Alena Mastiukova: Russia Can Take the Lead in the Quantum Race

Quantum technology research has been pursued in different parts of the world for the past several decades, driven by its evidently vast potential for practical application. Quantum computers are expected to help scientists and engineers develop efficient pharmaceutical drugs, invent new chemical compounds and materials, solve optimization tasks in manufacturing, logistics, energy and economics, etc. In addition, post-quantum cryptography should enable data protection on a whole new level by developing encryption algorithms that cannot be cracked using either a conventional supercomputer or a future quantum computer. 

These future opportunities prompt many governments to support quantum technology research in their countries. Secretary of the VYZOV Prize Scientific Committee Alena Mastiukova, a postgraduate student at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, a research fellow with the Russian Quantum Center and a researcher with the MISIS Laboratory of Quantum Information Technologies believes it is wiser to comprehensively develop quantum computing across the board rather than bet on any one particular physical platform, since it is unclear at this point which of the currently emerging platforms will eventually become number one, or maybe each of them will prove efficient in tackling a specific type of tasks, so they will be used in concert with each other. 

“I believe we need to look really far ahead with regard to developing quantum technologies. There are different types of quantum computers, which are based on different physical principles and different platforms. Researchers in other countries seem to put a lot of emphasis on superconducting microprocessors, but this doesn’t look like the best approach: superconductors have their limits, too, and it would be rather hard to build powerful quantum computers based on them, if we’re talking about not dozens but thousands or millions of qubits. In our research, which is part of Russia’s Quantum Computing Roadmap, we employ all existing tools and platforms, which are based not only on superconductors, but on atoms, ions or photons. We’re already developing things they haven’t come up with in other countries yet,” says Alena Mastiukova. 

Achievements in quantum technology research were acknowledged by the VYZOV National Prize for Future Technologies in 2023. One of the awards went to Ilya Semerikov, Head of a research group at the RQC and researcher with the Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, for creating a trapped-ion quantum processor based on qudites (multilevel quantum systems) and demonstrating quantum algorithms. 

One can apply for nomination for the VYZOV Prize at vyzovprize.com before May 20th, 2024.

The VYZOV National Prize for Future Technologies is organized and sponsored by the VYZOV Foundation for the Development of Scientific and Cultural Relations in partnership with Gazprombank, Rosatom State Corporation and Roscongress Foundation, and with support from the Government of Moscow. The award was initially established to commemorate the Decade of Science and Technology announced in Russian in 2022, and is designed to celebrate breakthrough ideas and inventions that are changing the landscape of modern science and the life of every person.