NIST-Led Quantum Consortium Launches Committee on National Security
Key points…
+ The new “quantum for national security committee” will be run much like the others, but also offers something a little different than the rest, according to QED-C Deputy Director Celia Merzbacher. She announced the new TAC Thursday at the Genius Machines 2020 Virtual Summit hosted by Nextgov and Defense One—and this week shared more details on its impetus and work.
The relatively nascent, National Institute of Standards and Technology-backed consortium launched to help strategically advance the emerging U.S. quantum industry recently established a new technical advisory committee, or TAC, to specifically target national security.
+ The individuals that make up that roster are stakeholders from the consortium’s select member organizations, of which there are now more than 100. QED-C’s existence is rooted in the National Quantum Initiative Act signed by the president almost two years ago, and its primary intent is to pinpoint and help close gaps in standards, cybersecurity, measurement, applications and more that need to be confronted to push forward quantum development across the U.S. industrial landscape. Within its existing committees, members collaborate on exactly that.
+ “So, it made sense that in addition, even though QED-C has ‘economic development’ in its name, that we also should make that bridge between the parts of government that are worried about national security and our members,” Merzbacher said. Further, the new committee also offered an opportunity for existing consortium members to reach out more broadly across the government, she noted, and engage parts of that community that perhaps hadn’t been involved previously.
Source: Nextgov. Brandi Vincent, NIST-Led Quantum Consortium Launches Committee on National Security…
Content may have been edited for style and clarity. The “+” to the left of paragraphs or other statements indicates quoted material from “Source:” document. Boldface title is original title from “Source:” Italicized statements are directly quoted from “Source:” document. Image sources are indicated as applicable.
