Conference: Foundations of Quantum Information and Entanglement; Boston University; March 24-25, 2006

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Project Summary"Foundations of Quantum Information and Entanglement"STS Conference and Workshop ProposalRecently there has emerged a new and rapidly growing interdisciplinary field ofresearch in science and engineering known as "quantum information science" (QIS). The field of QIS is unified by two related sets of goals: First, the possibility of using the principles and laws of quantum mechanics to improve the acquisition, transmission, and processing of information; and second, to use the development of these new technologies to clarify fundamental concepts and deepen the understanding of foundational issues in quantum physics and computation. This proposal seeks support for a two-day international conference to bring together quantum information scientists and science and technology studies (STS) scholars to discuss the latest developments and foundational issues in this emerging field.Intellectual Merits The intellectual merits of this conference lie both in the novel concepts it will explore and in the potential this conference has to significantly advance research and understanding both within-and across-the fields of QIS and STS. The conference will be held March 24th and March 25th of 2006, at Boston University. There will be four sessions at the conference organized around the following themes: 1. "Quantum Entanglement: History and Foundations," 2. "Quantum Computing and the Nature of Information," 3. "Quantum Cryptography and Information Security," and 4. "Entanglement: From Philosophy to Technology." Each session will be comprised of roughly an equal number of speakers from both the QIS and STS communities, to ensure maximum interaction among these groups. The speakers, who have already conditionally accepted the invitation to participate in this conference, include not only some the world's top researchers in these fields, but also several up-and-coming junior scholars whose education and research stands to benefit greatly from this opportunity. Broader ImpactsThe conference, which will be free and open to the public, will not only make this exciting area of research accessible to a wider audience, but will also help establish a new area of scholarship at the intersection of QIS and STS, by opening up a dialogue between these two diverse groups of researchers. The conference will enhance education at many levels: career training of junior scholars; education of graduate students, postdoctoral students; and other faculty who can consider incorporating material from the conference in their own courses.