Spun out of a federal lab in Boulder four years ago, Icarus Quantum is doing exactly what the federal government hoped would happen when it designated Colorado as the Tech Hub for quantum computing in 2023: getting quantum research out of the lab and into commercial use.
The same lab, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST, even awarded Icarus $400,000 this month to develop technology to connect small quantum computers to build bigger ones that “solve more complex processes,” said Icarus CEO Poolad Imany, who worked at NIST as a postdoctoral associate and relies on the lab space there.
But now a federal proposal to limit the presence of foreign workers at federal labs is proving quite disruptive to the company, as well as the local quantum community.
NIST, part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, began limiting after-hours lab access for noncitizens in January and may prohibit access after March 31. That means a portion of NIST’s 1,500 employees, contractors and visiting associates in Boulder soon could be locked out of their labs, and some are already scrambling to find new space or a new job.
“I’m a U.S. citizen but we have other colleagues who are Iranian and who are Chinese and they’ve been directly affected,” said Imany, who is now scouting other “nanofab” locations to design and engineer tiny chips in California, Boston and Chicago since his options in Colorado are limited to NIST.
“We have employees who won’t be able to go to NIST after March 31 and we have these joint projects with NIST that we have to deliver on,” said Imany, who realized in early February they would likely have to move. “We’re assessing the situation by the day. Colorado is a great place to be so this would be very, very unfortunate.”
NIST spokesperson Jennifer Huergo said Tuesday that this is a proposed update that has “not been finalized.” But she said it is aligned with President Donald Trump’s memorandum on national security policy on government-supported research issued a week before Trump left office in 2021. The Biden administration added implementation guidelines a year later “to be clear so that well-intentioned researchers can easily and properly comply, and to ensure that policies do not fuel xenophobia or prejudice.”
The policy requires any institution receiving more than $50 million in federal research funding to safeguard research and protect against foreign government interference. NIST also has a “Safeguarding International Science” policy to “maintain an inclusive culture that promotes international collaborative science while safeguarding the U.S. research enterprise.”
NIST officials did not share details of the update or a timeline, but noted that it impacts foreign national associates, or those who work directly with NIST staff on projects.
“The intent of NIST’s foreign national associate program is for short-term collaborations in alignment with the NIST mission,” Huergo said.
According to its website, NIST had 560 employees in Boulder in fiscal year 2024, plus 940 contractors and visiting associates. An additional 2,800 employees and 3,200 visiting associates work at NIST headquarters in Gaithersburg, Maryland, though 420 employees left last year, according to NIST budget documents. Most of the quantum-related work occurs in Boulder.
Individuals already go through a vetting process that includes ID verification, being fingerprinted and a criminal background check.
Last month’s NIST directive cutting off after-hours lab access to noncitizens has had a chilling effect on the science community. There are concerns this will continue the brain drain, with the U.S. losing top scientists to other countries or claim to those discoveries. It’ll become much more challenging to recruit foreign talent. And for those who are here, there’s a fear that federal funding will be pulled and people will lose their jobs.
Officials at Elevate Quantum, the face of Colorado’s efforts to market quantum, declined to comment. Elevate Quantum is managing the $40.5 million federal award to strengthen the quantum ecosystem with workforce training and support to quantum startups.
Sen. John Hickenlooper’s office has been hearing from those impacted. The Senator had helped Colorado land the quantum Tech Hub, a Biden-era effort to invest in American-built innovation and spread the commercialization and workforce beyond the two coasts.
“NIST in Boulder is a research engine driving our future economic growth. We’re extremely alarmed by reports that this administration is quietly preparing to fire hundreds of the world’s top researchers,” Hickenlooper said in a text. “The research and standards they create dramatically accelerate advances in AI, quantum computing, and countless other technologies. Forcing them out will absolutely slow the growth of our economy.”
The upheaval of yet another federal agency may not be a surprise, especially in Colorado, which has been a target of the Trump administration.
The National Laboratory of the Rockies, previously known as the National Renewable Energy Laboratory until December, has shed hundreds of workers at its Golden-based energy lab, including 134 employees earlier this month. The National Center for Atmospheric Research, the climate and environmental research center in Boulder, may be dismantled.
State officials were trying to determine the exact impact of the policy changes this week.
“This change would be deeply concerning, and further evidence that this administration is threatening American competitiveness that would hurt innovation, stifle scientific discovery, and undermine America’s strategic scientific advantage, and ultimately, erode our economy,” Eric Maruyama, a spokesperson for Gov. Jared Polis’ office, said in an email.
Changes as to who is allowed or not allowed in the federal lab weren’t widely known outside of NIST and the quantum community. Dan Powers, executive director at CO-LABS, a nonprofit organization that helps connect the taxpayer-funded federal labs to the public, said he wasn’t aware of the timing of the restrictions and needed more time to look into it.
“One thing I can say publicly and proudly is that NIST is an asset to the country, and indeed the world,” Powers said in an email. “We are fortunate to have here in Colorado some of the most brilliant technologists, physicists and scientists in the entire world who have chosen to grow their skills and career path here, all in the service of science and understanding how to make our technologies more sustainable, safe and beneficial.”
NIST has a long history in Boulder that dates back to the 1950s, when the agency picked the city for a research facility. NIST, which needed quantum measurements to measure the most precise and sensitive things in the world, later partnered with the University of Colorado to create the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics in 1962.
The institutions supported one another to make quantum-related discoveries and create a hub of expertise. CU itself is home to four Nobel laureates in quantum physics who are current or past faculty members. A fifth, 2025 physics Nobel laureate John Martinis, worked at NIST in Boulder in the 1990s and was a physics lecturer at the university.
CU spokesperson Nicole Cousins said Tuesday that the university has received no notices that any of its international students have lost access to NIST facilities. The federal institution is very important to the school and without it, there may not have been a quantum hub in Colorado.
“The longstanding partnership between CU Boulder and the NIST is a cornerstone of the nation’s global leadership in critical research areas, including quantum science, that have led to innovations ranging from the world’s most precise atomic clock to the development of laser-based quantum devices that scan oil and gas facilities in real time to identify methane gas leaks,” Cousins said in an email.
The future of foreign workers at NIST is also impacting the local quantum community. Some companies are at a standstill, said Scott Davis, CEO of Golden-based Vescent, a maker of quantum lasers for atomic clocks.
“We have multiple collaborations with NIST — some of them have had brilliant people working on projects that could be relevant to our commercial growth, but they are in limbo because the work was being done by foreign nationals,” said Davis in an email. “I am sensitive to national security concerns, but attracting and keeping the world’s brightest has historically been aligned with U.S. national security. As a historic example, just look at the Manhattan Project and the key role that foreign national scientists played there. Like I said, this does not make sense to me.”