Quantum information science emerged during the past decade as an interdisciplinary endeavor engaging mathematics, computer science, and branches of physics, material science, chemistry, and, recently, biology. Quantum information science has revealed irreconcilable conflicts between commonly accepted but unproven precepts of different disciplines: particularly physics, computer science, and mathematics. The resolution of this problem will either transform our understanding of the validity of quantum mechanics or computational complexity theory, or both, with potential impact ranging from the foundations of physics to practical matters of electronic commerce. Meanwhile, quantum information science has transformed the organization of research and has led to the formation of interdisciplinary research institutes worldwide, most notably in the Asia-Pacific circumference and in Canada. Quantum information science provides a laboratory for viewing scientific work-force trends, notably, the flow from West to East, and within Asia; the development of new educational curricula; and patterns of intellectual property policy and transitions to industry in a vibrant field of long-term research. The speakers are heads of new institutes in this field who will address frontier problems of research and institutional response. A companion symposium is entitled "Quantum Computing: Current Status and Future Prospects."