2026 Quantum Leadership Awards

The Quantum Leadership Awards celebrate impact—across sectors and across borders. From lab-to-market builders to public-sector architects, from academic pioneers to the organizations scaling solutions into the real world, these honorees represent the leading edge of the global quantum ecosystem.

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A woman speaking at a podium during the Quantum World Congress with multiple flags in the background and a large screen displaying her photo and information about her, including her name Dr. Patricia 'Patty' Le Chien and her awards.
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The People AND Teams Building What’s Next in Quantum.

Quantum doesn’t move forward on theory alone. It moves because leaders take risks, build coalitions, publish the breakthrough, ship the system, fund the leap, write the policy, train the workforce—and refuse to stop at “maybe someday.”

The Quantum Leadership Awards honor the individuals and organizations catalyzing measurable progress across quantum science and technology—accelerating commercialization, research, policy, and workforce development at the speed this moment demands. Awardees will be announced and recognized at Quantum World Congress 2026.

PAST WINNERS 
QUANTUM LEADERSHIP AWARD CATEGORIES

A Global Stage for Quantum’s Real MVPs.

The Quantum Leadership Awards celebrate impact—across sectors and across borders. From lab-to-market builders to public-sector architects, from academic pioneers to the organizations scaling solutions into the real world, these honorees represent the leading edge of the global quantum ecosystem. Explore the categories below.

  • Industry Pioneer in Quantum
  • Academic Pioneer in Quantum
  • Government Pioneer in Quantum
  • Organization of the Year

Meet the Quantum Hall of Fame.

2024 & 2025 honorees represent the full stack of quantum progress—from foundational theory and hardware scaling to national strategy and global coalition-building. In other words, they’re kind of a big deal. Meet them below.

  • Dr. Patricia Lee

    Dr. Patricia "Patty" Lee

    2025 INDUSTRY PIONEER OF THE YEAR

    Quantinuum

  • Sylvie Retailleau

    Sylvie Retailleau

    2025 GOVERNMENT PIONEER OF THE YEAR

    Professor at Université Paris-Saclay, Former Minister of the French Republic

  • Dr. John Preskill

    Dr. John Preskill

    2025 ACADEMIC PIONEER OF THE YEAR

    California Institute of Technology

  • International Year of Quantum Science and Technology

    International Year of Quantum Science and Technology

    2025 ORGANIZATION OF THE YEAR

  • Black and white portrait of a man with slicked-back hair, wearing a textured jacket, against a orange-red gradient background.

    Dr. Jay Gambetta

    2024 INDUSTRY PIONEER OF THE YEAR

    IBM

  • Dr. Cathy Foley

    Dr. Cathy Foley

    2024 GOVERNMENT PIONEER OF THE YEAR

    Chief Scientist, Australia

  • Dr. Jungsang Kim

    Dr. Jungsang Kim

    2024 ACADEMIC PIONEER OF THE YEAR

    Duke University

  • Quantum Delta NL

    Quantum Delta NL

    2024 ORGANIZATION OF THE YEAR

Nominate a Leader for The 2026 Awards

Winners will be announced and recognized at Quantum World Congress 2026, September 22-24, at The Hotel at the University of Maryland in College Park. If you have questions about the nomination form, please send us an email at quantum@connecteddmv.org.

Please note that it is not possible to save progress on your form and return to it later. Please review the questions to have your answers/documentation ahead of time.

  • We will recognize the following leaders for their impact:

    • Pioneer in Quantum

      • Government Awardee

      • Industry Awardee

      • Academic Awardee

    • Organization of the Year

  • Nominees from US and international government, commercial, non-profit, academia, research, and non-government organizations are eligible.

  • Individuals nominated for the government, industry, or academia Pioneer awards should have made personal contributions to leading-edge ideas, solutions, investments, or approaches that made a measurable change in quantum technology, policy, or workforce advances during the year.

    Organizations or teams nominated for the Organization of the Year Award will have made a positive, definable impact on an industry, mission, use case, or challenge through the application of quantum or quantum-adjacent technology, tools, or methods.

  • Please have the following information ready to submit your nomination:

    • Nominee name

    • Nominee title/role

    • Nominee organization/affiliation

    • Nominee country (and state/province if applicable)

    • Nominee email address

    • Nominee LinkedIn, bio, or website link

    • In a few sentences: what did the nominee do that moved the field forward? (required | suggested 35–50 words)

    • What problem did they tackle, and why does it matter right now? (required | 100–200 words)

    • What changed because of their work? (required | 150–300 words)
      Prompt: commercialization progress, technical milestone, new capability, adoption, policy shift, coalition built, standards/workforce impact, measurable outcomes.

    • Proof points (up to 5 bullets) (required)
      Examples: performance benchmarks, deployment milestones, funding/investment outcomes, customer/partner traction, published results, programs launched, workforce outcomes, agreements signed.

    • Who benefited and how? (optional | 75–150 words)
      Industries, mission areas, communities, students, partners, public impact.

    • Why this nominee now? (optional | 50–125 words)
      What makes this year’s impact distinct.

    • Links to support the nomination (required)
      Examples: press releases, papers, patents, talks, program pages, product pages, policy documents.

    • Optional Supporting PDFs or other files (press kit / one-pager)

    • Optional: Additional context for reviewers (optional | open text)

    • Optional: Up to 3 supporting nominators (including their name, email, organization, and optional 3-5 sentence endorsement of the nominee)