2026 Gene Golub SIAM Summer School Brings Quantum Computing Leaders and Students to Duke
The 2026 Gene Golub SIAM Summer School on Quantum Computing was hosted by Rhodes Information Initiative at Duke (Rhodes iiD) and the Duke Department of Mathematics from July 27 to August 7, 2026. Nearly 75 graduate students from around the world gathered at Duke University to explore foundational and emerging techniques for designing quantum algorithms.
This year's program emphasized the computational and mathematical foundations of quantum algorithms, with a particular focus on fault-tolerant quantum computing and its applications. Beyond the classroom, participants toured the Duke Quantum Center and built connections through a variety of social activities throughout the two-week program.
The program was designed to be accessible to students with quantitative backgrounds but little or no prior exposure to quantum computing or quantum mechanics. The first week began with the basics of quantum computing and then progressed from foundational techniques developed in the 1990s and 2000s to modern algorithmic frameworks developed from the 2000s through the 2020s. The second week focused on a range of advanced research topics in fault-tolerant quantum algorithms, with applications across scientific and computational problems, including advanced topics such as quantum dynamics simulation, quantum advantage, and quantum learning theory.
The program also featured two career panels: one highlighted different career pathways from mathematics into quantum information science, while the other focused on career opportunities in the quantum industry.
The program was organized by Duke faculty members Di Fang (Mathematics), Robert Calderbank (Electrical and Computer Engineering, Computer Science, and Mathematics), Jianfeng Lu (Mathematics), Yu Tong (Mathematics), and Hongkai Zhao, Chair of Mathematics. Speakers represented Duke University, Xanadu, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the California Institute of Technology, NVIDIA, and IBM Quantum.
Supported by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) through the Gene Golub legacy, the annual summer school is designed for graduate students in mathematics, applied mathematics, computational science, and related fields. Each year, the program focuses on an active area of applied and computational mathematics, combining lectures with mentoring, discussion, problem-solving activities, and hands-on learning.
Recordings, worksheets with solutions, and additional resources from the summer school are available at: https://sites.duke.edu/siamss2026/.
More information about the Gene Golub SIAM Summer School series, including past programs, can be found on the SIAM G2S3 website.