QUT has received more than $700,000 funding for 15 new higher education scholarships through the Queensland Government's Quantum and Advanced Technologies Talent Building Program.
QUT Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Research) Distinguished Professor Christopher-Barner-Kowollik said QUT had received four scholarships each for: the Quantum and Advanced Technologies (QaAT) PhD Top-up; QaAT Postgraduate Pipeline Honours; and Cross-disciplinary PhD Collaboration Incentive.
"QUT also has two (QaAT) Masters scholarships and one (QaAT) PhD scholarship to attract global talent in these technologies," Professor Barner-Kowollik said.
"We have identified several vanguard project areas in our Science and Engineering faculties to which we could attract an international PhD student for research in areas such as quantum phases in engineered materials systems, quantum machine learning in biomedical sensor signals for human disease detection, and cryptography in a quantum context.
"As QUT offers Honours programs in Engineering and Science, we have a reliable pipeline of high-achieving, ambitious students for whom this scholarship would provide a valued incentive to advance their studies."
Professor Barner-Kowollik said the four Cross-disciplinary Collaboration Scholarships would enable four PhD students researching in a non-quantum field to benefit from collaboration with research or industry partners in quantum or advanced technologies.
"The two carers' assistance packages we have received will support scholarship holders with caring responsibilities to attend conferences or visit relevant industry/research venues," he said.
"These packages assist QUT in our strong commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion so that those who have caring responsibilities can manage their award and the demands of their lives outside research."
The Queensland Government's Quantum and Advanced Technologies Talent Building Program aims to increase the representation of women and other underrepresented groups in quantum and advanced technologies sectors, and:
- Enable a new generation of PhD students to become quantum researchers who pioneer this emerging discipline
- Build technology capability and skills across a range of fields
- Improve translation and commercialisation skills
- Foster collaboration across academia and industry.
"The funding represents significant investment by the Queensland Government in this important area, and will ensure that QUT is able to attract and support aspiring academics into this exciting field," Professor Kowollik said.
Top image: credit Getty Images, Yuichiro Chino.
Niki Widdowson, 07 3138 2999 or [email protected]
