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Quantum computing will have an impact on national security, just not in the way that some of the policy community claims that it will.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has namedJake Tibbettsasits 2020Leonard M. Rieser Award recipientfor hisFebruary 11 essay Keeping classified information secret in a world of quantum computing. The article was selected by the Bulletins editorial team from its Voices of Tomorrow columna column that promotes rising experts who write with distinction on topics including nuclear risk, climate change, and disruptive technologies.

Tibbetts is a mastersstudent at University of California, Berkeley, where he is studying electrical engineering and computer science and researching the application of machine learning to nuclear safeguards. Heis a fellow at the Nuclear Science and Security Consortium and a former research associate at the Center for Global Security Research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories.

Tibbetts was also involved in the creation of SIGNAL, an online three-player experimental wargame in which three countries, some armed with nuclear weapons, attempt to achieve national goals through diplomacy and conflict. SIGNAL is designed to increase understanding of the impact of emerging technologies on strategic stability and nuclear risk reduction. Tibbettsis interested in cybersecurity and national security from both a technical and a policy perspective.

In his piece, Jake Tibbetts accomplished the kind of deep, thoughtful, and well-crafted journalism that is the Bulletins hallmark, editor-in-chiefJohn Mecklinsaid. Quantum computing is a complex field; many articles about it are full of strange exaggerations and tangled prose. Tibbetts piece, on the other hand, is an exemplar of clarity and precision and genuinely worthy of the Rieser Award.

The Rieser Award is the capstone of the BulletinsNext Generation Program, created to ensure that new voices, steeped in science and public policy, have a trusted platform from which to address existential challenges. It is named for physicist Leonard M. Rieser (1922-1998), board chair at the Bulletin from 1984 to 1998.

The Leonard Rieser Award is designed to inspire thought-provoking scientific essays that can contribute to advances in public policy, saidTim Rieserwho, along with his brother Len and sister Abby, helped establish the Rieser Award in their fathers honor. Jake Tibbetts, this years awardee, has done us all a service by tackling quantum computing and the so-called race for quantum supremacy. The hype surrounding that race, he argues, may be obscuring a more serious issue the need to protect existing encrypted information against future decryption techniques.As someone who has had access to encrypted information, I congratulate Mr. Tibbetts and the Bulletin for highlighting a subject that has serious implications for us all and deserves greater attention.

The Rieser Award includes a $1,000 cash prize and a one-year subscription to the Bulletinsonline magazine. The Rieser Award recipient is also invited to offer remarks at the Bulletins annual dinner in November. More about the award, Leonard M. Rieser, previous recipients, and all Voices of Tomorrow authors,can be found here.

To support to the Bulletins Next Generation programsvisit our gift page.

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The Bulletin announces its 2020 Leonard M. Rieser Award - Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists