• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Departments
    • Bioengineering
    • Civil and Environmental Engineering
    • Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences
    • Industrial Engineering and Operations Research
    • Materials Science and Engineering
    • Mechanical Engineering
    • Nuclear Engineering
    • Aerospace program
    • Engineering Science program
  • News
    • Berkeley Engineer magazine
    • Social media
    • News videos
    • News digest (email)
    • Press kit
  • Events
    • Events calendar
    • Commencement
    • Homecoming
    • Cal Day
    • Space reservations
    • View from the Top
    • Kuh Lecture Series
    • Minner Lecture
  • College directory
  • For staff & faculty
Berkeley Engineering

Educating leaders. Creating knowledge. Serving society.

  • About
    • Facts & figures
    • Rankings
    • Mission & values
    • Equity & inclusion
    • Voices of Berkeley Engineering
    • Leadership team
    • Milestones
    • Buildings & facilities
    • Maps
  • Admissions
    • Undergraduate admissions
    • Graduate admissions
    • New students
    • Visit
    • Maps
    • Admissions events
    • K-12 outreach
  • Academics
    • Undergraduate programs
    • Majors & minors
    • Undergraduate Guide
    • Graduate programs
    • Graduate Guide
    • Innovation & entrepreneurship
    • Kresge Engineering Library
    • International programs
    • Executive education
  • Students
    • New students
    • Advising & counseling
    • ESS programs
    • CAEE academic support
    • Student life
    • Wellness & inclusion
    • Undergraduate Guide
    • > Degree requirements
    • > Policies & procedures
    • Forms & petitions
    • Resources
  • Research & faculty
    • Centers & institutes
    • Undergrad research
    • Faculty
    • Sustainability and resiliency
  • Connect
    • Alumni
    • Industry
    • Give
    • Stay in touch
Home > News > Umesh Vazirani awarded $2.4M grant from DOE
Rendering of a quantum computer, side view.Rendering of a quantum computer, side view. (Image by iStock)

Umesh Vazirani awarded $2.4M grant from DOE

Research will explore ways to advance production-ready quantum computing
October 30, 2023 by Marni Ellery

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded Umesh Vazirani, professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences, $2.4M for exploratory research in quantum computing.

Vazirani’s work will focus on a central challenge in quantum computing: demonstrating quantum computational advantage on near-term NISQ computers. One of his goals will be to “explore new ideas for the development of noise-robust quantum computation with minimal overhead.” He aims to study different sources of “noise” — disruptive factors that affect the accuracy of quantum calculations — and develop techniques to measure and potentially correct them.

According to Vazirani, stabilizing quantum computers is the most important challenge to making quantum computers practical. It’s an essential step to realizing the enormous speedups promised by quantum algorithms for breaking modern cryptography and quantum simulation — and could possibly speed up machine learning.

Part of Vazirani’s project will be hosted at the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing and will leverage the expertise of postdoctoral researchers in the Quantum Research Pod and the institute’s many visitors. The project will also help fund meetings designed to bring together a diverse group of researchers to exchange ideas and collaborate.

In addition to Vazirani’s grant, the DOE recently awarded a combined total of over $2M to the following engineering professors for their innovative research projects:

  • Allen Goldstein, professor of civil and environmental engineering and of environmental science, policy and management, will study aerosol chemical composition to advance our understanding of climate-relevant cloud, aerosol, precipitation and thermodynamic processes.
  • Raluca Scarlat, assistant professor of nuclear engineering, will use novel electrode geometry designs to study hydrogen concentration and diffusivity in FLiBe, a molten salt coolant used in nuclear reactors.
  • Vladimir Stojanovic, professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences, will collaborate with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to develop a modeling and evaluation framework for a Zetta-scale superconducting electronics-based supercomputing system.
  • Karl van Bibber, professor of nuclear engineering, will lead a team of scientists as they search for an ultralight but extremely dense particle called the axion, which may account for the local dark matter in our galaxy.
Topics: Quantum, Computer science, Computing, Nuclear engineering, Sustainability & environment
  • Contact
  • Give
  • Privacy
  • UC Berkeley
  • Accessibility
  • Nondiscrimination
  • instagram
  • X logo
  • linkedin
  • facebook
  • youtube
  • bluesky
© 2025 UC Regents