CHICAGO (WLS) — Late last month hundreds of quantum computing leaders from business, government, and academia gathered in Chicago for the inaugural Global Quantum Forum.

During the forum, Governor JB Pritzker, the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, and Intersect Illinois announced that quantum company Infleqtion will headquarter its global quantum computing operations in Illinois.

The company will be a future tenant at the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park in Chicago.

It will be located at the former US Steel South Works site along the lake in the South Chicago neighborhood.

“There will be construction jobs, jobs for security personnel, jobs for all the support services,” Preeti Chalsani, the chief Quantum officer for Intersect Illinois said.

Chalsani said jobs are expected to go well beyond just PhD’s: “It’s really creating a whole industry that requires everybody.”

Quantum computing uses the principles of quantum mechanics to solve complex problems potentially much faster than traditional computers can.

“What it does is allows you to do a new kind of math, a new kind of computing, that opens up a whole new way of processing information and that’s what quantum computing is,” says Chalsani.

This technology has the potential to be a tool that engineers and scientists will leverage to help get life-saving drugs to patients faster, develop new approaches to green energy, design new efficient and cost-effective materials and more.