MCQST 2024 - Reaching new quantum hights

The sixth edition of our annual conference, MCQST 2024, brought together over 250 people from all over the world to Sonthofen, the southernmost town in Germany, nestled in the foothills of the Alps. For three days, 29 invited speakers gave a series of talks on all areas of QST, divided into sessions based on MCQST’s seven Research Units. A highlight of this year's conference was our first in-person Quantum Stammtisch, hosted by Ignacio Cirac. With guests such as Immanuel Bloch, Barbara Kraus, and Mikhail Lukin, talking about the future of quantum computing was a great way to start the conference. All recorded talks are available on our YouTube channel.

This year, for the second time, the IMPRS-QST took place in the days leading up to the conference. This merger was very well received, and we were thrilled to host the PhD students at the conference. It resulted in a week full of excellent talks and scientific exchanges.

Recognizing excellence: The 2023 Master's and PhD Awards

On the final day, we held an award ceremony for the winners of our 2023 PhD Award, Arthur Christianen and David Wei. This award annually honors two outstanding PhD theses from the MCQST community, recognizing excellence in research at an early career stage and encouraging awardees to pursue further careers in science. Arthur and David each received a cash prize generously donated by kiutra and attocube. This year, we awarded the 2023 Master's Award for the second time, celebrating excellent theses in quantum science and technology. The awardees, Julian Bösl and Jan Kochanowski, received prizes donated by Zurich Instruments.

In the evenings, dozens of scientists presented over 120 posters in the main conference hall. A jury of peers selected the top three posters, and each winner received a cash prize from Menlo Systems. The awardees are:

• Karl Briegel & Julia Draeger | Optical Widefield Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Microscopy
• Emily Wright | Deep Reinforcement Learning for Fast Quantum Gate Design with Real-time Feedback
• Alexander Hahn | Trotter Product Formula - Unexpected Scaling In Quantum Chemistry
  

Thank you to everyone who made #MCQST2024 a resounding success!