“We bring our ideas from condensed-matter physics to quantum-information folks, and we say, ‘Hey, I have a material you can use for quantum computation,’” says Chen. “Sometimes we borrow ideas from them. Many of us from different fields have realized that we have to deal with entanglement head-on.”

Preskill echoes this sentiment and is convinced entanglement is an essential part of Caltech’s future: “We are making investments and betting on entanglement as being one of the most important themes of 21st-century science.”