I’m also on the IYQ, the International Year of the Quantum the Steering Committee, it’s super exciting. We get to work directly with UNESCO and as Marilena was saying, all of these are seeds because ideally, they would like to have a 10-year vision. And for example, there’s a UNESCO-based global event that will actually be happening in New Zealand that relates to quantum plus art culture and creative technologies.

[00:18:20] So almost every continent will have an event for a different theme. And I think the other thing with UNESCO when we went to the opening ceremony, another really important message was one of global cooperation.

[00:18:35] Smitha: We live in challenging times, and when you come here and you see these 15,000 like-minded people in pursuit of science and just community. You can still keep your faith and you can still keep going, and it’s so important.

[00:18:52] Veronica: Yes, I’m not a physicist, but I was getting that same energy from everyone, looking forward to exploration and discovery and trying and sometimes succeeding and sometimes not.

[00:19:01] It has been great to just see you all at work.

[00:19:03] Smitha: Yeah. And the history of quantum physics also has that right? From those beginnings that I talked about a hundred plus years ago. And understanding the nature of light and matter to everything we have now, MRI machines or cell phones.

[00:19:17] Understanding phases of matter. But along with that has also been really the evolution of global cooperation. Seeing a world war through all this, where nuclear power was part of that story. Immigrants and refugees of being part of making science

[00:19:37] Veronica: Right. Everyone contributing.

[00:19:38] Smitha: This is the way it’s been, this is the way it’s grown, and that really is our future as well, I think.

[00:19:45] Veronica: Tell me about your day job a little bit. Marilena. What do you do when you’re not thinking about art and quantum, or maybe you always are?

[00:19:51] Marilena: The NCCR Spin is the National Center for Quantum Computing in Switzerland. We focus our studies on silicon. We want to build the next quantum computer based on silicon and germanium and its consortium, including academia and industry.

[00:20:09] In our network there is the University of Basel. Of course, we have the headquarters there. Then the ATH, EPFL, University of Geneva, TU Delft, and University of Konstanz now, and we have industrial partners, IBM, Roche. Intel has a small project, but we also have some startups and we have an innovation program for young researchers, and we have a mobility program for students from everywhere who want to spend time in our laboratory.

[00:20:45] Veronica: Yes. So, pulling together all the components of the ecosystem in one place. And Smitha, what about you?

[00:20:52] Smitha: Oh, I am one of those quantum physicists, steeped in quantum work, and I don’t do it alone.

[00:20:58] That’s the other thing. It’s like a marvelous group of youngsters, graduate students, postdocs and global collaborators. And we do study these wonderful things. My field is, my specific branch is called condensed matter physics. Which is the way you may know how an individual behaves, but when they come together to form a community, how do they behave?

[00:21:19] And in the physics realm, it’s these amazing states of matter, like superconductivity, super fluidity. And I told you this thing about the International Space Station.

[00:21:29] Veronica: Mm-hmm.

[00:21:29] Smitha: One of the really exciting projects is that we’re studying bubble-shaped, ultra-cold atoms in this unique state of matter, super fluid.

[00:21:41] Or we’re hunting for strange quantum particles. I’m a pen and paper theorist, so I love working on the one hand with experimentalists. Studying all these beautiful, strange things at a fundamental level, but which actually are present all around us and can also contribute to the next step of technological progress.

[00:22:04] But it’s really, being in there exploring through concepts, the language of math, physicality, all of it. And it’s really exciting. Art has always been a part of my life. It used to be in the background. It’s wonderful that as a quantum physicist, my department also encourages me to bring it into my day job.

[00:22:27] Veronica: Mm-hmm.

[00:22:27] Smitha: So I developed a course called Where the Arts Meets Physics, which is project based. And then the last thing to say is both my parents were, my father was a black hole physicist. He’s not alive anymore. But we did just put out a book together that just got published.

[00:22:41] Veronica: Oh, wow. Oh, how wonderful.

[00:22:42] Smitha: Yes. It’s just a really 12-year-long labor of love that’s finally come to light of day. And my mother is a quantum chemist. A biophysicist.

[00:22:52] Veronica: Oh.

[00:22:52] Smitha: And so she and I collaborate on protein studies.

[00:22:56] Veronica: Wow. It is in your blood.

[00:22:56] Smitha: It literally and figuratively is in my blood. In fact, we worked on it during the pandemic, she’s in India, and so for three years we weren’t together.

[00:23:04] And it’s research, in fact, on the coronavirus spike protein that kept us going. That and music that kept us. So yeah. I think both from Marilena and I, this thing that we’re bringing together, offering with amazing companions.

[00:23:23] There’s something that’s very true to us. And it comes from deep within.

[00:23:27] Veronica: Congratulations on putting together and pulling off this wonderful celebration. It’s been great to see. And how exciting for everyone here. Thank you for taking the time to participate.

[00:23:34] Marilena: Thank you so much.

[00:23:35] And yeah, but this is just the beginning. It’s beginning. Stay tuned and thank you for having us.

[00:23:41] Smitha: Thank you so much.

[00:23:41] Veronica: Thanks for joining us for another episode of the quantum spin by HKA. You can find all episodes on our website, hkamarcom.com. Of course you can find us on all your favorite podcast platforms as well. Follow us on LinkedIn under HKA marketing communications.

[00:23:58] If you have an idea for a guest, or if you’d like to be on the podcast yourself, you can reach me on LinkedIn, Veronica Combs, or you can go to our website and share your suggestion via the contact us page. Thanks for listening. Talk to you soon.