The Milner Head of AI and Computational Research, Dr Namshik Han, was one of nine successfully funded project leaders invited to present at the opening of the IonQ Quantum Innovation Centre at the Ray Dolby Centre on the West Campus earlier this month. The opening of the Centre heralds the next phase of a long-standing partnership between the University of Cambridge and IonQ, with deployment of the computer at Cambridge anticipated in summer 2027.
Namshik, who has a joint appointment as a Professor in the Institute of Quantum Information Technology, Yonsei University (Seoul, South Korea), and is funded through Korean national programmes, also has access to the Yonsei University IBM System One quantum computer. His team leverages quantum information for AI algorithms and network-based reasoning to identify novel therapeutic targets and drug repurposing opportunities.
The IonQ project builds on a growing quantum programme in Namshik’s group across Cambridge and Seoul. Alongside a Long COVID quantum walk study published in Bioinformatics Advances this year, the team has posted four quantum preprints in recent months. With access to the IonQ, the group will now work across three kinds of quantum hardware: trapped ions, superconducting qubits and quantum annealers.
The research projects awarded through the IonQ Quantum Innovation Centre’s inaugural funding call reflect the depth and breadth of expertise across Cambridge in quantum research; in addition to the Milner, this includes the Cambridge Departments of Physics, Engineering, and Computer Science and Technology, and the Cambridge Judge Business School.
“The official launch of the IonQ Quantum Innovation Centre is an exciting milestone in our partnership with IonQ […] The first round of the funded research projects celebrates the depth and breadth of expertise and talent at Cambridge, and will accelerate our impact in quantum science and engineering.”
Related research and further reading
Further reading
- First funded research projects announced as IonQ Quantum Innovation Centre opens in Cambridge
- IonQ and the University of Cambridge Open the IonQ Quantum Innovation Centre at Cavendish Laboratory’s Ray Dolby Centre
Namshik Han’s quantum research preprints
Kim et al.
Hamiltonian-Dependent Compressibility and Physical Preservation in Approximate Quantum Compilation using Tensor Networks.
arXiv preprint, arXiv:2610.14125 (2026)
Lee et al.
VQIL: Visible Quantum Interference Learning for Perturbation Response Ranking on Graphs.
arXiv preprint, arXiv:2610.13689 (2026)
Kang et al.
Degree-conditioned anneal offsets reshape certified-optimum sampling for minimum vertex cover.
arXiv preprint, arXiv:2610.03379 (2026)
Kim et al.
Exact diffusion coefficients for quantum–classical hybrid walks.
arXiv preprint, arXiv:2609.01951 (2026)