Quantum facility advances with $13.5M from Duffield Engineering

The buildout of a 10,000-square-foot quantum research facility at Cornell is advancing with a new $10 million investment from the Cornell Duffield College of Engineering, with an additional $3.5 million announced to support collaborative research projects.

The funding comes from a record-setting $371.5 million gift received from David Duffield '62, MBA '64, and builds on plans first unveiled in 2025 as part of an expansion and renovation of Duffield Hall. A key goal of the project is to establish a state-of-the-art, quantum-ready "collaboratory" space to support quantum engineering science and technology research and innovations. The new funding will equip the facility with instrumentation and technical expertise to fabricate quantum devices, among other capabilities.

Unlike traditional models in which university research labs are designed to support work by a single or small groups of investigators, Duffield Engineering's "collaboratory" concept centers on a shared, multi-user facility that lowers barriers to entry into an emerging field for faculty and students across the college and university. Planned additions may include integrated cryogenic and optical systems, semiconductor assembly machines such as flip-chip bonders, and advanced device packaging tools - enabling broader participation in quantum research, according to Gregory Fuchs, the James R. Meehl Professor in the School of Applied and Engineering Physics and co-chair of the Cornell Quantum Initiative.

"I'm especially excited about the opportunity this creates for research groups to pivot into the quantum space," Fuchs said. "Faculty with expertise in materials, modeling, electromagnetics or microwave measurements may not currently identify as quantum researchers, but this gives them a pathway to collaborate and contribute."

Beyond advancing research, the shared facility will take advantage of its physical proximity to - and Duffield Engineering's recent investments in - the Cornell Nanoscale Science and Technology Facility to educate students and to promote hands-on, experiential learning alongside research in an emerging field.

"The lab spaces, shared resources and tools to be housed in the facility will offer students opportunities for broad practical training," said Karan Mehta, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering who directs the Photonics and Quantum Electronics Group, "and significant potential to drive forward research at Cornell - including in the multiple areas of common need across quantum technologies, such as device packaging and interfacing."

An additional $3.5 million in research funding from the new investment will support collaborative projects that help move validated science toward larger-scale research efforts. Rather than supporting individual investigators, the competitive grants will prioritize cross-disciplinary teams.

"The team-based approach encourages us to pursue disruptive research at the intersections of our expertise, in which our collaborative effort can have greater, or different, impact than we could achieve on our own," said Valla Fatemi, assistant professor of applied and engineering physics whose lab studies quantum electronic phenomena. "This investment by Cornell Duffield Engineering is incredibly exciting and I look forward to the new collaborations it will enable."

Construction on the quantum shared facility and the greater Duffield Hall expansion is expected to continue into 2027.

"This new facility will further position Cornell as a leader in quantum engineering science and technology," said Debdeep Jena, the Dave E. Burr Professor of Engineering who researches novel semiconductor materials and devices with emergent quantum phenomena, "including the development of new quantum materials platforms that not only deepen our understanding of quantum behavior, but also provide a foundation that enables researchers across all areas of quantum science to explore, test and push the boundaries of discovery."