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���������� College of Arts & Sciences—Ivan Smalyukh, professor of physics, and Thomas Blumenthal, professor emeritus of molecular, cellular and developmental biology (MCDB), are among the 471 scientists, engineers and innovators who have been recognized for scientifically and socially distinguished achievements by the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

���������� Today—To kick off the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology in 2025, three Colorado universities, in collaboration with Elevate Quantum, have announced that a new facility for fostering quantum technologies is coming to Boulder, Colorado.

FY 2023-24 was another tremendous year for innovation and entrepreneurship at the CU. University researchers, inventors and creators began working with Venture Partners at ���������� to advance 144 breakthrough innovations, and 36 CU startups were launched through Venture Partners based on campus discoveries.

ColoradoBiz—Agrawal, 29, moved from India to Colorado to study quantum computation at CU in 2019. “Boulder, in general, has the most thriving quantum ecosystem in the world,” she says. The overwhelming focus on quantum computing, however, paved the way for Agrawal to co-found ���������� Startup Mesa Quantum with Wale Lawal in early 2024.

EurekAlert!—Reported recently in a new study published in Nature, a team of researchers, led by JILA and NIST Fellow and ���������� Physics professor Jun Ye, in collaboration with Professor Eric Hudson’s team at UCLA’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, have found a way to make nuclear clocks a thousand times less radioactive and more cost-effective, thanks to a method creating thin films of thorium tetrafluoride.

���������� Today—The U.S. National Science Foundation has named ���������� a collaborator on newly announced pilot projects supported by the National Quantum Virtual Laboratory (NQVL) initiative. This groundbreaking effort seeks to accelerate the development of quantum technologies and make cutting-edge quantum tools accessible to researchers nationwide. To do this, the NSF has funded 11 pilot projects (with six announced Dec. 16) to overcome the current engineering challenges facing the development of quantum devices.

The Register—Ayar Labs, a ���������� spinout, contends silicon photonics will be key to scaling beyond the rack and taming the heat of increasing AI model demands. Many photonics startups are looking to overcome the limitations of copper interconnects and improve the efficiency of optical I/O, but Ayar is among the first.

The Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) announced that seven University of Colorado companies and three researchers are among the awardees of the Proof of Concept and Early-Stage Capital and Retention grants through OEDIT’s Advanced Industries Accelerator Program.

���������� Today—A new workforce roadmap released this week aims to train, prepare and inspire the next generation of quantum workers and the general public in Colorado and the Mountain West.

JILA—Flari Tech Inc., a startup rooted in cutting-edge JILA research, has clinched one of the prestigious 2024 Lab Venture Challenge (LVC) grants from the ����������, advancing its pioneering work to build a breathalyzer for diagnostics use targeting life-threatening diseases such as lung cancer.