Acknowledgments and Citation

Acknowledgments

This report was developed with guidance from the National Science Board by Beethika Khan, Carol Robbins, and Abigail Okrent, all at the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) within the National Science Foundation, and it was supported by NCSES’s analytic staff, under the leadership of Emilda B. Rivers, Director, NCSES, and Arthur W. Lupia, Assistant Director of the Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate.

Mark Boroush, Amy Burke, Michael Gibbons, Ledia Guci, Derek Hill, Josh Trapani, and Karen White, all at NCSES, John Besley, University of Michigan, and Susan Rotermund, RTI International, provided subject matter expertise. John Jankowski, NCSES, and Rolf Lehming, formerly of NCSES, reviewed the draft report. Samson Adeshiyan, Jock Black, Wan-Ying Chang, Darius Singpurwalla, and Matthew Williams, all at NCSES, provided advice on statistical issues. May Aydin, Catherine Corlies, and Rajinder Raut of NCSES coordinated the report’s publication process and managed the development of its digital platform. Christine Hamel and Tanya Gore of NCSES conducted editorial and composition review.

Ashley Begley and Christina Freyman of SRI International, Center for Innovation Strategy and Policy, assisted with report preparation. RTI International provided editing services. Staff at Penobscot Bay Media, LLC (PenBay Media), created the report site. The following agencies reviewed this report:

Bureau of Economic Analysis

Bureau of Labor Statistics

Department of the Treasury

National Center for Education Statistics

National Center for Education Research

National Institutes of Health

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

National Science Foundation

Office of Management and Budget

Office of Science and Technology Policy

U.S. Geological Survey

The National Science Board is especially grateful to the Committee on National Science and Engineering Policy for overseeing preparation of the volume and to the National Science Board Office, under the direction of John Veysey, which provided vital coordination throughout the project. Nadine Lymn led the outreach and dissemination efforts. Matthew Wilson and Reba Bandyopadhyay served as Board Office Liaisons to the committee. Beethika Khan, Carol Robbins, and Anne Emig served as Executive Secretaries to the Committee on National Science and Engineering Policy.

Cover Image Credit

The cover for Science and Engineering Indicators 2020: The State of U.S. Science and Engineering shows a trefoil knot, an iconic topological object, coming out of a tunnel with an image of superconducting qubit chips reflected on its surface.

Starting early this century, scientists have been working hard to exploit the strangeness of quantum mechanics and make a quantum computer. The superior computational processing power of quantum bits (qubits) is poised to have revolutionary impacts on diverse fields ranging from chemistry to economics. In the race to find a reliable platform for making quantum computers, superconducting qubits are among the leading ones.

In 2014, scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in collaboration with Boston University, used one of these chips to study quantum topology and showed how superconducting qubits can help to make topological concepts tangible. Topology, despite its abstract mathematical constructs, often manifests itself in physics and has a pivotal role in the understanding of natural phenomena. Notably, the discovery of topological phases in condensed-matter systems has changed the modern conception of phases of matter. In their research, the scientists found a novel method to directly measure topological properties of quantum systems. [This research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation (grants DMR 09-07039 and DMR 10-29764).]

Credit: P. Roushan\Martinis lab\UC Santa Barbara