Queen’s Lecture 2023 by Professor Winfried Hensinger: Constructing the world’s most incredible machines: Quantum Computers.
Making use of strange phenomena of quantum physics, such as "superposition" and "entanglement" (referred to by Einstein as "spooky"), it is possible to build computers that can solve important industry problems in a few hours, that would require millions of years on even the fastest supercomputer. Such problems include optimising financial transactions, creating new medicines, making aircraft engines more fuel efficient, simulate chemical reactions, breaking codes but really span across nearly any industry sector. The realisation of practical quantum computers will likely change the world we work and live in.
Hensinger will discuss breakthroughs in research at the University of Sussex and work via quantum computing company Universal Quantum to construct practical quantum computers.
The event will be held in English.
If you are not able to come along to the TU on the day, you can watch the live stream.
Prof Winfried Hensinger is a Professor of Quantum Technologies at the University of Sussex where he heads the Sussex Ion Quantum Technology Group. He is the director of the Sussex Centre for Quantum Technologies and is a co-founder of Universal Quantum, a full stack quantum computing company located in in Haywards Heath, UK and Hamburg, Germany, where he serves as Chief Scientist and Chairman. He is also an honorary professor at the University of Bristol.
Hensinger has been working for over 20 years on building quantum computers with trapped ions that can solve important industry problems. In 2017, leading an international consortium, he announced the first industrial blueprint for building a practical quantum computer with millions of qubits.
Hensinger advised governments in the UK, Germany, and USA about policy implications of his research, and he played an important role in the creation of UK’s £2B ‘National Quantum Technology Programme’.
The Queen's Lectures series
The Queen’s Lectures were founded by Queen Elizabeth II as a gift to the City of Berlin on the occasion of her state visit in 1965. Since 1997 the Queen’s Lecture takes place at the TU Berlin. Each year a renowned British scientist delivers a lecture on her or his area of expertise. The Queen's Lecture is a collaboration between Technical University Berlin, the British Embassy in Germany, and the British Council Germany.
