About the talk
It’s a 100 years since the discovery of quantum mechanics by Heisenberg, Born, Schrödinger, Dirac and colleagues. We now live in a quantum enabled world, with devices powered by quantum mechanics affecting our everyday world (lasers, telecoms, semiconductor chips and much more). But we are now exploiting in the UK National Quantum Programme new technology capabilities enabled by some of the stranger aspects of quantum physics: quantum coherence and entanglement. I will describe the counter-intuitive features of quantum science (being in two states at once, nonlocality etc) and show how they can be exploited in surprising ways in sensing, communication and quantum computing.
About the speaker
Knight is Chair of the UK National Quantum Technology Programme Strategy Advisory Board and has been involved in the creation of the UK Quantum programme since its inception, including the creation of the UK Quantum Strategy and the commitment of resource over the next decade to the field. He chairs the Quantum Metrology Institute at the National Physical Laboratory and is Senior Research Investigator at Imperial College where until 2010 he was Deputy Rector (Research) responsible for the College’s research strategy. He was knighted in 2005 for his work in optical physics. Knight was the 2004 President of the Optical Society of America and 2011-2013 President of the Institute of Physics. He was until 2010 chair of the UK Defence Scientific Advisory Council and remains a UK Government science advisor. His research centres on quantum optics, nonclassical light and quantum technology and its application in sensing, timing, communications, imaging and computation. He has won the Thomas Young Medal and the Glazebrook Medal of the Institute of Physics, the Ives Medal and the Walther Medal and Prize of the OSA, the Royal Medal of the Royal Society and the Faraday Prize of the IET.
Image credit: Ralph Hodgson.