{"id":478848,"date":"2026-02-20T00:23:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T00:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/478848\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T00:23:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T00:23:15","slug":"federal-proposal-limiting-foreign-scientists-at-boulder-lab-disrupts-colorados-quantum-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/478848\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal proposal limiting foreign scientists at Boulder lab disrupts Colorado’s quantum industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spun out of a federal lab in Boulder four years ago, Icarus Quantum<\/a> is doing exactly what the federal government hoped would happen when it designated Colorado<\/a> as the Tech Hub for quantum computing in 2023: getting quantum research out of the lab and into commercial use.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The same lab, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST, even awarded Icarus $400,000<\/a> this month to develop technology to connect small quantum computers to build bigger ones that \u201csolve more complex processes,\u201d said Icarus CEO Poolad Imany, who worked at NIST as a postdoctoral associate and relies on the lab space there.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"The National Institute of Standards and Technology opened a facility in Boulder in the 1950s. Known as NIST, the federal lab develops quantum measurements to measure the most precise and sensitive things in the world. (Photo by R. Jacobson, NIST)<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 1,500 employees, contractors and visiting associates<\/a> in Boulder soon could be locked out of their labs, and some are already scrambling to find new space or a new job.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a U.S. citizen but we have other colleagues who are Iranian and who are Chinese and they\u2019ve been directly affected,\u201d said Imany, who is now scouting other \u201cnanofab\u201d locations to design and engineer tiny chips in California, Boston and Chicago since his options in Colorado are limited to NIST.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have employees who won\u2019t be able to go to NIST after March 31 and we have these joint projects with NIST that we have to deliver on,\u201d said Imany, who realized in early February they would likely have to move. \u201cWe\u2019re assessing the situation by the day. Colorado is a great place to be so this would be very, very unfortunate.\u201d<\/p>\n

NIST spokesperson Jennifer Huergo said Tuesday that this is a proposed update that has \u201cnot been finalized.\u201d But she said it is aligned with President Donald Trump\u2019s memorandum on national security policy<\/a> on government-supported research issued a week before Trump left office in 2021. The Biden administration added implementation guidelines<\/a> a year later \u201cto be clear so that well-intentioned researchers can easily and properly comply, and to ensure that policies do not fuel xenophobia or prejudice.\u201d<\/p>\n

The policy requires<\/a> any institution receiving more than $50 million in federal research funding to safeguard research and protect against foreign government interference. NIST also has a \u201cSafeguarding International Science<\/a>\u201d policy to \u201cmaintain an inclusive culture that promotes international collaborative science while safeguarding the U.S. research enterprise.\u201d<\/p>\n

NIST officials did not share details of the update or a timeline, but noted that it impacts foreign national associates<\/a>, or those who work directly with NIST staff on projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe intent of NIST\u2019s foreign national associate program is for short-term collaborations in alignment with the NIST mission,\u201d Huergo said.<\/p>\n

According to its website, NIST had 560 employees in Boulder<\/a> in fiscal year 2024, plus 940 contractors and visiting associates. An additional 2,800 employees and 3,200 visiting associates<\/a> work at NIST headquarters in Gaithersburg, Maryland, though 420 employees left<\/a> last year, according to NIST budget documents. Most of the quantum-related work occurs in Boulder.<\/p>\n

Individuals already go through a vetting process<\/a> that includes ID verification, being fingerprinted and a criminal background check.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last month\u2019s 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<\/a>, with the U.S. losing top scientists to other countries or claim to those discoveries. It\u2019ll become much more challenging to recruit foreign talent. And for those who are here, there\u2019s a fear that federal funding will be pulled and people will lose their jobs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Officials at Elevate Quantum, the face of Colorado\u2019s efforts to market quantum, declined to comment. Elevate Quantum is managing the $40.5 million federal award<\/a> to strengthen the quantum ecosystem with workforce training and support to quantum startups.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sen. John Hickenlooper\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cNIST in Boulder is a research engine driving our future economic growth. We\u2019re extremely alarmed by reports that this administration is quietly preparing to fire hundreds of the world\u2019s top researchers,\u201d Hickenlooper said in a text. \u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA wind turbine at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory Flatirons campus on Jan. 7, 2025, after a snow fall. (Gregory Cooper, NREL)<\/p>\n

The upheaval of yet another federal agency may not be a surprise, especially in Colorado, which has been a target<\/a> of the Trump administration.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The National Laboratory of the Rockies, previously known as the National Renewable Energy Laboratory until December<\/a>, has shed hundreds of workers at its Golden-based energy lab, including 134 employees<\/a> earlier this month. The National Center for Atmospheric Research, the climate and environmental research center in Boulder, may be dismantled<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

State officials were trying to determine the exact impact of the policy changes this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis 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\u2019s strategic scientific advantage, and ultimately, erode our economy,\u201d Eric Maruyama, a spokesperson for Gov. Jared Polis\u2019 office, said in an email.<\/p>\n

Changes as to who is allowed or not allowed in the federal lab weren\u2019t 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\u2019t aware of the timing of the restrictions and needed more time to look into it.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing I can say publicly and proudly is that NIST is an asset to the country, and indeed the world,\u201d Powers said in an email. \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

NIST has a long history in Boulder that dates back to the 1950s, when the agency picked the city for a research facility<\/a>. 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<\/a> in 1962.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The institutions supported one another to make quantum-related discoveries and create a hub of expertise. CU itself is home to four Nobel laureates<\/a> in quantum physics who are current or past faculty members. A fifth, 2025 physics Nobel laureate John Martinis, worked at NIST in Boulder<\/a> in the 1990s and was a physics lecturer at the university.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe longstanding partnership between CU Boulder and the NIST is a cornerstone of the nation\u2019s global leadership in critical research areas, including quantum science, that have led to innovations ranging from the world\u2019s 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,\u201d Cousins said in an email.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have multiple collaborations with NIST \u2014 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,\u201d said Davis in an email. \u201cI am sensitive to national security concerns, but attracting and keeping the world\u2019s brightest has historically been aligned with U.S. national security. As a historic example, just look at the Manhattan Project<\/a> and the key role that foreign national scientists played there. Like I said, this does not make sense to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Type of Story: News<\/p>\n

Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spun out of a federal lab in Boulder four years ago, Icarus Quantum is doing exactly what the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[122793,199,6279,79,7270,19844],"class_list":["post-478848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-physics","tag-national-institute-of-standards-and-technology","tag-physics","tag-quantum","tag-science","tag-security","tag-trump-administation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}