SQA alumnus Dr Paul Steinacker awarded 2026 UNSW Malcolm Chaikin Prize
Can silicon spin qubits maintain high performance using standard semiconductor processes? SQA alumnus Dr Paul Steinacker’s award-winning research set out to answer this question.
Sydney Quantum Academy (SQA) alumnus Dr Paul Steinacker has been awarded the 2026 UNSW Malcolm Chaikin Prize for Research Excellence in Engineering.
Valued at $10,000, the annual prize recognises the best PhD thesis in UNSW Engineering.
Paul is the third consecutive SQA alumnus to receive the Malcolm Chaikin Prize, following Holly Stemp (2025) and Will Gilbert (2024), highlighting the calibre of researchers emerging from the SQA community.
Dr Steinacker received the award for his thesis, High-Fidelity SiMOS Spin Qubits: From Academic to Industrial Devices, which explored a central challenge in silicon quantum computing: can silicon spin qubits maintain the performance needed when fabricated with standard semiconductor tools rather than in an academic cleanroom?
Silicon underpins much of the technology used in today's computers, phones and other electronic devices. For researchers developing silicon-based quantum computers, this creates an important opportunity to use established semiconductor manufacturing expertise and infrastructure.
“During his PhD, Paul worked across academic and industry settings, collaborating with quantum computing company Diraq and international semiconductor research organisation imec. Paul and his collaborators demonstrated that devices produced on 300 mm wafers using standard semiconductor processes achieved over 99% fidelity for single- and two-qubit operations.
His thesis also examined the thermal performance of silicon spin qubits, investigating how higher operating temperatures could help address the cooling challenges associated with scaling quantum processors.
The work represents an important step towards producing quantum devices at scale, using manufacturing techniques already established in the semiconductor industry.
Reflecting on the broader significance of the research, Paul said: "We're closer to building quantum processors the same way we build classical chips today: in semiconductor fabs, using industrial processes, and at scale."
Following completion of his PhD, Paul joined Diraq as a Qubit Measurement Engineer, where he continues to contribute to the company's work towards large-scale silicon-based quantum computing.
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