From prehistoric qubits to building a useful quantum computer
Over the past four decades, quantum computing has evolved from a fascinating theoretical concept into one of the world's most promising emerging technologies. In this special lecture, Professor Martinis will reflect on the pioneering research that earned him the Nobel Prize, including his groundbreaking work on macroscopic quantum tunnelling and energy-level quantisation, as well as other key advances that helped establish superconducting qubits as a leading platform for quantum computing.
Despite remarkable progress, significant scientific and engineering challenges remain before large-scale quantum computers become a reality. Professor Martinis will explore the hurdles that researchers continue to face in hardware, fabrication, architecture and algorithms, and discuss how adapting established semiconductor technologies and systems engineering approaches could help unlock the next generation of high-quality qubits and scalable quantum systems.
Don't miss this opportunity to hear from one of the world's leading quantum physicists as he shares insights into the past, present and future of quantum computing.
Hosted by Petra Andrén, CEO, Quantum Australia with an introduction from Professor David Reilly, The University of Sydney and CEO and co-founder of Quantum Emergence.
Professor John M. Martinis, University of California
John M. Martinis is Professor of Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a 2025 Nobel Laureate in Physics. He shares the prize with John Clarke and Michel Devoret for showing that quantum behaviour, normally associated with atoms and elementary particles, can also appear in electrical circuits large enough to build and control. Their work opened the way to today’s superconducting quantum computers. Martinis joined UC Santa Barbara in 2004 and for many years held the endowed Susan and Bruce Worster Chair in Experimental Physics. A quantum device he developed with campus colleagues was named the 2010 Breakthrough of the Year by Science magazine. In 2014, Martinis and his team were hired by Google Quantum AI to build a quantum computer, an effort that led to a 53 entangled qubit system that took on – and solved – a problem considered intractable for classical computers. After leaving Google in 2020, Martinis joined Australian startup Silicon Quantum Computing; in 2022 he co-founded the quantum computing company Qolab, where he serves as Chief Technology Officer.