Skip to content
Education Training, Science

Australia joins UN celebration of the first 100 years of the quantum era

Quantum Year 3 mins read

Celebrating and revealing the beauty of the science that we use daily to connect with the world, light our homes, fight disease, and scan our groceries.

The United Nations has declared 2025 to be the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology.

Australia’s physicists are inviting scientific, cultural and industry organisations across the country to join them in a national celebration of the impact of quantum science on our lives. 

Register your interest at quantum2025.org.au.

Media contact: Niall Byrne, niall@scienceinpublic.com.au, 0417-131-977.

“Quantum science is both fascinating and beautiful. It only seems mysterious because it’s far from our everyday experience and intuition,” says Professor Nicolas Menicucci, a quantum physicist at RMIT and Chair of the Australian Institute of Physics’ Quantum Science and Technology Topical Group.

“The Quantum Year will showcase the impact of once-esoteric fundamental physics on our everyday lives,” says Professor Nicole Bell, President of the Australian Institute of Physics.

The laws of quantum mechanics were discovered in 1925, allowing scientists to explore Nature at the subatomic scale, where fundamental particles behave as both waves of energy and particles of matter.

“During the Quantum Year, we invite all Australians to learn how this fascinating branch of science has transformed our understanding of Nature and the Universe – and how the technologies built on these principles continue to transform our world,” Professor Menicucci says.

We use quantum science every day in devices that are central to modern life, including:

  • The LEDs that light our homes and our TV screens in the 21st Century
  • The lasers that scan our groceries and correct our vision
  • The microchips at the heart of every smartphone, computer and modern car
  • The medical imaging devices that have saved countless lives in the fight against cancer and other diseases
  • The solar panels and batteries that will enable us to live at net zero

Today, Australia is at the forefront of the race to develop new quantum technology that will enhance our lives. We’re developing navigation systems that don’t require satellites. We’re creating miniaturised sensors that can detect disease, monitor metal fatigue and find critical minerals. We’re inventing cheaper and more efficient solar and battery technologies, and racing to create quantum computers.

“2025 will be a year where we, as scientists, hope to share and illuminate the beauty of quantum physics, and inspire the public with what new promising technologies quantum physics could enable in the next 100 years,” says Dr Xanthe Croot, a researcher and Lecturer in Quantum Science at the University of Sydney.

Advances in quantum technology will enable new computing and communication models with the potential to accelerate innovations in materials science, medicine, and cybersecurity, among other fields. In this way, quantum science and technology is poised to help address the world’s most pressing challenges — including the need to rapidly develop renewable energy, improve human health, and create global solutions in support of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

“This second quantum revolution is leading to breakthroughs in using quantum effects like superposition and entanglement for new applications,” said John Doyle, Henry B. Silsbee Professor of Physics at Harvard University, co-director of the Harvard Quantum Initiative, and president-elect of the American Physical Society. “When these phenomena can be applied broadly to control and engineer matter at the level of single quanta, and even single atoms, they will spark transformations in a multitude of technologies.”

 “Over the coming months, the Australian Institute of Physics (AIP) will hold briefing events across Australia, starting in Canberra and Sydney in July, about the exciting events to come during the Quantum Year of 2025. The AIP will run our own program of events, and we invite museums, artists, media, industry and others to celebrate the Quantum Year in your own unique way – with events of born of your own imagination and excitement about quantum science and technology,” says Professor Menicucci.


Contact details:

Niall Byrne, niall@scienceinpublic.com.au, 0417-131-977.

Media

More from this category

  • Education Training, Employment Relations
  • 06/12/2024
  • 12:43
Australian Higher Education Industrial Association

Students could become ‘collateral damage’ of law changes

Government funding and industrial relations frameworks are in conflict in the higher education sector. The sector’s peak body for industrial relations, the Australian Higher Education Industrial Association (AHEIA), said harmonising these two areas was a key objective in its submission to the independent review of the Secure Jobs, Better Pay Act, being undertaken by Emeritus Professor Mark Bray and Professor Alison Preston. The review is due to deliver a draft report to government before January 31, 2025. The draft report will contain preliminary findings and recommendations and stakeholders will be given the opportunity to provide further submissions. A final report…

  • Education Training, Union
  • 06/12/2024
  • 09:07
National Tertiary Education Union

Staff lose confidence in ANU boss after more shocking revelations

The National Tertiary Education Union says staff have lost confidence in Australian National University Vice-Chancellor Genevieve Bell after the latest revelations about her leadership. College deans have been hauled in to change management meetings, with at least one encouraged to resign, the Australian Financial Review reports. Earlier in the week, the AFR reported Professor Bell allegedly told senior staff she would “find you out and hunt you down” if they leaked information about planned $250 million budget cuts. The fresh revelations came after 88 per cent of staff voted against Professor Bell’s proposal for staff to give up an already-agreed…

  • Education Training
  • 05/12/2024
  • 16:17
Charles Darwin University

Non-traditional trade apprentice highlights the talents of the Northern Territory

A female apprentice from Tennant Creek is representing the Northern Territory (NT) and Charles Darwin University (CDU) at this year’s Australian Training Awards. Asinate…

  • Contains:

Media Outreach made fast, easy, simple.

Feature your press release on Medianet's News Hub every time you distribute with Medianet. Pay per release or save with a subscription.