ABC has confirmed that Professor Michelle Simmons AO FRS FAA FRabc SN FTSE will be the luminary delivering the 2023 Boyer Lecture series. The lectures will be centred around an overarching theme titled “The Atomic Revolution.”
A quantum computing visionary, Professor Simmons is the CEO of Silicon Quantum Computing and also serves as the Director at the Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology at the University of New South Wales. In her early career, she was the founding Editor-in-Chief of Nature Quantum Information.
The lecture series will consist of four episodes that will delve into a diverse range of topics: quantum physics, manufacturing at the atomic level, the role of women in the scientific community, and the prospects for Australia in quantum computing.
Professor Simmons has been a trailblazer in the realm of atomic electronics. Among her groundbreaking works are the world’s first single-atom transistor, the most slender conducting wires, and integrated circuits constructed with atomic precision.
“I am delighted that Professor Simmons will deliver this year’s Boyer lectures. She is an inspirational scientific leader and will discuss the revolution in atomic-scale manufacturing that is underway here in Australia, and the implications for building an Australian quantum computer,”
said ABC Chair Ita Buttrose.
“I came here in the belief that this country would be an ideal place to undertake audacious, big-picture technological research. I was right,”
Professor Simmons articulated, reflecting on her decision to move to Australia in 1999.
The professor, born in London, is an alumna of Durham University in the UK and earned her PhD in high-efficiency solar cells in 1992. She moved Down Under in 1999 on a QEII Fellowship and has been an essential figure in the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computer Technology.
Among her illustrious accolades are two Federation Fellowships, a Laureate Fellowship, and an appointment as an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2019. She has also garnered international awards, including the Bakerian Medal from the Royal Society in the UK and the American Foresight Institute Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology.
The Boyer Lecture series is a prestigious event named after former ABC Chairman Sir Richard Boyer, providing a platform for distinguished Australians to voice their perspectives on critical social, cultural, scientific, or political issues.
