Australian electronics researcher among world's best

UNSW Scientia Professor Michelle Simmons has been named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for her groundbreaking research developing atomic-scale electronics. Professor Simmons’ team is now the only group in the world that can make electronic devices in silicon at the level of individual atoms.

Simmons is an ARC Laureate Fellow and director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology at UNSW. She leads a team of 180 researchers developing a radical, uniquely powerful quantum computing technology that aims to interface with completely secure communication systems.

As a consequence of both Simmons’ leadership of the centre and her own research program, Australian researchers are now at the international forefront of classical and quantum computing technologies in silicon. Her research has important implications for the semiconductor industry and is anticipated to be transformational in the field of quantum computation.

The AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society, as well as the publisher of the journal Science. In a tradition stretching back to 1874, the fellowship honour is reserved for the world’s best scientists and is bestowed on those who have made extraordinary contributions to innovation, education and scientific leadership. Professor Simmons is one of only two scientists from Australian institutions honoured on the 2015 list of 347 AAAS fellows.