Physicist honoured by Australian Academy of Science

Professor Geoff Pryde

Professor Geoff Pryde from Griffith University’s Centre for Quantum Dynamics has been awarded the 2014 Pawsey Medal by The Australian Academy of Science.

The Pawsey Medal is awarded each year to an outstanding Australian scientist in the field of physics who has held their PhD for fewer than 15 years.

Professor Pryde is Deputy Director of Griffith’s Centre for Quantum Dynamics where he has been a key researcher since 2006. He is presentlyan Australian Research Council Future Fellow and a Program Manager in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology.

The prestigious annual Australian Academy of Science awards honour career researchers for life-long achievements as well as recognising outstanding early-career researchers. In addition, the Academy gives a number of awards each year for research and travel support.

Academy President, Professor Suzanne Cory, warmly congratulated each recipient for their remarkable achievements in science.

“It is the Academy’s privilege to recognise excellence in diverse fields of science,” Academy President, Professor Suzanne Cory said.

Pro Vice Chancellor of Griffith Sciences, Professor Debra Henly said she was delighted by the Professor Pryde’s award.

“Professor Pryde’s contributions to the field of quantum physics are now being applied in the pursuit of world-changing new technologies, in particular optical quantum computing,” Professor Henly said.

Professor Pryde’s research achievements over the last decade have included the firstmeasurements scaling at the absolute quantumlimit of precision; the first entangling optical quantumcomputer logic gate;the lowest-noise quantum amplifier; fundamental experimental studies of quantumentanglement, and pioneering techniques for measuring and controlling quantumsystems.

Professor Pryde said the he was very pleased to have been recognised by the Academy of Science in this way.

“This is welcome acknowledgement, not only of my work, but also all of the great research being done at the Centre for Quantum Dynamics in the field of quantum information science,” Professor Pryde said.

“I also feel very privileged to be part of the world-leading research collaboration which takes place at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation Communication Technology.

“And I would particularly like to take this opportunity to thank my postgraduate students who work so tirelessly in the Quantum Optics and Information Lab here at Griffith. They are making a major contribution to expanding knowledge in this critical field.”