In order to recognize the work of the unsung heroes, developers and maintainers, often unaware of the magnitude of the impact their work is having on the quantum software community, Quantum Open Source Foundation is partnering with Unitary Fund in order to award a US$4000 prizeto a software contributor/maintainer among crowd-sourced nominees. The winner of the prize is going to be selected by the Unitary’s Fund advisory board, which kindly agreed to act as an independent evaluation committee.

About the prize

The Wittek Quantum Prize is dedicated to Peter Wittek - a pioneer in the field of open quantum software who went missing on a mountaineering expedition in the Himalayas last year. The prize is a collaboration between the Unitary Fund and the Quantum Open Source Foundation and it aims to reward an otherwise unnoticed individual for their outstanding high-impact contribution to the field of open source quantum software.

The field of quantum computing is in large building upon the successfully established open source development models, and we are happy to report that open source software has been embraced, by academia, industry players alike. However, we are still in the early days of establishing the technology stack for future quantum software developers and while some of the components of the critical infrastructure is developed by larger development teams with commercial backing, there are plentiful individuals who are helping shape the building blocks of the foundations upon which the quantum computing software industry is going to rely in the decades to come.

Nominations

In order to identify potential recipients of the Wittek Quantum Prize for Open Source Software we need your help! If you know an individual you’d like to nominate for the prize (including yourself), please fill out the nomination form at wittekprize.com.

Who should you nominate?

• An individual who has had substantial impact on the quantum open source ecosystem. Ideally, this person is someone who usually goes unnoticed due to the nature of their work but who deserves to be highlighted for their enthusiastic & diligent support of open quantum software .✅
• Yourself! Self-nominations are more than welcome. ✅

Who should you NOT nominate?

• Teams or groups of individuals (e.g. “the team behind XYZ”, “company B”, etc.) ❌
• Software packages (Qiskit, Cirq, etc.) ❌

More information at QOSF web page.