Conference: Winter School on Open Quantum Systems and Quantum Information in the Chemical Sciences

With support from the Chemical Theory, Models, and Computational Methods (CTMC) and Chemical Structure and Dynamics (CSD) programs in the Division of Chemistry, Professor Doran Raccah of the University of Texas and Eric Bittner of the University of Houston are organizing the Texas Winter School on Chemical Applications of Quantum Information. Scheduled for Winter 2025 in Wimberly, TX, this specialized week-long program is tailored for PhD students in theoretical and experimental physical chemistry. The winter school aims to bridge critical educational gaps identified by the NSF-UKRI Bilateral Workshop on Quantum Information Science in Chemistry. A combination of lectures and tutorial sessions will be used to develop both a conceptual and practical understanding of topics at the intersection of quantum information and theoretical chemistry. More advanced discussions will be fostered around research talks from selected participants. To enhance accessibility, this initiative will create freely available, student-edited course materials to extend educational benefits to the broader scientific community. The Winter School will systematically address topics at the intersection of quantum information science (QIS) and chemical dynamics. Through an intensive mix of lectures, tutorials, and collaborative learning, this winter school will offer focused instruction covering areas such as quantum light-matter interactions (both strong and weak coupling regimes), stochastic quantum dynamics, quantum coherence, and entanglement in chemical systems. The lectures will draw from modern advances in a variety of fields including polaritonics, quantum computing, and entangled light spectroscopy. Participants will actively engage with the specialized content of the workshop by contributing to a collection of notes and team coding projects, which will subsequently be made accessible via Mathematica notebooks, python notebooks, and similar tools on Wolfram Cloud and/or GitHub. This structured, collaborative format is designed to equip the next generation of scientists with essential theoretical and computational skills necessary to advance research at the critical interface of chemistry and quantum information science. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.