2025 Marie Curie Lecture Series – Wollongong
August 7 @ 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
From Quantum Past to Quantum Future
Join us to celebrate the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology at the 2025 Marie Curie Lecture – Wollongong:
Dr Sol H Jacobsen
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
and
Dr Danielle Holmes
The University of New South Wales, Sydney
This public lecture is presented by the Australian Institute of Physics’s 2025 Women in Physics lecturers.
The first quantum century fundamentally changed the way we understand and interact with our world. It gave us much of the technology underpinning modern life: lasers, LEDs, GPS, MRI, solar cells, electron microscopes, and myriad others. The revolutionary potential of the next quantum century promises applications necessary for solving our greatest global challenges. Join us in celebrating the first quantum century, and enjoy a rare opportunity to hear how two different approaches are shaping your quantum future, from quantum computing to superconducting spintronics.
Dr. Sol Jacobsen is Group Leader at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology NTNU, where she investigates ways to use the quantum property of spin in future technological devices. She studied Physics with Philosophy at the University of York, U.K., where she was awarded the Goodwin Prize. After receiving her Ph.D. at the University of Tasmania, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher in Germany and Norway, before establishing her group in 2019. She was selected as Outstanding Academic Fellow at NTNU, and will start her new project – SuperFlex – in 2025. Her three children keep her busy the rest of the time.
Dr Danielle Holmes makes ‘qubits’ using individual atoms in silicon chips. These qubits are the building blocks of quantum computers, new technology that will revolutionise humanity’s problem-solving abilities. She received her undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of Cambridge, before exploring the technologies used to build quantum computers during her PhD at the University of Melbourne. Now at UNSW as a Postdoctoral Researcher and Lecturer, Danielle is a passionate science outreach communicator. She shares her love for quantum physics well beyond the laboratory- having even performed at the Sydney Comedy Festival!