The Maryland Quantum-Thermodynamics Hub, a research initiative at the University of Maryland (UMD), has received over $5 million in funding to continue its operations for three more years. The hub combines thermodynamics, quantum physics, and quantum information science to explore how the everyday world emerges from the quantum realm.
The new funding includes a recommitment from the John Templeton Foundation, matched by support from the state via Governor Wes Moore’s Capital of Quantum Initiative, UMD campus sponsors, and private companies, including Fidelity Investments and Normal Computing. This initiative aims to strengthen Maryland’s position as a center for quantum thermodynamics research.
The hub’s research investigates how quantum systems interact with their environments and how quantum features influence thermodynamic processes. This research is also relevant to error correction in quantum computing, which seeks to preserve quantum information. The hub has published over 60 journal articles, conference papers, and preprints over the past three years and has supported five Ph.D. theses. This new funding will allow the hub to expand its team and refine its research questions, including exploring how quantum phenomena impact the “arrow of time” and how the continuous fabric of space-time might emerge from a network of discrete quantum systems.
Read more about this initiative from the University of Maryland here, the UMD Department of Physics here, and the Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science here.
September 17, 2025
