The IBS Center for Quantum Nanoscience Receives the Highest Grade in its Fifth-Year Performance Evaluation

The IBS Center for Quantum Nanoscience (QNS) at Ewha Womans University received the highest grade in its performance evaluation, which is conducted on IBS research centers that have been in operation for five years since their inception. The Institute for Basic Science (IBS), a government-funded research institute established to conduct world-class basic science research and now operates a total of 33 research centers including the QNS at Ewha Womans University, conducted the first performance evaluation for research centers that had been active over five years since their foundation. This performance evaluation is an essential process that determines whether each research center continues to be operated, and is based on qualitative assessment of scientific excellence, talent acquisition and cultivation, organizational management, etc. The evaluation committee, comprised of distinguished global scholars in basic science, recognized the world-class scientific excellence of the QNS in this evaluation. During the evaluation, the QNS presented outstanding research results, suggesting the potential of the world’s smallest storage medium and successfully performing the world’s smallest magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), based on its research environment including world-class, low vibration laboratories, and ideal research culture. The QNS was also highly acclaimed for its cultural diversity with a high proportion of foreign researchers, as well as for nurturing next-generation talents, especially women leaders. Indeed, women account for 45 percent of the researchers at the QNS. Ewha launched the QNS on January 1, 2017, under the agreement with the IBS. Andreas Heinrich, Director of the QNS, joined the university as a distinguished professor of the Department of Physics and the first director of the QNS in 2016 after leading research at IBM in the United States for 18 years, and has laid the foundation for the research center by not only designing the low vibration laboratories, but also establishing the state-of-the-art research facilities. With his unique leadership and professionalism, he has brought unprecedented achievements in the short span of five years. The QNS’s research focuses on designing qubits (quantum bits), the basic unit of information in a quantum computer, by using quantum spins on surfaces. Heinrich said, “So far, the QNS has gone through big challenges and I am proud that it has grown to this level in a short span of time with its host Ewha Womans University,” and he added, “The evaluation standard in Korea is so high that we are all making our best effort to meet that standard.” 2022.08.05. EWHA NEWS