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Stony Brook quantum institute director’s Qu-MEM named TIME’s Best Invention

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October 29, 2026 by Ivy Delaney

Eden Figueroa, PhD, Director of the Stony Brook University Quantum Institute and a joint appointee at Brookhaven National Laboratory, is recognized for his team’s recent inclusion of Qu-MEM in TIME Magazine’s Best Inventions. Chancellor John B. King Jr. recently toured Stony Brook’s research facilities, observing projects that span quantum processing to critical health challenges. The visit also demonstrated concurrent research into nuclear energy and clean water solutions.

Quantum Institute’s Qu-MEM Named TIME’s Best Invention

Eden Figueroa’s Qu-MEM technology, a quantum memory framework, received recognition as one of TIME Magazine’s Best Inventions, a distinction reflecting its potential to address a critical bottleneck in scalable quantum computing. He is the Director of the Center for Distributed Quantum Processing, and his former students patented Qu-MEM. Christine DeLorenzo, interim co-director for Healthy Aging, is applying advanced neuroimaging to understand the biological basis of mood disorders, while Anissa Abi-Dargham’s research uses PET imaging to study the neurobiology of schizophrenia.

Research at Stony Brook improves lives across the country, from cleaner drinking water to new treatments for cancer.

State Senator Kristen Gonzalez, Chair of the Committee on Internet & Technology

Stony Brook Research Addresses Diverse Global Challenges

Funding for these diverse research areas remains a priority for New York State legislators, who recognize Stony Brook’s role in driving innovation and economic growth. Fitzpatrick added that Stony Brook’s remarkable dedication of faculty and student researchers not only establishes the region as a leader in technological advancement but also supports a healthier, more sustainable future.

The university’s collaborative spirit extends beyond its own campus, with a strong partnership established with the National Laboratory. Eden Figueroa, PhD, is the Presidential Professor of Physics, Director of the Stony Brook University Quantum Institute and a joint appointee at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

State Assemblymember Schiavoni echoed this sentiment, stating, “Stony Brook University is a world-class research institution that is advancing discoveries and developing solutions to some of the most pressing challenges of our time.” The scale of investment in these endeavors is significant, with $54 million allocated this year to hold the line on tuition at SUNY, and a portion of that funding directed toward research initiatives. A legislative source confirmed that research at Stony Brook improves lives across the country, from cleaner drinking water to new treatments for cancer, and that this work depends on steady State support. This sustained financial commitment highlights the recognition of Stony Brook’s contributions to both scientific advancement and societal wellbeing, solidifying its position as a cornerstone of research and innovation in New York State and beyond.

Answers to some of humanity’s greatest questions may be found through the research happening right now at Stony Brook University.

State Assemblymember Alicia L. Hyndman, Chair of the Assembly Committee on Higher Education

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Ivy Delaney

Ivy Delaney has been working with neural networks and machine learning since the mid-nineties, back when a couple of hidden layers and a long afternoon of training counted as ambitious. She has watched the field go from academic curiosity to the thing quietly running underneath everything, and she brings that long view to quantum computing. For Quantum Zeitgeist she covers the ground where the two fields meet. That means quantum machine learning and the variational algorithms it leans on, and it also means the less glamorous but more interesting story of classical machine learning already doing real work inside quantum machines, decoding error-correcting codes, calibrating noisy hardware and learning the error models that simulators depend on. She writes about the hardware those algorithms have to run on too, and about the post-quantum cryptography scramble that the same hardware has set off. Her stories typically start with the paper, whether that is peer-reviewed work, conference proceedings or an arXiv preprint, with the source linked so you can hold a claim up against the research it came from. She is unimpressed by benchmarks that will not say what they beat, and by demonstrations that only work in the press release.

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