Funding by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) for a new Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Delivering Quantum Technologies at UCL was announced on Thursday 9 January by the Minister for Universities and Science, the Rt Hon. David Willetts.
Quantum technologies involve the control and manipulation of quantum states to achieve results not possible with classical matter; they promise a transformation of measurement, communication and computation. The highly-skilled researchers who will be the future leaders in this field must be equipped to function in a complex research and engineering landscape where quantum physics meets cryptography, complexity and information theory, devices, materials, software and hardware engineering. UCL’s CDT in Delivering Quantum Technologies brings together a team of almost forty academic experts with key players from commerce and government and a network of international partner institutes to train those research leaders.
The CDT will provide a new 4-year programme. The students will take a broadly based training year before undertaking a PhD research project in one of the centre’s research groups. They will also be trained in entrepreneurship, outreach and scientific communication. As breakthroughs in quantum technologies begin to move out of the lab and into industrial applications, these students will be uniquely placed to benefit. Staff at UCL have strong links with enterprise and industry, giving students a short-cut directly into the heart of business. UCL’s location in central London means unparalleled access to partner institutions around the world, from multinational companies to top universities, as well as to UCL’s own world-class laboratory facilities.
We are delighted to have the chance to use those facilities and that expertise to give students the best possible research training across the range of disciplines they will need in their future careers.
Professor Andrew Fisher
The new CDT’s Director, Professor Andrew Fisher, said: “UCL’s research base in quantum technologies is excellent and extremely broad. We are delighted to have the chance to use those facilities and that expertise to give students the best possible research training across the range of disciplines they will need in their future careers.”
“The CDT is a special form of study, the way it combines public and private funding and experience is excellent” said Mr Willets.
The CDT will take on its first students in September 2014. Information on funding, the applications process and other course details can be found here, and there will be an open event for the programme on 29 January.
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