Researchers, government, academic and industry leaders from across California gathered at UC Santa Barbara on Friday to explore the university’s award-winning quantum research and its potential to grow industries, jobs and the economy.

Friday’s event is part of a statewide initiative, Quantum California, hosted by the California Governor’s Office and its office of Business and Economic Development and the UC Office of the President.  

The future starts here on the Central Coast and at UC Santa Barbara, Melissa James, CEO and president of Regional Economic Action Coalition told a packed auditorium at the university’s Henley Hall on Friday.

The coalition, which focuses on increasing economic prosperity on the Central Coast, presented alongside government and academic leaders on the advancement and possibilities of quantum research for the second Quantum California convening.

“Not everyone knows the kind of innovation powerhouse that exists up and down the Central Coast,” James said. “We did a study recently that highlighted that the greater Santa Barbara area is one of the strongest innovation frontiers in the United States.”

UCSB Chancellor Dennis Assanis applauded the research the university has contributed to the field. He listed off accolades including: the on-campus Quantum Foundry facility and the two recently recognized Nobel Prize laureates.

He also said one of his priorities is to build a new physics building to incorporate quantum research, an approximate $300 million initiative. 

“We are going to create a quantum hub here that will be a billion-dollar initiative before anybody knows it,” he said. 

The quantum research conducted on campus along its facilities has made history for UCSB.

In 2019, the university was recognized as having the nation’s first Quantum Foundry through a $25 million grant from the National Science Foundation. 

The facility focuses on research including new materials and devices for next generation quantum sensing that makes precise measurement tools. It also focuses on developing new tools, training the next generation of researchers and community outreach to local schools, engineering professor Stephen Wilson said.  

The breakthroughs in quantum research recently earned two professors, Michel Devoret and John Martinis, the Nobel Prize in physics for their work on an electrical circuit that showed quantum physics in action. 

The two were recognized alongside UC Berkeley physicist John Clarke by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for their experiments in the 1980s. 

Devoret and Martinis spoke Friday about how they got their start in the quantum research field and what their experiment consisted of, all while trying to break down the concepts down to the basics.

“Because we were able to describe quantum mechanics from an electrical engineering and circuit point of view, which hadn’t been done before, we really set the stage for building quantum devices in the 1990s and then quantum computing afterwards,” Martinis said.

The priority for this kind of research extends past UCSB’s campus and into the state level, according to Dee Dee Myers, director of the California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development. 

“California has the strongest quantum ecosystem in the world; we are second to none,” she said.

In October, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 940 to further the state’s quantum research and connect it with companies and entrepreneurs. The initiative has $4 million in the state’s 2025-26 budget. 

“It’s in the governor’s current budget, and it’s been something that we’ve been committed to for more than two decades,” she said. 

The Quantum California event included a guided tour of the on-campus research facilities including the Nanofabrication facility, Molecular Beam Epitaxy, characterization lab, the California NanoSystems Institute and the Quantum Foundry. 

The tours pulled the curtain back to the quantum research that for some might be difficult to visualize. 

The Nanofabrication Laboratory, a $7 million operation, works with semiconductors, serving around 550 users, according to director Brian Thibeault. 

Passing through the Quantum Foundry facility, even with peeking into the windows where researchers are working, one likely would never know that inside, thin layers of diamonds are being created. 

The research focuses on diamond film growth and defect engineering. 

The quantum convening comes less than a week before TechTopia, an annual innovation summit hosted by the Santa Barbara South Coast Chamber of Commerce, which will showcase UCSB’s OASIS innovation hub.