A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on November 6, at the FermiLab in Batavia, near Chicago, for the "Quantum Garage," the new and innovative Laboratory of the Super Conducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center (SQMS) directed by Italian Anna Grassellino.

The ceremony, which was attended by more than 300 scientists from the FermiLab's partner countries, was attended by Illinois Governor J. B. Pritzker, the Undersecretary for Science and Innovation of the U.S. Department of Energy, Geri Richmond, and Illinois Representative in Congress Bill Foster.

The Quantum Garage is a state-of-the-art facility where, thanks to cooling stations capable of reaching temperatures just above absolute zero, phenomena will be studied, experiments conducted and data collected for the application of quantum science and technology to numerous fields of research: from basic sciences to climate change and renewable energy, from medicine to communications security. Part of the Quantum Garage will be dedicated specifically to training the next generation of researchers and scientists.

The Consul General of Italy in Chicago, Thomas Botzios, who spoke at the opening, recalled that science and research are cornerstones of the strategic partnership between Italy and the United States. The Italian scientific community, among the most numerous among the international ones active at FermiLab, can count on numerous bilateral collaboration agreements, as reiterated during the Joint Commission meeting in Rome in January 2023 and as highlighted in the Joint Declaration signed by President Biden and Prime Minister Meloni in July 2023 in Washington.

On the sidelines of the ceremony, FermiLab and the University of Pisa signed a bilateral collaboration agreement for joint activities for the study and applications in different fields of quantum technologies.