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The Man Leading the March of Machines

From Left to Right: Daniel Finkelstein OBE, RISE winner - Professor Jeremy O'Brien and Rising Star - Peter Shadbolt.

1 October 2014

In August, Daniel Finkelstein OBE, Executive Editor of The Times and RISE Companion to Prof. Jeremy O'Brien visited Bristol to have a look at our labs and to film a short video for EPSRC about Professor O'Brien and the work undertaken at the Centre for Quantum Photonics.

 

Daniel has written a brief summary of his visit to the Centre for Quantum Photonics in his weekly online notebook. The article reads as follows:

"To Bristol, to meet physicist Jeremy O’Brien, director of the centre for quantum photonics at the university.

My visit is part of the Rise programme of the engineering and physical sciences research council. This stands for Recognising Inspiring Scientists and Engineers. I can tell you that I was doing the recognising and Jeremy the inspiring. He entered a competition in which one of the prizes was to have me as a champion. Well, congratulations on that one, professor.

His work is astonishing. He and his colleagues use quantum physics (the study of how sub-atomic particles move) to design new computing devices. Success will help to transform the interface between people and machines.

If they, or the other laboratories at work in the same area, are successful it will anchor this work in the UK, with huge potential economic benefits.

Discussing this with others in the field, I learn that it might change what it means to be human. “It won’t make sense any more to ask if we know, for example, who was the seventh president of the United States,” says one. “The interface with computers will be such that the same thought that can access the information from your memory could also access it from the internet.” Erm, OK.

I ask Jeremy why, given that he is Australian, he works in Bristol. He tells me that outside Silicon Valley, the place in the world with the most silicon design companies is the south west of England. I didn’t know that. Did you?"

The video which was released last week includes short interviews with Daniel Finkelstein, Prof. O'Brien and his Rising Star Peter Shadbolt about the nature of the work undertaken at CQP and what makes an Inspirational Leader. You can watch the video on the EPSRC RISE Multimedia Site.

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