I’m pleased to welcome you to Physics World’s coverage supporting the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ) in 2025. The IYQ is a worldwide celebration, endorsed by the United Nations (UN), to increase the public’s awareness of quantum science and its applications. The year 2025 was chosen as it marks the centenary of the initial development of quantum mechanics by Werner Heisenberg.

With six “founding partners”, including the Institute of Physics (IOP), which publishes Physics World, the IYQ has ambitious aims. It wants to show how quantum science can do everything from grow the economy, support industry and improve our health to help the climate, deliver clean energy and reduce inequalities in education and research. You can join in by creating an event or donating money to the IYQ Global Fund.

Quantum science is burgeoning, with huge advances in basic research and applications such as quantum computing, communication, cryptography and sensors. Countless tech firms are getting in on the act, including giants like Google, IBM and Microsoft as well as start-ups such as Oxford Quantum Circuits, PsiQuantum, Quantinuum, QuEra and Riverlane. Businesses in related areas – from banking to aerospace – are eyeing up the possibilities of quantum tech too.

An official IYQ opening ceremony will be taking place at UNESCO headquarters in Paris on 4–5 February 2025. Perhaps the highlight of the year for physicists is a workshop from 9–14 June in Helgoland – the tiny island off the coast of Germany where Heisenberg made his breakthrough exactly 100 years ago. Many of the leading lights from quantum physics will be there, including five Nobel-prize winners.

Kicking off our coverage of IYQ, historian Robert P Crease from Stony Brook University has talked to some of the delegates at Helgoland to find out what they hope to achieve at the event. Crease also examines whether Heisenberg’s revelations were as clear-cut as he later claimed. Did he really devise the principles of quantum mechanics at precisely 3 a.m. one June morning 100 years ago?

From a different perspective, Oksana Kondratyeva explains how she has worked with US firm Rigetti Computing to create a piece of stained glass art inspired by the company’s quantum computers – a “quantum rose for the 21st century” as she puts it. You can find out more about her quantum-themed artwork in a special video she’s made.

Other quantum coverage in 2025 will include special episodes of the Physics World podcasts and Physics World Live. The next edition of Physics World Careers, due out in the new year, has a quantum theme, and there’ll also be a bumper, quantum-themed issue of the Physics World Briefing in May. The Physics World quantum channel will be regularly updated throughout the year so you don’t miss a thing.

The IOP has numerous quantum-themed public events lined up – including the QuAMP conference in September – building to a week of celebrations in November and December. A series of community events – spearheaded by the IOP’s quantum Business Innovation and Growth (qBIG) and history of physics groups – will include a public celebration at the Royal Institution, featuring physicist and broadcaster Jim Al-Khalili.

IOP Publishing, meanwhile, will be bringing out a series of Perspectives articles – personal viewpoints from leading quantum scientists – in Quantum Science and Technology. The journal will also be publishing roadmaps in quantum computing, sensing, communication and simulation, as well as focus issues on topics such as quantum machine learning and technologies for quantum gravity.

There’ll be many other events and initiatives by other organizations too, including from the other founding partners, the American Physical Society, the German Physical Society, Optica, SPIE and the Chinese Optical Society. What’s more, the IYQ is a truly global intiative, with almost 60 nations, led by Ghana and Mexico, helping to get the year off the ground, spreading the benefits of quantum science across the planet, including to the Global South.

The beauty of quantum science lies not only in its mystery but also in the ground-breaking, practical applications that it is inspiring. The IYQ deserves to be a huge success – in fact, I am sure it will.