There is a secret world, smaller than an atom, where particles pass through walls, share mysterious connections across vast distances—and even exist in two places at once.

Welcome to the world of quantum matter.

At UBC’s Stewart Blusson Quantum Matter Institute (Blusson QMI), researchers are exploring this extraordinary subatomic realm, where the familiar rules of everyday life give way to the strange behaviour of quantum mechanics. Here, materials reveal properties invisible to the naked eye, and discoveries made today could one day transform everything from clean energy to computing.

For Dr. Sarah Burke, professor in UBC’s Departments of Physics & Astronomy and Chemistry, and Deputy Scientific Director of Blusson QMI, that sense of discovery has never faded.

“As we started to look more and more at the electronic properties of materials, we needed quantum mechanics to explain what was happening,” she says. “Now we use it every day, both in terms of how we measure materials and how we think about how those materials behave.”

Burke leads research in the UBC Laboratory for Atomic Imaging Research (LAIR), where her team uses an advanced technique called “scanning probe microscopy” to image materials at the atomic scale. By bringing an ultra-sharp metal tip within an atom’s width of a material’s surface, they can observe not only where atoms are situated, but also where their electrons move—revealing the quantum behaviour that determines the material’s properties.

“A lot of the work we do here is very fundamental in its nature, but with an eye to future applications,” Burke says. “We’re inspired by problems that are out there in industry and that people are curious about to try to improve materials that are already being used.”

One recent collaboration brought together multiple research groups to investigate new carbon-based materials for solar cells. Together, they uncovered insights that could help improve future clean energy technology.

“The thing that I love about this institute is that people are genuinely curious and extremely collaborative,” Burke says. “And it makes the training for students incredible because they get to experience many different techniques and ways of looking at things.”

Burke knows firsthand how transformative those opportunities can be. Today, she leads Blusson QMI’s Quantum Pathways Summer Research Scholarship Program, helping students from groups underrepresented in the physical sciences discover research for themselves.

“I really am passionate about giving undergraduates those opportunities,” she says. “We’re trying to give those students a taste of research and build up their capabilities and future potential.”

Those opportunities—and the institute itself—exist because of philanthropy. Stewart Blusson’s transformational gift in 2016 established Blusson QMI, creating a world-class home for quantum materials research and helping attract major federal investment. Today, researchers and students benefit from state-of-the-art facilities and an extraordinary culture of collaboration.

“My research has taken on completely different directions just because there are questions in the building that people are curious and interested in,” Burke says. “They come talk to me and I’m like, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.'”

That spirit of curiosity is exactly what drives quantum research forward. Every experiment explores territory no one has charted before, opening the door to discoveries that open doors to technologies—and even industries—that don’t yet exist.

“We’re trying to find new phenomena, new ways to think about things, and we don’t necessarily know where that will lead,” Burke says. “That’s the most exciting part of what we do.”