Opportunities and challenges for engineers in the quantum future: The UK Quantum Technology Hubs

Professor Dominic O’Brien is a Professor of Engineering Science at Oxford and leads the optical communications group. His research is in optical wireless communications, with a particular focus on system demonstration, with a number of world-firsts in this area. Recent demonstrations, together with industrial and academic partners, include Quantum Key Distribution using free-space links between handheld devices, between UAVs and ground stations, and Terabit/s wireless links within buildings. He also leads the recently funded EPSRC Hub in All-Spectrum Connectivity.

Douglas Paul holds a Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies at the University of Glasgow. He is the Principal Investigator of the EPSRC "UK Hub for Quantum Enabled Position, Navigation and Timing" and the EPSRC Programme Grant “Chip-scale Atomic Systems for a Quantum Navigator". Doug’s research group at Glasgow uses micro- and nano-fabrication techniques to build components, sub-systems and systems for quantum technology applications across imaging, sensing and timing applications. This includes developing Ge on Si single photon avalanche detectors for healthcare, telecomms and LiDAR applications and delivering lasers, photonic integrated circuits and MEMS Rb vapour cells for a range of quantum sensors including chip scale atomic clocks and inertial sensors. Doug is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and was a recipient of the Institute of Physics President's Medal in 2014.

Professor Rachel McKendry is Professor of Biomedicine and Nanotechnology at UCL and holds a joint appointment between the London Centre for Nanotechnology and Division of Medicine. Her research focuses on early disease diagnosis and is at the cutting edge of quantum technologies, deep learning, mHealth, medicine and public health. She is Director of the EPSRC Digital Health Hub for Antimicrobial Resistance (2023-26) and will be the Co-Director of the new £24M Q-BIOMED Quantum Biomedical Sensing Research Hub (starting in December 2024). Professor McKendry has published in high impact journals (including Nature, Nature Medicine, Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Materials) and won several awards for her research including the Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award, Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award, the Institute of Physics Paterson Medal, Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) A F Harvey International Engineering Research Prize 2023 and Cornforth Award 2024. She has held a number of senior Advisory Roles: she chaired the UK Biosurveillance Network Advisory Group, co-chaired the Digital Medicine Theme of the NHS Topol Review 'Preparing the Healthcare Workforce to Deliver the Digital Future’, served on the steering group of the UK Cross Council Programme for AMR, as well as advising the World Health Organisation and the International Pandemic Preparedness 100 Days Mission Scientific and Technical Advisory Group for Diagnostics.