From Monday, September 18th to Friday, September 22nd, the conference building of the University of Trieste in via Elisa Baciocchi hosted the 15th edition of the “Italian Quantum Information Science” (IQIS) conference.

IQIS 2023 has been organized by  Angelo Bassi, Fabio Benatti, Francesco Scazza and Andrea Trombettoni of the Department of Physics of the University of Trieste with the fundamental help of other members of the department; among them, Matteo Carlesso responsible for the conference website and for organizing the due assistance during the conference that was provided by several PhD students, Ugo Marzolino and  Faezeh Mousavi who took care of the two poster sessions, Stefano Gherardini of the  CNR-INO (Trieste) who assisted the speakers during their presentations, and, last but not least, Irene Spagnul whose contribution was fundamental for the administrative handling of the event.

IQIS 2023 has been a significant success both for the number of participants and for their scientific quality with more than 200 scientists registered, Italian and foreigners, making the 15^th edition  one with the largest number of participants since the edition in 2008.

IQIS 2023 had 5 key-note renown speakers, 61 talks and 86 posters, all this emphasizing once more the interest, scientific liveliness and enthusiasm, in particular among the younger generations of researchers, that accompany the field of Quantum Sciences and Technologies.

A scientific booming field to which a newly born curriculum is dedicated within the Master Degree in Physics of the University of Trieste.

To further stress and underline the importance of the issues addressed by the Quantum Sciences and Technologies and of the Italian scientific community active in the field, in the afternoon session of Wednesday, September 20th, it was made official the birth of the newly founded Società Italiana di Scienze e Tecnologie Quantistiche (SISTEQ).

Its president, professor Gioacchino Massimo Palma of the University of Palermo, illustrated motivations, purposes and relations with national actions as the PNRR and High Performance Computing in a round-table together with Fabio Beltram (NQSTI), Paolo Cremonesi (Centro Nazionale HPC), Simone Montangero (Università di Padova), Michele Amoretti e Marco Aldinucci (Laboratorio Nazionale CINI).

The launch of SISTEQ has been preceded by an online interview with Paola Verrucchi, researcher of the CNR Institute for Complex Systems in Florence, who is about to begin her one-woman sail, dubbed “Sailing Quantum Tour” around Italy with her boat Whisper starting from Portoferraio nell’Elba.

After several stops along the coasts of Italy during which she will illustrate Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Science and Technologies in schools and in public meetings, “Sailing Quantingiro” will reach its last stop in Trieste close to 56th edition of the famous international regatta, the Barcolana 2024.

The aims of “Sailing Quantingiro” have been illustrated in an interview with Anna Gregorio of the Department of Physics of the University of Trieste, herself scientist and passionate sailor.

Furthermore, professor Mitja Gialuz, president of theSocietà Velica Barcola-Grignano, organizer of the Barcolana, emphasized the connections of “Sailing Quantingiro” with Trieste, the City of Science and City of the Barcolana.