Plans for Quantum Year are coming together around the country. In this bulletin, we highlight:
Quantum Australia 2025 will come to Brisbane in March 2025, coinciding with the World Science Festival
National Science Week – Students across the country will learn to decipher “nature’s hidden language” for the National Science Week Schools Theme 2025
University sponsorship: we’re currently inviting universities to partner with us to develop Quantum Year. RMIT are our first University Gold Partner. We’re also keen to talk with industry.
In other quantum news: Australia’s Chief Scientist, Cathy Foley AO ASM, gave a plenary at the Quantum World Conference in September, Quantum Brilliance founder Andrew Horsley won a Prime Minister’s Science Prize, and we have links to a host of other recent quantum science stories.
Please let us know what you’re planning locally, in your state or across the country. Email us at quantum2025@aip.org.au.
If you or your organisation would like to partner with the AIP to deliver Quantum Year for Australia please also get in touch, email me (nicolas.menicucci@rmit.edu.au) and Niall Byrne (niall@scienceinpublic.com.au).
Best wishes,
Professor Nicolas C Menicucci, Chair, Quantum Science and Technology, Australian Institute of Physics, quantum2025@aip.org.au
Quantum Australia conference coming to Brisbane
The Quantum Australia 2025 is coming to Brisbane in March
Running from 24 to 27 March, just a few months into the Year of Quantum – it will be four days to bring together the Australian quantum community, from researchers to entrepreneurs and policymakers.
Next year’s event will be the first to be run by the new unifying body for quantum science and technology in Australia: Quantum Australia. Established by a Federal Government grant of $18.4 million, Quantum Australia’s mission is to bring together the Australian quantum industry and extend its reach, both at home and abroad.
“Quantum Australia gives muscle and momentum to the national quantum strategy,” says founding director Stephen Bartlett.
“Its arrival is a signal that industry, government and academia can work together to further press Australia’s quantum advantage.”
Registrations for Quantum Australia 2025 will be opening soon: follow the event on LinkedIn to stay informed.
Students to “decode the universe” in 2025
Students across the country will learn to decipher “nature’s hidden language” as the Australian Science Teachers Association announces its National Science Week Schools Theme for 2025.
The new theme, Decoding the Universe – Exploring the unknown with nature’s hidden language, invites students and teachers to “delve into the mysteries of the Universe by exploring the fundamental languages of nature”, with a special focus on “the groundbreaking field of quantum science”.
The theme, inspired by Quantum Year, will also coincide with Australia’s hosting of the 2025 International Maths Olympiad, providing an opportunity to connect foundational STEM skills with the cutting edge of deep tech.
Executive Director of ASTA, Guy Micklethwait, says the new theme reflects “a forward-thinking approach to STEM education, encouraging students to explore the unknown and decode the mysteries of our universe through the powerful lenses of science and mathematics.”
“ASTA invites all educators, students and STEM enthusiasts to join in this exciting journey of discovery.”
Grants of up to $500 will be available to schools to integrate the theme into their National Science Week programs, with applications opening in March 2025. ASTA will also distribute a resource book packed with information, lesson plans, experiments, and more.
Australia at the Quantum World Congress
Australia took top billing at Quantum World Congress last month with Chief Scientist Dr Cathy Foley addressing a full plenary on quantum technology in the Indo-Pacific.
“You’ve probably seen quite a few Australians there at the Congress,” said Cathy in her remarks. “That’s a consequence of decades of patient investment in fundamental work and research.”
Cathy spoke at a roundtable event alongside other scientific leaders from India, Japan, the United States, and Australia, the four ‘Quad’ nations, who have a semi-formal alliance for regional stability.
The speakers agreed that government support for quantum has to be broad, deep, and sustained if the technology is going to play its part in preserving a free and open Indo-Pacific.
“You can’t turn away from quantum,” said Cathy. “This isn’t something you can dabble in. You’ve got to be all-in.”
You can find Dr Foley’s remarks here, and here’s a full playlist of the conference.
University partnerships
Would your university like to partner with the AIP to use the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology? With your support we can:
• encourage today’s school and university students to take up the physical sciences;
• address the skills gap that threatens to hold back developments in quantum science, defence, AUKUS priorities, AI and other fields;
• build recognition of the decades of fundamental research funded by the ARC in universities and Centres of Excellence that has led to Australia’s leadership in quantum science.
The AIP, as the peak body for physics in Australia, has the knowledge and networks to bring Quantum Year to life – with your help.
A successful Quantum Year will benefit every Australian university with physical science-based courses and research. You’ll be able to use the Year as a theme throughout your marketing to students, parents, and researchers.
Your financial support will help us ensure that the Year has the widest possible impact.
Your support will also open up opportunities for you to demonstrate and promote your role as leaders in quantum science in Australia.
Three levels of support are available:
• Gold Quantum Year Foundation Partner: $20,000, one per state
• Silver Quantum Year Foundation Partner: $10,000, two per state
• Bronze Quantum Year Foundation Partner: $5,000, up to five per state.
We need your support now, to set up the foundations for the year: website, communication, briefings, newsletters, banners etc. With your help we will be able to reach industry, government, and cultural organisations to ensure that Quantum Year is memorable and impactful.
If you or your organisation would like to partner with the AIP to deliver Quantum Year for Australia please also get in touch, email me at quantum2025@aip.org.au.
Quantum news around the country
Q-CTRL bolstered by $88 million investment (Forbes reporting; SMH reporting; press release), while Q-CTRL’s founder and EQUS chief investigator Michael Biercuk made the Australian’s Top 100 Innovator’s list.
Silicon Quantum Computing is readying its first product for launch, with founder Michelle Simmons tipping SQC in the ‘quantum race’ at SXSW Sydney
CQC2T announces the successful entanglement of two electrons bound to two different phosphorus atoms across a single silicon chip
Quantum Brilliance have been busy, snapping up a partnership to build a mobile quantum computer and announcing a collaboration with the Oak Ridge National Lab
Diraq gets their qubits in synch in research published in Nature Communications led by UNSW PhD student Ingvild Hansen (press release, blog)
The Queensland government has awarded $10 million to the Quantum Decarbonisation Alliance – a consortium including the CSIRO, the University of Queensland, and many others – to investigate the potential of quantum technology to curtail and reverse carbon pollution
The Centre of Excellence for Biotechnology (QUBIC) has received $4.7 million from the Queensland government to develop quantum technologies for the upcoming Brisbane Olympic Games, including catching cheats with quantum sensors.
EQuS researchers are partnering with NASA to bring a space-age heart monitoring technology down to Earth – using quantum sensing to monitor heart health safely and non-invasively.
Expert commentary on the PsiQuantum partnership in The Conversation and latest coverage on the ABC.
Infleqtion Australia are expanding their quantum software capability (SuperStaq) in the growing Victorian and Asia-Pacific markets. They were awarded Phase II of the Australian Army’s Quantum Technology Challenge (QTC)
Andrew Horsley from Quantum Brilliance wins Prime Minister’s New Innovator Prize.
Please let us know what you’re planning for Quantum Year, and look out for information soon about briefings in Perth, Brisbane, and at the AIP Congress in Melbourne.