The group is recognized for the development of light detectors based on superconducting transition-edge sensors that are able to count individual photons with high efficiency. The NIST sensors are the only devices in the world capable of performing these measurements. These detectors enabled the world's largest, programmable, publicly accessible, photonic quantum computer, the first of its kind to demonstrate a quantum computational advantage. This demonstration brings the U.S. closer to the development of large-scale quantum computers and their solution of intractable problems.