_edited.png){kind=small}
Wake Forest University - the Nano and Quantum Technologies Laboratory
NanoteQ
the Nano and Quantum Technologies Laboratory
About Us
What is NanoteQ and why was it built?
Future Shock and Frontier Tech
Emerging Future Technologies or Frontier Technologies are names given to a set of rapidly developing technologies that center around: altered cyber-realities and the Web, AI, Human-machine fusion, and quantum information devices. Such technologies are referred to as “emergent” in the sense that the combination of these technological advances leads to a complex and unexpected set of outcomes.
So, the fingerprint of Frontier Tech. is a constant and rapid appearance of unexpected technologies, the quick adoption of those technologies into society and the world-wide reach of their impacts. A simple example of how this works is the iPhone’s increase in power + the growth in web speed and ubiquity + ChatGPT and on demand AI. Each of these are breakthrough technological advances. However when fused together, they radically altered social structure and interaction, as well as the nature of informational validity, in ways that were unpredicted. Moreover, because of this synthesis of novel outcomes, the creative spaces in which we work and innovate are now quite different from only a few years ago. Today, the technology and the user are almost indistinguishable, AI and unfiltered data sets dominate communication between actors, and loss of institutional memory as a common touchstone has accelerated.
You could say that WE are not the same and the way we create our future is not the same as only a few years ago. But this begs a deeper question: with such rapid change how are we to understand ourselves going forward?
Compare our vision of the future: in the 1961 (left) in which we saw 2061 technology as uniting humanity, bringing community and families together. In 2025 as we approach 2061, that future looks very different (right) as we retreat into ourselves and live online. The outcomes of Future-Tech are values dependent and can be highly unpredictable over the time scales of these images. However, that unpredictability is speeding up, as is tech adoption in our societies.
The If/Then World
If our communities are to be relevant in this future world, if we are to generate the leaders of future economies and the citizens of future societies, if we are to lead in the marketplace of future ideas and future technologies, then we must be prepared to embrace a deeper engagement with this frontier. Our educators, our researchers, our industries, and our government, must cease upon the opportunities of frontier tech. while remaining wary of its challenges to human welfare.
A New Horizon
This engagement must have an approach built upon 1) pathfinding in novel scientific paradigms and radically altered spaces of innovation, 2) emergent mores for technological development with a dedication to open discourse in the service of intellectual breadth, and 3) a deeply humanist center to technological impacts. This is the foundation of NanoteQ, a scientific community, rooted in entrepreneurship, that has vision and capability, and that embraces the untrodden path.
When addressing, for example, the development of quantum technologies, a traditional approach uses a reductionist schemes, breaking the problem into its components. NanoteQ goes beyond just how do I build it to a more radical pedagogy asking also how does it change us or more precisely; how do quantum holographics and quantum information combine to yield the synthesis of intelligence in the human experience of consciousness. NanoteQ is cross-cutting and risky. It addresses questions that point directly to the human condition. But, moving outside of the constraints of segmentation is more than just the questions asked, NanoteQ's creative environment is organized such that information flow within it more closely mimics a neural system. This invites disciplines that address existential questions to realize creative technological opportunities that didn’t exist beyond the interfaces of disciplinary thought and through this it changes the fundamental dynamic of creativity.
NanoteQ is a large physical laboratory adjacent to Wake Forest University's main campus. Here scientists, engineers, business experts, legal analysts and medical professionals can come together in the development of exciting new technologies, to demonstrate safe and beneficial adoption strategies, and to throw open the doors to a commercial promise unparalleled in human history.
95
W 32nd St.
WS | NC
the Governance of NanoteQ...
NanoteQ has two governing boards -
The internal Operations Board oversees NanoteQ operations. They address needs of the facility, access to lab tools, student wellbeing, and research ethics. They are appointed by the Director and serve for 5 years with approval of the Provost's office.
The external Advisory Board provides guidance on strategic planning, fund raising, corporate approach, and national profile. They are appointed by the Director and serve for 5 years with the approval of the Provost's office.
NanoteQ has four officers -
a Director appointed by the Provost for 5 years
a Deputy Director appointed by the Director for 2 years
a Financial Officer appointed by consensus between the Provost and the Director. Serves for 5 years
a Facilities Manager appointed by the Director for 2 years
the Membership of NanoteQ...
There are three classes of membership at NanoteQ. Members are granted priority for walk-in use of equipment and receive one of the reduced rates for access. They get free training on instruments, are invited to participate in residential conferences as well as joint proposal writing activities. Membership benefits also apply to the research groups of members.
Academic Memberships. Full time academic researchers or researchers at national facilities are welcomed to apply for Academic Membership. This membership receives the benefits above and the academic member rates for access to equipment and labs. Written applications must justify membership based on research overlap, describe the work that the applicant wishes to do in the facility, and describe the potential NanoteQ partnership that would be formed. This application can be in any format and submitted by email to carroldl@wfu.edu as a pdf or word file. There is no fee for academic membership.
Corporate Memberships. Corporate researchers and engineers needing significant access to facilities at NanoteQ can be granted a Corporate Membership. Such memberships share all the benefits of an Academic Membership but they contribute to the operations of the Center either through a research grant or a yearly membership fee. In 2025-2026 this fee is $10K and can be negotiated for small or startup companies. For more information contact carroldl@wfu.edu.
Users. These are not really memberships, but users are a pay-as-you-go group attached to one of the facilities or labs. Academic users get a standard reduced fee for access to equipment, Corporate users pay the full rate for access.