SPEAKERS & PANELLISTS

Professor Andre Luiten is Director of the Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing and Chair of Experimental Physics at the University of Adelaide, as well as Managing Director of QuantX, a startup company with 20 employees that is growing fast. Andre has published 132 journal papers and raised $40M for research. His work aims at the development and application of state of the-art physics-based instruments. His efforts have been recognised with a 2018 Eureka Prize for Outstanding Science in Safeguarding Australia, the Alan Walsh Medal for services to industry, the Barry Inglis Medal for Measurement Science and he is South Australia’s 2022 Innovator of the Year.

David leads Bluefors’ technical development for the quantum technology industry. He holds a PhD from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, 2005, focusing on his work on Josephson junction quantum bits. He continued his research at the Low Temperature Laboratory, Helsinki University of Technology (2005-2008), and, prior to joining Bluefors, worked as a Senior Scientist at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland (2008-2015). With his background in both microfabrication and cryogenic measurements of quantum circuits, he has a deep understanding of cryogenics in the future of quantum technology. 

Dr Stephanie Simmons is the Founder and Chief Quantum Officer of Photonic Inc, an Associate Professor, Canada Research Chair, CIFAR Quantum Information Science Fellow, Co-chair of the National Quantum Strategy Advisory Council, and is based out of the Department of Physics at Simon Fraser University (SFU). Her work on silicon quantum technologies was awarded a Physics World Top Ten Breakthrough of the Year of 2013 and again in 2015, she is one of only 5 individuals to have ever won this award twice, and she was named one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 for 2020.

Ayala Domani commenced at NEC in June 2023 as Vice President - Technology & Innovation. An established executive leader and innovator, Ayala has a wealth of global experience and a strategic mindset. Ayala has held senior roles across growth and innovation, corporate venturing and product management at some of the nation’s biggest organisations including Telstra and AGL Energy and is experienced in creating growth by leveraging technology, talent, new business models and go-to-market approaches. As a purpose and impact-oriented driver, she is passionate about people, culture, diversity and empowering high-performing teams. Ayala started her career working in tech startups across technical and customer success roles in international markets before immigrating to Australia in 2003. Having started her career in startups and with a passion for innovation and growth, she is still an active supporter and mentor in the startup community and continues to foster connections and collaborations between Australian companies and global innovation. Ayala has a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Communications from Haifa University and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD).

Chris Ferrie is an Associate Professor at the UTS Centre for Quantum Software and Information and a co-founder of Eigensystems, an Australian start-up with a mission to democratize access to quantum computing by empowering the next generation of scientists, engineers, and innovators to unlock their full potential and make their ideas a reality in the quantum age.

Prof Halina Rubinsztein-Dunlop is the Director of Translational Research Program at the ARC CoE for Engineered Quantum System, and a Professor of Physics, at University of Queensland. There, she leads groups in experimental quantum atom optics, laser micromanipulation and biophotonics. Halina is the recipient of many national and international awards, including Officer in the General Division of the Order of Australia, OSA 2021 C.E.K. Mees Medal, Beatie Steel Medal 2018, AIP Harrie Massey Medal 2020. In 2023 Halina has been awarded University of Glasgow Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science. She is a Fellow of Australian Academy of Science, Fellow of SPIE, Fellow of Optica and Fellow of Australian Institute of Physics.

Michael J. Biercuk, the CEO and Founder of Q-CTRL, and a Professor of Quantum Physics and Quantum Technology at the University of Sydney. He has become a globally recognised pioneer in the discipline of Quantum control engineering. Michael earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and his Masters and PhD from Harvard University. He held a research fellowship in the Ian Storage Group at NIST Boulder and has served as a technical consultant to DARPA, helping to steer government investments in quantum information and advanced computer architectures. Michael has won multiple awards for research, innovation, and commercial technology development.

Michael is a Principal Specialist for Quantum Computing in the High Performance Computing group at Amazon Web Services (AWS). In this role, he leads a global business development team and go to market activities for Amazon Braket, a fully-managed quantum computing service in the cloud. He was previously SVP for Applications at Rigetti Computing, a quantum computing hardware company based in Berkeley, California, and CEO of QxBranch, a quantum computing applications software company acquired by Rigetti in 2019. Michael has a background in systems engineering and risk analytics for aerospace applications. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Aerospace Avionics and an Executive Master of Business in Complex Project Management, both from the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. 

Murray Thom is a world-leading quantum computing expert at D-Wave, the world's first company to sell computers exploiting quantum effects. He is Vice President of Quantum Business Innovation at D-Wave, with over 20 years of experience in the quantum computing industry.

Murray helps customers build business value with quantum computing technology. In previous roles at D-Wave he was responsible for the development and delivery of the Leap quantum cloud service and the Ocean open source tools. He has led teams engaged in customer projects related to algorithms, applications, and performance testing.

Sir Peter Knight FRS is Emeritus Professor at Imperial, a past President of the Institute of Physics, 2004 President of the Optical Society of America, Chair of the UK National Quantum Technology Programme Strategy Advisory Board and chairs the Quantum Metrology Institute at the National Physical Laboratory. His research centres on quantum technology. He has won the Thomas Young Medal and the Glazebrook Medal of the Institute of Physics, the Ives Medal and the Walther medal of the OSA, the Royal Medal of the Royal Society and the Faraday Medal of the IET.

Dr Si-Hui Tan heads the research development for Horizon’s software that will compile classical code to be run on a quantum computer. She has been an active researcher in the field of quantum information science for over 18 years, and has published extensively in top journals and conference proceedings. Si-Hui received a BSc in Physics from the California Institute of Technology and a PhD in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she was the recipient of the prestigious MIT Presidential Fellowship. Prior to joining Horizon, Si-Hui was a research scientist at the Singapore University of Technology and Design, the Centre for Quantum Technologies, and the A*STAR Data Storage Institute.

Steve Brierley founded Riverlane in 2016 to build the error correction stack for quantum computers. Driven by his conviction that fault-tolerant quantum computers will accelerate human progress, Riverlane partners with leading quantum hardware companies to make that happen sooner.

Steve has worked in quantum computing for over 20 years and is an expert advisor to the UK government. He holds a PhD in quantum information, spent a decade in the intelligence community and worked as a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge leading major research projects in quantum computing.

Ms Bernie Hobbs is an award-winning science writer and presenter. She's well known as a judge from ABC TV's The New Inventors, and as a popular commentator on ABC radio around the country.

Anastasia Marchenkova has been a quantum researcher at the Georgia Tech quantum optics and quantum telecommunications lab, a researcher at the University of Maryland Joint Quantum Institute, a Lawrence Berkeley National Lab research affiliate, and started Bleximo, building application-specific superconducting quantum processors.

She is the Vice Chair of the IEEE Quantum Computing Standards project and collaborating with Giga Global, a UNICEF-ITU initiative, to connect every school in the world to the internet. 

She has a blog and YouTube channel demystifying quantum technologies for students and businesses.

Andrea Morello is the Scientia Professor of Quantum Engineering at UNSW Sydney, Australia. His group has pioneered the use of donor spins for quantum information processing, demonstrating the first electron and nuclear spin qubits in silicon, and multi-qubit operations with over 99% fidelity. For these contributions he received numerous awards, including the 2017 Landauer and Bennett Award for Quantum Computing. His research interests further extend to quantum chaos, quantum foundations and quantum sensing. He is a passionate science communicator and teacher, and has led the creation of the world’s first bachelor’s degree of Quantum Engineering at UNSW.

Aarthi Sundaram is a Senior Researcher with Microsoft Quantum joining the team in 2019 as a Postdoctoral Researcher. Her research interests include quantum complexity theory, designing quantum algorithms and static verification techniques for quantum programs. Recently, she has been focusing on optimizing large-scale quantum algorithms for their implementation on fault tolerant architectures. Prior to this, Aarthi was a Hartree Postdoctoral Fellow at the Joint Centre for Quantum Information and Computer Science, University of Maryland from 2017-2019. Aarthi completed her PhD in quantum computing from the Centre for Quantum Technologies, National University of Singapore in 2017.

Amanda Seedhouse is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Diraq, a quantum computing startup. Prior to this, she completed her PhD at UNSW, where her research focused on the theoretical aspects of noise in silicon quantum dots. In addition to my professional role, I volunteer for Quantum Women, an organisation dedicated to supporting women in quantum fields

Professor Andrew Doherty is a theoretical quantum physicist at the University of Sydney. He is a former Deputy Director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems and CTO at quantum computing company PsiQuantum.

Andrew is currently the Chief of Space, Intelligence, National Security and Cyber (SINC) Division within the Defence Science and technology Group, a Group within the Australian Department of Defence. He started this role in 2023 and is responsible for working with senior users in Defence to formulate the Innovation Science & Technology Programs for the Defence Capability areas of Intelligence and Cyber. He is responsible for the delivery of these programs of work to both the Defence users and the Chief Defence Scientist. Andrew is also responsible for delivering Star Shots in Information Warfare, Agile Command & Control and Resilient Multi-mission Space. Andrew also leads DSTG contributions to AUKUS Pillar II Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Systems themes. The role also includes directing Defence support to the wider cross Government capabilities in National Security through the National Security Science and Technology Centre, which operates from within the CINS Division.

Prior to this role Andrew was the Chief three Divisions, also in DSTG, starting in 2017. In addition, to directing research in Intelligence, Surveillance and Space he was responsible for DSTG capability development in these areas. This included: Over the Horizon Radar, MMW Radar, Electro-optic Surveillance systems, Sensor exploitation, Space systems, intelligence architectures and information analytics.

Prior to 2017 Andrew worked with UK Ministry of Defence in the Defence Science & Technology Laboratory also working in the field of intelligence and surveillance, but also leading research teams delivering countermeasures and protection solutions. Andrew also enjoyed a period of time leading innovation in UK Defence, as the head of the Centre for Defence Enterprise.
Outside of work he enjoys building a home in the SA Barossa living off grid in the country side sharing the land with goats and dogs. He has six adult children split across two countries who he enjoys embarrassing as much as possible. Having arrived in Australia relatively recently he is enjoying exploring the outback with his wife in there FJ Cruiser “Rosie”.

Bill is the co-founder and Managing Director of Main Sequence, a deep tech venture firm based in Sydney. He focuses on investing in disruptive companies in the areas of AI/ML, quantum, synthetic biology, and space. Bill has been assisting technology founders in Australia and the US for 25+ years and has led investments in many multi-billion dollar companies including Culture Amp, Altium, Seek, Looksmart, and onebox. Most recently, Bill led investments in Q-CTRL, Quintessence Labs, Pending.AI, Prospection, Trellis Data, Kapiche

Ms. Barbara Goldstein serves as Associate Director of the NIST Physical Measurement Laboratory, which consists of about 1200 staff and associates, two joint institutes, and realizes and disseminates precision measurements to support commerce, defense and research.

Ms. Goldstein leads the “NIST on a Chip” program which is developing a suite of quantum sensors to deliver traceable, embeddable measurements directly to point-of-use. She is a leader in international quantum standardization, spearheading the definition of “Standardization Readiness Levels” and convening and leading multiple efforts including: IEC Standards Evaluation Group on Quantum Technologies (SEG 14) Working Group 2 (Research); IMEKO Technical Committee 25 - Quantum Measurement and Quantum Information; and a new international collaboration to foster collaboration among the world’s metrology institutes to advance the quantum economy. She served as an Embassy Science Fellow in 2021, hosted by the U.S. Embassies in the Netherlands, Denmark and Finland, where she helped foster an industry-driven “trusted partners” network for quantum collaboration.

Byron Villis is a Quantum Measurement Engineer at Archer Materials, leading a team of scientists developing qubit readout technologies for Archer’s 12CQ quantum computing chip. He completed his PhD at the University of Melbourne, was a Marie Curie Fellow at CEA-Leti, and has held senior research fellow positions at University College London and The University of Sydney. His research, spanning topics of potential spin qubit architects and readout technologies, includes a recent patent relevant to maximising qubit readout fidelity using a tuneable resonator circuit.

Dr Cathy Foley AO PSM became Australia’s ninth Chief Scientist in January 2021 after an extensive career at Australia’s national science agency, the CSIRO, including as the agency’s Chief Scientist.

Dr Foley is an internationally recognised physicist with major research achievements in superconductors and sensors which lead to the development of the LANDTEM sensor system to locate valuable deposits of minerals deep underground.

Dr Foley’s scientific excellence and influential leadership have been recognised with numerous awards and fellowships, including election to the Australian Academy of Science in 2020, and an Order of Australia for service to research science and to the advancement of women in physics. She received the Australian Institute of Physics Medal for Outstanding Service to Physics in 2016. She is a Fellow of Australian Academy of Technological Science and Engineering (2008) and an honorary Fellow of the Australian Institute of Physics (2019).

Dr Foley is an inspiration to women in STEM across the globe and focused strongly on equality and diversity in the science sector.

Chris is an experienced technical executive with a demonstrated history of success in the LiDAR, defence, space flight, ultrafast laser, and optical fabrication industries. His extensive Atomic/Optical background, multiple award-winning product development efforts, and years of experience with photonic circuits is now being leveraged at Infleqtion to commercialize and monetize Quantum.

Chris Vale is Professor of Physics and Director of the Quantum Technologies Future Science Platform at CSIRO aimed at developing the capabilities and expertise to support Australia’s emerging quantum industry. Prior to joining CSIRO he led an experimental research program at Swinburne University of Technology using gases of atoms cooled to nanoKelvin temperatures to study complex behaviours found in quantum materials, such as superfluids and superconductors, and to harness these for use in quantum technologies. Prof Vale has been a Chief Investigator in two ARC Centres of Excellence in Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies (FLEET) and Quantum Atom Optics (ACQAO) and previously held an ARC Future Fellowship. He has also worked at the University of Queensland, the University of Sussex and Imperial College (UK) studying Bose-Einstein condensates on atom chips. Chris has been actively engaged in the promotion of physics and quantum science through the Australian Institute of Physics, conference organisation and public outreach.

Christophe Jurczak, PhD, is managing partner at Quantonation, the leading early stage Venture Capital firm dedicated to quantum technologies (26 investments worldwide as of Nov. 2023,100m AUM), based in Boston, MA and Paris, France. He has held government and executive positions in energy, defence and in the emerging quantum industry. He holds a master's degree in Quantum Physics from Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris and a PhD in Quantum Physics under the supervision of Nobel prize ’22 Prof. Alain Aspect on laser cooling of atoms. He is board member at startups QphoX, Pasqal, Qubit Pharmaceuticals, WeLinQ, Nord Quantique and at not for profits Unitary Fund (USA) and PINQ2, Platform for Digital and Quantum Innovation (Canada).

Claire Ripley leads the Strategic Initiatives team at Standards Australia. The team partners with industry and government to deliver innovative cross-sector initiatives that align with national priorities, solve critical challenges and lead Standards Australia into the future – with a focus on critical and emerging technologies, the energy transition and circular economy.

Claire previously worked at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade from 2014-2021 in a variety of foreign, trade and development policy roles, including representing the Australian Government on diplomatic postings to New Delhi and Jakarta.

Dr David Simpson is a Haimson Associate Professor in physical biosciences within the School of Physics at The University of Melbourne. His current research is focused on diamond-based quantum sensors for biomedical and precision magnetometry applications. His quantum sensing research has led to the creation of three start-up companies, Chromos Laboratories, FeBI Technologies and Phasor Quantum. These commercial activities seek to apply quantum sensing technology to improve the diagnosis, treatment, and management of neurological and iron-related disorders and establish precision sensors for magnetic navigation.

Derek Muller is the creator of Veritasium, a Youtube channel about science with 15 million subscribers and over 2 billion views. He has also hosted international broadcast documentaries, Uranium: Twisting the Dragon's Tail, Vitamania, Digits, and was a correspondent on Netflix's Bill Nye Saves The World.

Prof. Kranzlmüller is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and a professor of computer science at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich. Kranzlmüller has a background in the IT sector, and has held positions at various universities including Reading, Dresden and Lyon. His research interests include grid and cluster computing, system programming, innovative IT infrastructure technologies and high-performance computing.

©Alessandro Podo

Dr. Dimitri Kusnezov was confirmed as the Under Secretary for the Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) on September 8, 2022. As the science advisor to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary, Dr. Kusnezov heads the research, development, innovation and testing and evaluation activities that improve the U.S.’s security and resilience. Prior to DHS, Dr. Kusnezov was a theoretical physicist working at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) focusing on emerging technologies, where he served as Deputy Under Secretary for Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Technology, leading efforts to drive AI innovation and bring it into DOE missions, business and operations.

Prior to CSIRO, Elanor was Dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science at the Australian National University (ANU). She also held Board appointments at Innovation Science Australia, Significant Ventures, Questacon and other government scientific advisory roles. Elanor was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Technology and Engineering in 2020 and named an honorary Fellow of Engineers Australia in 2017. She led the extended Group of Eight (Go8+) Engineering Deans as first female Chair from 2017-2019. Elanor holds a PhD in experimental quantum optics and a Masters in information technology. Her current research includes the control of quantum systems, at the interface between theory and applications. She was a Program Manager in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technologies for nearly 2 decades.

Dr Emma Mitchell is a Senior Principal Research Scientist with CSIRO Manufacturing, with experience in experimental condensed matter and applied physics. Dr Mitchell’s focus is on exploiting quantum phenomena to enhance sensor capabilities via improved materials properties, device design and critical parameter uniformity. Her goals are to help support the development of an Australian-based, high-tech quantum sensor industry, applicable to a wide range of industries (e.g., mineral exploration, medical, defence, communications, aerospace) that will benefit from improved sensor performance. As Project Leader, Dr Mitchell continues to grow and manage an increasingly complex portfolio of research projects. As Team Leader she manages more than a dozen people involved in a range of scientific and commercial projects focussed on quantum-based sensing. Dr Mitchell has successfully delivered on several large commercial projects in the defence and aerospace areas, by enabling creative solutions to scientific problems, and meeting customer needs by assessing and deploying resources to deliver project outcomes.  

Gavin Brennen is a Professor of Physics at Macquarie University and director of the Macquarie Centre for Quantum Engineering as well as Chief Investigator for the ARC Centre for Excellence in Engineered Quantum Systems. His research focus is quantum computing and information, as well as quantum blockchain technology. He is a member of the Standards Australia working group for quantum computing and a Quantum Information Advisor for the quantum security company BTQ Technologies.

Pina obtained her PhD degree in Physics in 1996 from Flinders University. She worked in private industry before joining DSTG in 2000.  As a research scientist and then a senior research scientist, Pina worked on assessing the impact of electromagnetic interference and compatibility of systems in maritime, land, space and air domains.  In 2018, she was promoted to Group Leader and in 2021, took on the role as Research Leader, and currently leads Electromagnetic Warfare, EO sensors, Maritime Optronics and Quantum Technologies Science and Technology areas. Pina is an advocate of STEM outreach and careers.

Hugh Durrant-Whyte is NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer. From 2017-18 he was Chief Scientific Advisor to the UK Ministry of Defence, from 2010-2014, he was CEO of National ICT Australia (NICTA), and from 1995-2010 Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Autonomous Systems, an ARC Federation Fellow, and the founding Director of the Australian Centre for Field Robotics (ACFR) at the University of Sydney. Hugh is an honorary Fellow of Engineers Australia (HonFIEAus), a Fellow of the IEEE (FIEEE), of the Australian Academy of Science (FAA), of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng), and of the Royal Society of London (FRS).

Dr Jane Fitzpatrick is the CEO of the Australian National Fabrication Facility Ltd (ANFF).

Through ANFF, Jane supports world-class research in Australia and the development of the industries such as Defence, MedTech, Energy and Space. ANFF provides open access to world class tools and expertise for micro and nanofabrication for the research, development and commercialisation of technology. ANFF is made up of 21 institutions organised into eight nodes of expertise, coordinating access to over 500 tools.

Jane holds a PhD in Applied Immunology, and she has added technical expertise in many areas, including micro and nanofabrication, throughout her career.

Prof. Jingbo Wang is Director, QUISA (Quantum Information, Simulation and Algorithms) Research Centre at UWA. Her research team pioneered quantum walk-based algorithms to solve practical problems otherwise intractable. She is also Director, UWA-Pawsey educational quantum computing centre. In this capacity, she oversees a comprehensive suite of quantum computing lecture courses offered at the undergraduate, masters, and PhD levels.  Her leadership contributes significantly to the educational advancement and integration of quantum computing expertise within the academic realm. Professor Wang is also Co-Director of Quantum Girls, a government-funded project aiming to encourage more girls and women throughout Australia to consider careers in quantum science, in particular quantum computing.

Dr. Joseph Emerson is widely recognized as a pioneer and thought leader in quantum computing. He developed several of the now industry-standard methods for assessing and accelerating the performance of quantum computing, including randomized benchmarking and randomized compiling. In 2017 he founded and led the quantum computing startup Quantum Benchmark Inc which delivered quantum computing software and services to leading quantum computing platforms. Quantum Benchmark became the first VC-funded quantum computing start-up to exit when it was acquired in 2021 by Keysight Technologies, where Dr. Emerson now holds a position as Director of Quantum Strategy. These academic and entrepreneurial activities have shaped his unique insights into the current and future capabilities of quantum computing, as well as viable commercialisation opportunities. His research continues to be focused on practical and efficient methods for error diagnostics and compiler-level error suppression and their application to optimize performance throughout all levels of the quantum computing stack.

Kavan is a Professor of Physics at Monash University and Director of Quantum for New South Wales. At Monash, his research focuses on characterising and controlling complex noise in quantum computers. He also works on foundational topics such as quantum chaos and many-time physics. At QfNSW, he aims to determine the impact quantum computers could have on a variety of use cases. QfNSW also aims to support the vibrant quantum ecosystem and quantum industry in the state of NSW, as well as to train the next generation of quantum workforce.

Following a brief research career as an organic chemist Kerrie has spent the last 10 years working at the intersection of science and business to drive the commercialisation of innovations in physics, chemistry, engineering and ICT. She loves working on deep-tech projects alongside passionate scientific teams to bring transformative products and services to market.

Maria (Marika) Kieferova is a Sydney Quantum Academy fellow, a Senior Lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and a member of Google Quantum AI. She has over ten years of experience working on quantum algorithms, starting from her undergraduate studies at Comenius University in Slovakia. She obtained her PhD from The Institute for Quantum Computing, University of Waterloo, and Macquarie University. Her thesis was awarded the Person Medal and IQC Achievement Award. Throughout her studies, she undertook internships at Microsoft Research and Zapata Computing. At UTS, Marika studies quantum algorithms focusing on quantum machine learning. She is also affiliated with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology and serves on the editorial board of the IOP journal Quantum Science and Technology. At Google, she manages Google's involvement in quantum computing in Australia.

Mark Bowden leads the work of the Critical Technology Standards Section within the Commonwealth Department of Industry, Science and Resources (DISR). The Section is responsible for developing strategic policy that aims to promote Australia’s interests in the development of international standards for critical technologies. This includes programs to support Australian experts participating in international standards forums, engaging with our international partners on technology standards issues, and building strong relationships with Australia’s technology sector.

Mark Stickells leads the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre, critical national research infrastructure located in Perth, WA. Pawsey’ hosts Australia’s leading exascale-class system, Setonix - the Southern Hemisphere’s most powerful, energy efficient supercomputer – and is Australia’s national supercomputing/quantum computing innovation hub.  Mark is a member of Australia’s National Quantum Advisory Committee and a non-executive Director of Science and Technology Australia Ltd, a peak body representing more than 115,000 scientists and technologists, a Fellow of Australian Institute of Company Directors and Australian Institute of Management, and member of CEO’s for Gender Equity.

Jacq is an expert in experimental quantum information. Her research is focused on using higher-dimensional systems for exploring curious quantum physics phenomena and developing future quantum technologies. She is the group leader of the research team Qudits@UQ. She holds BS Applied Physics and MS Physics degrees from the University of the Philippines. She finished her PhD at the University of Glasgow. In 2015, she moved to the University of Queensland. In 2016 she took up an ARC DECRA fellowship and in 2019, a Westpac Research Fellowship. Jacq is recognised for moving the shape of photons to mainstream quantum information. She has received several prestigious national and international awards which include: a L'Oreal-UNESCO For Women In Science award in 2017 (one of four in Australia), the Ruby Payne-Scott Medal of the Australian Institute of Physics for excellence in early-career research in 2018, and a L'Oreal-UNESCO For Women In Science International Rising Talent Award in 2019 (one of fifteen awards globally).

Professor Michael Bremner is the Director of the Centre for Quantum Software and Information and a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). He also leads the UTS node of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology. Michael is a founding member of the Australian Quantum Software Network and the Executive Advisory Board of the Sydney Quantum Academy.

Michelle Simmons is the CEO and founder of Silicon Quantum Computing and longstanding Director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology. As one of the world’s leading experimental physicists, she is at the forefront of developing a silicon-based quantum computer and globally renowned for creating the field of atomic electronics.

Michelle has been awarded many international prizes, including the Royal Society Bakerian Medal from the UK, the US Feynman prize for Nanotechnology and the L’ORÉAL-UNESCO Laureate in the physical sciences. This year she was recognised by the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science in Australia. She is a Fellow of many academies including the Royal Society of London, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, UK Institute of Physics, Australian Academy of Science, and the American Physical Society. In 2018 she was named Australian of the Year.

Dr. Nadia Court is currently serving as the Director of the Semiconductor Sector Service Bureau (S3B) and is dedicated to advancing the Australian semiconductor sector. 
With a strong background as the former Technical Director of the Research and Prototype Foundry (RPF) and ANFF facilities at the University of Sydney, Nadia's expertise in micro- and nano-fabrication is highly regarded. Her extensive experience also includes significant contributions at BAE Systems in the UK, where she conducted research in printed electronics and optical communication technologies. 
Nadia holds a PhD from UNSW. Her leadership, industry collaboration, and dedication to innovation have positioned her as a respected figure in the field.

A/Prof Nathan Langford leads the Circuit Quantum Science (CirQuS) research group in the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney. He is a former ARC Future Fellow, member of the UTS Centre for Quantum Software and Information, and Director of the Advanced Prototype Packaging Facility (a partnership with U Sydney).  Since 2022, Nathan has been leading the Australian expert contributions to international quantum standards activities through JTC1 WG14 on Quantum Information Technology and IEC SEG14 on Quantum Technology. With Simon Devitt, Nathan has co-authored a series of 4 position papers for Standards Australia on the role of standardisation in quantum technology.

Olivia completed her PhD in physics, focused on quantum measurement, in 2020 from the University of Pittsburgh. She joined IBM Quantum shortly after, where she now works as the Global Lead for Quantum Educational and Learning. In this capacity, she works to help put quantum into the hands of researchers and educators, and democratize this emerging technology. She is a passionate science communicator, and leads the IBM Qiskit YouTube channel, which is the largest quantum computing social channel. She also sits on the national Q-12 education council to focus on quantum workforce development at a national level.

Peter is an award-winning Principal with the Nous Group, an international management consultancy. He works with senior leaders across higher education, government and industry on strategy, policy and organisational and industry growth. Peter work across the quantum ecosystem includes facilitating the co-design and business case to establish the Sydney Quantum Academy, and leading national consultations as part of the National Quantum Collaboration Initiative.

As Director of the Quantum Engineering Centre for Doctoral Training at the University of Bristol, in 2014 Peter established one of the world’s first programs aimed specifically at preparing graduates for the nascent quantum technology industry.

Rizwan is the Founder & Chief Technology Officer at GuardWare, a company on a mission to eliminate data theft. Rizwan has 18 years of experience of designing and management information security and artificial Intelligence based systems. He holds a Masters in Information Technology Management from Staffordshire University, UK, and is a certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and Project Management Professional PMP®. During his time with e-Safe Systems he has held several strategic and leadership roles and has been instrumental in growing the business which is now protecting over a million users worldwide.

Since 2018 Roger McKinlay has been leading the Quantum Technologies Challenge in UK Research and Innovation. The QT Challenge funds collaborative projects and has committed approximately £200m to industry-led projects over the past five years.

Roger is a Chartered Engineer and a past president of the Royal Institute of Navigation. He joined UKRI following a career in defence and aerospace. 

Sushmita Ruj is Faculty of Engineering Lead of UNSW Institute for Cybersecurity, IFCYBER and Senior Lecturer in the School of Computer Science and Engineering at UNSW, Sydney. Her research interests are in applied cryptography, post quantum cryptography, blockchains and privacy enhancing technologies. She designs practical, efficient, and provably secure protocols that can be deployed in real-world applications.  She has won several competitive grants like Samsung GRO Award, NetApp Faculty Fellowship, Cisco Academic Grant. She is an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security.  Before joining UNSW, she was a Senior Research Scientist at CSIRO's Data61, an Associate Professor at Indian Statistical Institute and an Assistant Professor at Indian Institute of Technology, IIT, Indore. Sushmita is a senior member of both ACM and IEEE.

Prof. Sakai had developed his research carrier at Toshiba Corporation after graduating Tohoku University, Japan. From 2019, he joined Q-LEAP at Tokyo Institute of Technology. His research interests are carbon nanoelectronics materials (diamond, graphene, CNT, etc.) and their applications (quantum sensors, electron sources, semiconductor devices, etc.). He also acts as the convenor of WG8 (nanocarbon materials), TC113 (Technical Committee for nanoelectronics material and product technologies), IEC (Int. Electrotechnical Commission).

Professor Tom Stace completed his PhD at the Cavendish Lab, University of Cambridge UK on quantum computing, followed by postdoctoral research at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, also at Cambridge, and Queens' College, Cambridge. He has held various ARC research fellowships, most recently a Future Fellowship (2015-2019), and was Deputy Director of EQUS from 2018 to 2021. He is the CEO and co-founder of Analog Quantum Circuits, which is Queensland's first quantum startup, and the first superconducting quantum technology startup in Australia.