Gerard James Milburn (born 1958) is an Australian theoretical quantum physicist notable for his work on quantum feedback control,

quantum measurement In quantum physics, a measurement is the testing or manipulation of a physical system to yield a numerical result. A fundamental feature of quantum theory is that the predictions it makes are probabilistic. The procedure for finding a probability ...

quantum information Quantum information is the information of the state of a quantum system. It is the basic entity of study in quantum information theory, and can be manipulated using quantum information processing techniques. Quantum information refers to both t ...

open quantum system In physics, an open quantum system is a quantum-mechanical system that interacts with an external quantum system, which is known as the ''environment'' or a ''bath''. In general, these interactions significantly change the dynamics of the system a ...

s, and

Linear optical quantum computing Linear optical quantum computing or linear optics quantum computation (LOQC), also photonic quantum computing (PQC), is a paradigm of Quantum computing, quantum computation, allowing (under certain conditions, described below) universal quantum com ...

(aka the Knill, Laflamme and Milburn scheme).An interview with Gerard J. Milburn
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Education

Milburn received his BSc (Hons) in Physics from

Griffith University Griffith University is a public university, public research university in South East Queensland on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of Australia. The university was founded in 1971, but was not officially opened until 1975. Griffith ...

in 1980. He completed his PhD in physics under Daniel Frank Walls at the

University of Waikato The University of Waikato (), established in 1964, is a Public university, public research university located in Hamilton, New Zealand, Hamilton, New Zealand. An additional campus is located in Tauranga. The university performs research in nume ...

in 1982, with a thesis entitled ''Squeezed States and Quantum Nondemolition Measurements''.

Career and Research

Following his PhD, Milburn did

postdoctoral research A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). Postdocs most commonly, but not always, have a temporary acade ...

in the Department of Mathematics at

Imperial College London Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a Al ...

in 1983. Later, in 1984, he was awarded a

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

Fellowship to work in the Quantum Optics group of Peter Knight, at Imperial. In 1985 he returned to Australia and was appointed lecturer at

The Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university and member of the Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition ...

. In 1988 Milburn took up an appointment as Reader in Theoretical Physics at The

University of Queensland The University of Queensland is a Public university, public research university located primarily in Brisbane, the capital city of the Australian state of Queensland. Founded in 1909 by the Queensland parliament, UQ is one of the six sandstone ...

. In 1994 he was appointed as Professor of Physics and in 1996 became Head of Department of Physics at The University of Queensland. From 2000 to 2010 he was Deputy Director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computer Technology. From 2003 to 2013 he was an Australian Research Council Federation Fellow at the University of Queensland. He was the Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the

Institute for Quantum Computing The Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) is an affiliate scientific research institute of the University of Waterloo located in Waterloo, Ontario with a multidisciplinary approach to the field of quantum information processing. IQC was found ...

and served on the scientific advisory committee for the

Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (PI, Perimeter, PITP) is an independent research centre in foundational theoretical physics located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in 1999. The institute's founding and major benefactor i ...

from 2007 to 2010. From 2011 to 2017 he was the Director and Chief Investigator of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems.

Honors and awards

His awards include the Moyal Medal for Mathematical Physics (awarded 2001) and Boas medal, (awarded in 2003). He is a

fellow of the Australian Academy of Science The Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Science is made up of about 500 Australian scientists. Scientists judged by their peers to have made an exceptional contribution to knowledge in their field may be elected to Fellowship of the Academy ...

(1999), a Fellow of the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of ...

(2005), and elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Milburn, Gerard J. 1958 births Living people Scientists from Brisbane Australian physicists Academic staff of the University of Queensland University of Auckland alumni University of Waikato alumni Quantum physicists Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science Fellows of the American Physical Society Fellows of the Royal Society