CQT hosts Minister for Communications and Information Josephine Teo

A warm welcome to Minister Josephine Teo and delegation from the Ministry for Communications and Information.

On 17 October, the Centre for Quantum Technologies welcomed Minister Josephine Teo and a delegation from the Ministry for Communications and Information to visit. CQT’s Director José Ignacio Latorre, Deputy Director Valerio Scarani and other senior representatives of Singapore’s quantum ecosystem hosted the guests for discussion of Singapore’s future quantum plans, lab visits and networking with alumni and young researchers.

The delegation visiting with Minister Teo included Joseph Leong, Permanent Secretary, Ong Chen Hui, Assistant Chief Executive of the Infocomm Media Development Authority and Yong Ying-I, Senior Advisor.

As well as learning about CQT, the guests heard from the Director of the Quantum Engineering Programme, CQT Principal Investigator Alexander Ling, and from the Executive Director of the National Quantum Office, Ling Keok Tong. The National Quantum Office was established earlier in 2022 at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research to take responsibility for the development and execution of Singapore’s National Quantum Strategy to advance Singapore’s quantum technologies, talent and ecosystem development.

Other stakeholders joining the discussion were the co-chairs of the National Quantum Steering Committee – Quek Gim Pew, Chairman of CQT’s Governing Board and Senior R&D consultant to MINDEF, and Low Teck Seng, Senior Vice President (Sustainability & Resilience) at NUS – NUS President Tan Eng Chye; NRF Director (Smart Nation and Digital Economy) Marvin Lee; and MOE Senior Deputy Director, Academic Research Division, Higher Education Group, Teo Kien Boon. CQT’s founding Director Artur Ekert was also present.

The delegation visited the research labs of CQT’s Loh Huanqian and Manas Mukherjee, seeing setups that control atoms and ions with potential in quantum computing and quantum simulation. The tour also stopped at the CQT-hosted node of the National Quantum-Safe Network, meeting with Alexander and CQT’s Christian Kurtsiefer who are among the project PIs.

Inside the CQT lab contributing to the National Quantum-Safe Network.

The Minister then took time to speak with alumni Joe Fitzsimons, founder and CEO of Horizon Quantum Computing, and Lum Chune Yang, co-founder and CEO of SpeQtral. Horizon Quantum Computing is developing quantum software, while SpeQtral offers space-based quantum key distribution.

She also engaged with alumnus Nelly Ng, who did a research project in CQT as an undergrad and is now an Assistant Professor in Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and with young CQT researchers Jaren Gan, Kyle Chu and Gan Beng Yee about their experiences training in quantum technologies.

Ways to encourage deep-tech activity and support talent attraction and retention were among the topics of the earlier discussion.

Minister Teo was appointed Minister for Communications and Information and Minister-in-charge of Smart Nation and Cybersecurity in May 2021. Before that, she was Minister for Manpower. She is also a member of Singapore’s National Jobs Council and the Future Economy Council. Here are her reflections on the visit shared on Facebook.