5/7/2026 Jenny Applequist
DPI has provided its first-ever funding support for quantum-related research, and University of Illinois physics associate professor Bryan K. Clark is the recipient. His grant, which came through the National Quantum Algorithm Center’s new Grand Challenges initiative, will develop an executable open-source approach for benchmarking quantum computing algorithms for simulating industrially relevant quantum systems.
Written by Jenny Applequist
Clark’s project will develop a way to document and benchmark different quantum computing algorithms for simulating quantum chemistry.
In April, the National Quantum Algorithm Center (NQAC) at the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park (IQMP) announced the first five awards in its new Grand Challenges program. The Discovery Partners Institute (DPI), now operated by The Grainger College of Engineering of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, was one of three institutions that provided the funding support for the Grand Challenges initiative, and a University of Illinois associate professor of physics, Bryan K. Clark, won one of the five inaugural grants.
The goal of the Grand Challenges program is to support postdoctoral researchers’ work on quantum algorithms in collaboration with IQMP-affiliated companies and industrial partners. Under his award, Clark and a yet-unnamed postdoc from his group will work alongside collaborators from BP and qBraid to address problems related to accurate simulation of strongly correlated electron systems.
A core research interest of Clark’s group is the development of algorithms for simulating physical systems on quantum computers. He said that the new project “will develop an open, reproducible set of benchmarks that can be executed automatically and compare a series of core algorithmic pieces for quantum chemistry on quantum computers.”
He explained that many quantum computing algorithms for simulating molecules have been developed, but “what is unclear is which of these algorithms are actually practical for molecules of industrial importance.”
Clark said that the new project “takes an important step towards solving this problem.”
The team will benchmark their work on molecules selected by the oil and gas company BP, including some important hydrocarbons as well as carbon dioxide. The molecules were chosen both because of their importance to the energy industry and because they are relatively small and therefore tractable from a research perspective.
qBraid, a Chicago-based startup that provides cloud-based access to quantum computing devices, will bring vital quantum computing infrastructure expertise to the effort.
A key goal of the project will be to set up a framework built on top of qBraid's platform so that as new quantum computing algorithms for quantum simulation of molecules come out, they can be tested and compared to each other initially on emulated, and one day on actual, quantum computers. These simulations of different quantum computing algorithms will form the core of an executable database and knowledge graph built around what it is possible to do on a quantum computer.
The framework will be designed for extensibility to incorporate future research.
“We will enable researchers and industry in the space of molecular simulations to determine whether and when quantum computers can show practical advantage on the problems they care about, and which quantum algorithms they need to use to satisfy their accuracy and speed constraints,” Clark said. “Scientifically, this will accelerate progress toward scalable quantum simulations of complex molecules, bridging quantum and classical approaches. Industrially, working on BP-relevant molecules... [will] focus efforts in the direction of real-world energy-sector applications such as biofuel optimization, catalytic design and carbon utilization strategies.”
The Grand Challenges program is funded by Chicago’s P33 nonprofit technology and innovation hub, Northwestern University, and DPI. It represents the first time DPI has ever contributed funding support for quantum-related research. DPI chose to invest in one of the Grand Challenges in part because DPI attaches high priority to quantum research to meet its goals of establishing strong programs in quantum and the future of computing.
Klara Nahrstedt, DPI’s Director of Research and Development, said “This is an exciting research project that will get us started towards new research explorations of the AI+Quantum research theme in DPI. Furthermore, this project strengthens the collaboration between DPI and NQAC to advance future computing technologies.”
Clark and his postdoc will both spend time at DPI’s Chicago headquarters as part of the work.
Clark said that “there are many approaches to using quantum computers to simulate quantum systems, and the current gap between theoretically what’s possible and practically what’s realistic is large. This project will make it transparent where we stand on tackling these industrially relevant challenges with quantum computers and focus efforts on what algorithmic aspects we need to improve to move it forward.”
Grainger Engineering affiliations:
Bryan K. Clark is an associate professor in the Department of Physics in The Grainger College of Engineering and a member of the Illinois Quantum Information Science and Technology Center in The Grainger College of Engineering. He is also affiliated with the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA).
Klara Nahrstedt is a Swanlund Endowed Chair and Grainger Distinguished Chair in Engineering in the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science in The Grainger College of Engineering as well as the Director of Research and Development for the Discovery Partners Institute. She is also affiliated with the Coordinated Science Laboratory in The Grainger College of Engineering, with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in The Grainger College of Engineering, and with the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology.