Javier Aizpurua, Scientific Director of BasQ - Basque Quantum

The scientist Javier Aizpurua has been appointed Scientific Director of the BasQ - Basque Quantum strategy. An Ikerbasque Research Professor at the Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), he now takes on the challenge of promoting and piloting the development and deployment of the Basque Quantum Strategy, led by the Basque Government's Department of Education and with the involvement of the three provincial councils.

Javier Aizpurua, who received the Euskadi Research Award from the Lehendakari last June, is the principal investigator of the "Nanophotonics Theory Group", an activity he has carried out until now at the CSIC-UPV/EHU Joint Centre for Materials Physics in San Sebastian, where he was theoretically studying the interaction between light and matter at the nanoscale, an activity that he will continue to combine at the DIPC. Aizpurua developed his career in various research centres, including the University of the Basque Country/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the United States. He has published more than 200 papers on the subject of nanoplasmonics, particularly in the area of microscopy and enhanced spectroscopy with nanoantennas, and quantum effects in plasmonics. Professor Aizpurua has been recognised on several occasions in the list of the world's most cited scientists issued annually by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI)™ of the Clarivate company.

BasQ

The BasQ - Basque Quantum strategy aims to position the Basque Country as the leading research, talent and innovation ecosystem in quantum technologies in southern Europe. BasQ is an ambitious transversal strategy that aims to actively contribute to scientific discovery in different areas of quantum technologies, to advance in their practical application and accelerate their use and exploitation in different business sectors, to promote new business opportunities and generate social value, and to turn the Basque Country into a reference pool of highly qualified professionals and a hub of international talent in these technologies.

A key element of BasQ is the development of a Basque alliance with IBM to drive and catalyse this Basque quantum ecosystem that is integrated into the global IBM Quantum Network. This partnership includes the adoption of quantum computing through the launch of the IBM-Euskadi Quantum Computational Center, which will provide Qiskit Runtime services through a 127-qubit IBM Quantum System One located in Donostia.

The strategic alliance with IBM is based on the presence in the Basque Country of capabilities to promote a commitment to science of excellence and also seeks to make the Basque Country a territory for training in quantum computing and for experimentation and industrial application through the development of use cases. This is one of the reasons why IBM has also chosen the Basque Country as the sixth node in its international network of Quantum Computing Centres (QCC) to install a quantum computer and to deploy a wide range of activities associated with the use of this facility. This alliance represents a strategic initiative for the Basque Country as IBM's preferred partner in quantum computing. It is one of the Basque Country's major commitments to the future that places Science as a direct vector for generating social prosperity and economic competitiveness in the Basque Country.