QMIT, an MIT Presidential Initiative, is an Institute-wide effort to apply quantum breakthroughs to the most consequential challenges in science, technology, industry, and national security.
QMIT Postdoctoral Fellowship Program
invites applications for the 2026–2027 academic year
The MIT Quantum Initiative (QMIT) will bring together MIT researchers and domain experts from a range of industries to identify and tackle practical challenges wherever quantum solutions could achieve the greatest impact.
“We’ve already seen how the breadth of progress in quantum has created opportunities to rethink the future of security and encryption, imagine new modes of navigation, and even measure gravitational waves more precisely to observe the cosmos in an entirely new way. What can we do next? We’re investing in the promise of quantum, and where the legacy will be in 20 years.”
— Professor Danna Freedman, Faculty Director
A New Model for Quantum Impact
The MIT Quantum Initiative focuses not on a single platform but on the problems that demand quantum advantage. QMIT is organized around five core pillars—quantum computing, sensing, simulation, materials, and networks—providing a structure that connects activity across these areas. By linking breakthroughs across these pillars to the real needs of science, industry, and national security, the initiative ensures that progress in the lab translates into tools the world can use.
A Hub for Quantum
QMIT will create a central hub on campus that unites researchers, students, and partners across MIT’s quantum ecosystem.
Cross-domain collaboration
Incentives and structures that unite disciplines and align research with practical challenges.
Partnership with MIT Lincoln Laboratory
Joint research, personnel exchange, and technology transition to bridge discovery and deployment.
Education and training
New academic pathways and certificates that help students see quantum as a language for solving hard problems.
QMIT Leadership
The MIT Quantum Initiative is overseen by Ian Waitz, Vice President for Research, and Danna Freedman, the Frederick George Keyes Professor of Chemistry, who serves as Faculty Director.
Read President Kornbluth’s message to the MIT community. 
Core pillars are led by top researchers in quantum including Paola Cappellaro 
, Isaac Chuang , Pablo Jarillo-Herrero , William Oliver , Vladan Vuletić , and Jonilyn Yoder .
What’s next?
QMIT formally launched on December 8, 2025, with an all-day event on campus featuring MIT quantum luminaries, industry leaders, MIT startups, and a poster session highlighting students’ and postdocs’ research.