Qunnect's room temperature quantum memory named in TIME's Best Inventions 2026

[AdamCole_Contender]

Qunnect's Qu-MEM quantum memory has been named in TIME's Best Inventions of 2026, in the Experimental category. The Quantum Insider reports on the recognition, based on Stony Brook University's announcement. Qu-MEM is described as the first commercial quantum memory that works at room temperature

Quantum memories are a crucial part of future quantum networks. They store quantum states of light so that entanglement can be built up over long distances, much like a buffer in a classical network. Most quantum memories need extreme cooling, which makes them expensive and hard to deploy

Qu-MEM is different. It is a warm vapour, neutral atom memory that works on demand, fits into a standard server rack and works with existing fibre networks. It is based on patented technology from Professor Eden Figueroa's lab at Stony Brook, and Figueroa co-founded Qunnect with his former students Mehdi Namazi and Mael Flament

Namazi says the work took more than ten years. Qu-MEM is being expanded within SCY-QNET, which Stony Brook describes as the largest metropolitan area quantum network in the world, and it has been deployed on testbeds in New York and Europe. The New York State Quantum Internet Testbed is backed by more than $300 million in state and federal funding

It is great to see quantum networking hardware recognised alongside mainstream inventions. A decade of patient work by a university lab, turned into a rack mounted product, is exactly how deep tech should develop. Room temperature operation makes quantum networks far more practical to deploy

How soon will quantum memories be standard in metropolitan networks? And does mainstream recognition like this help the quantum industry?

Stony Brook Quantum Memory Named to TIME's Best Inventions of 2026thequantuminsider.com