2025: The International Year of Quantum Science and Technology

In 2025, the entire world officially celebrated quantum physics. The United Nations declared 2025 the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology — a global celebration of 100 years of quantum mechanics, and a push to make sure the next quantum revolution benefits everyone, not just a few rich countries.

Who decided it? The UN General Assembly, on 7 June 2024 in New York, through Resolution A/RES/78/287 — adopted by consensus, meaning no country voted against it. The draft was submitted by Ghana, co-sponsored by Finland, India, Peru, South Africa and Turkmenistan, and supported by more than 70 countries. UNESCO was named the lead agency.

Why 2025? Because it marks exactly 100 years since the birth of quantum mechanics. In June 1925, a 23-year-old Werner Heisenberg, recovering from hay fever on the German island of Helgoland, invented matrix mechanics — the first complete mathematical formulation of quantum theory. His paper reached the journal on 29 July 1925, and within months Born, Jordan, Heisenberg and Schrödinger had built the full theory. Heisenberg won the Nobel Prize in 1932, barely seven years later.

Why does the world care enough to mark it? The first quantum revolution already runs modern life — lasers, LEDs, transistors, MRI scanners, GPS, batteries. The second quantum revolution is now underway: quantum computers, quantum-secure communication, and quantum sensors of almost unbelievable precision. The promised payoffs are enormous — climate modeling, new medicines and materials designed atom by atom, better batteries and solar cells, and communication nobody can hack.

But there was a deeper reason. UNESCO framed the year around closing the "quantum divide" — the gap between countries that can do quantum research and those that can't. The year's goals: build scientific capacity in the Global South, bring more girls and women into STEM, and tie quantum science to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. It sits inside the UN Decade of Science for Sustainable Development (2024–2033).

How did it happen? It started with physicists, not diplomats. The idea grew out of the American Physical Society's Forum on the History and Philosophy of Physics, and was spearheaded by the APS and Germany's DPG (German Physical Society). A coalition of more than 30 scientific societies took it to the IUPAP General Assembly in October 2021, which endorsed it — and that endorsement brought UNESCO in. Mexico then took the diplomatic lead from September 2022: UNESCO's Executive Board adopted the proposal by acclamation on 19 May 2023 (Mexico speaking for 59 countries), and the UNESCO General Conference in Paris adopted it by acclamation on 13 November 2023, formally recommending that the UN proclaim it.

The celebrations: the opening ceremony was held 4–5 February 2025 at UNESCO headquarters in Paris (keynote by 2023 Nobel laureate Anne L'Huillier). World Quantum Day, 14 April 2025, was marked worldwide — the date 4.14 echoes the first digits of Planck's constant. Germany kicked off in Berlin, the DPG ran a "QuanTour" across 12 European labs, and the APS held its Global Physics Summit in Anaheim. The closing ceremony took place 10–11 February 2026 in Accra, Ghana — chosen because Ghana led the UN resolution — where the Global Quantum Initiative was launched.