The Commonwealth Federation Fellowships are prestigious, publicly-funded research awards valued at $235,000 per year for five years and are offered to 25 Australians for their outstanding work internationally, to encourage them to return to Australia and lead research here. The faculty of Science at UNSW has three Federation Fellows - Associate Professor Michelle Simmons and Professors Bob Clarke and Matthew England.
View their profiles below:

BSc PhD (1985 - 1991) University of Durham, UK
Post Doc (1992 - 1998) University of Cambridge, UK
Federation Fellowship
Professor of Physics, University of New South Wales

Michelle is the Program Manager for Atomic Fabrication and Crystal Growth in the Centre for Quantum Computer Technology and the Director of the Atomic Fabrication Facility.

Michelle's project has the objective of fabricating a solid-state quantum computer in the silicon material system from the atomic level upwards.

Michelle has 18 years experience in the design and fabrication of quantum electronic devices and their subsequent electrical measurement at cryogenic temperatures. Having completed 7 years postdoctural research at the University of Cambridge, Michelle joined the University of New South Wales as a QE11 Research Fellow in June 1999.
Since then, Michelle has established and become the Director of the Atomic Fabrication Facility and a Program Manager within the Centre overseeing the Atominc Fabrication and Crystal Growth program. This program involves fabricating the phosphorus-in-silicon qubit architecture one atomic layer at a time using Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) for single atom manipulation, and molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) for high quality single crystal growth. This program also incorporates the challenging process of developing registration techniques for the subsequent alignment of surface metal electrodes above phosphorous qubits.

Michelle is currently a member of the College of Experts for the Physics, Chemistry and Geosciences panel of The Australian Research Council. She currently serves on the C8 Commission for Semiconductors and is the Australian representative for Nanotechnology, International Union of Vacuum Science. In 2003 she was awarded a Federation Fellowship.


Michelle in the news:
UNSW ranks in top three for ARC grants
Quantum Computers - the most complex machines ever made
UNSW Young Stars Shine in Science Awards

Contact Michelle

View Michelle's webpage

BSc (Hons)'87, PhD '92 Syd

Matthew is an oceanographer and climate scientist who has always been a keen surfer and swimmer.
His undergraduate degree was based around maths, physics and chemistry, but despite his passion for science, he had no clear career direction until pure chance delivered a revelation.
"I literally stumbled across a new course in a handbook - physical oceanography. I hadn't even realised that there was a profession behind such a study," says Matthew.
Matthew has since been examining a broad range of topics on a global-scale including ocean circulation and it's influence on regional climate. Matthew has been using global climate models to solve some of the planet's more persistent climate mysteries.
"Climate change is now uppermost in people's minds. We're facing serious increases in greenhouse gases and it's projected that storms and cyclones will become more intense - this will likely have a devasting impact. On top of storms there are likely to be problems with droughts and rising sea levels," says Matthew.
As a UNSW Federation Fellow, Matthew's current work will focus on how Australia's climate is affected by the Southern and Indian Oceans.
Matthew was the first oceanographer to use chloroflurocarbons (CFCs) to assess global climate models, resulting in last year's Australian Academy of Sciences Fredrick White Prize.

Matthew in the news:
Research Awards
The Climate Trial

Links:
Centre for Environmental Modelling and Prediction - CEMAP

Contact Matthew

View Matthew's webpage

BSc, PhD New South Wales, MA Oxford,UK
Professor of Experimental Physics (Chair) and Scientia Professor, University of New South Wales
Federation Fellowship

Robert is the Director of the Centre for Quantum Computer Technology and the Program Manager for the Hybrid Quantum Conventional Processor.

Robert Clark's early career involved 10 years service as an officer in the Royal Australian Navy (1969-79), during which he undertook his BSc degree at the Royal Australian Naval College, Jervis Bay and UNSW. On resigning from the RAN he completed a PhD in Physics at UNSW and the Clarendon Laboratory, University of Oxford.

After a postdoctural research position at the Clarendon he was appointed University Lecturer in Physics at the University of Oxford and Fellow of The Queen's College, Oxford in 1984. During this period he headed a research group at the Clarendon Laboratory investigating quantum effects in advanced semiconductor systems, in fractional quantum Hall effect. He returned to Australia in 1991 to take up the position of Professor of Experimental Physics at UNSW, where he founded and established the National Laboratory and Semi-ci=onductor Nanofabrication Facility.
Robert was appointed Director of the ARC Special Research Centre for Quantum Computer Technology in 2000. He has been a member of the Editorial Board of the international journal Solid State Communications anjd has been the Austrlian representative for nanotechnology, International Uniion of Vacuum Science.


Robert has received a number of awards and distinctions over the years, both in Australia and abroad. In 2001 he was elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and was a recipient of an inaugural Federation FEllowship by the Australian Government, presented by the Prime Minister. In 2003 he was awarded a Centenary Medal and was selected in the Bulletin Magazine's Australian"smart 100 list" for innovation and achievement.



View recent published articles about the work of Professor Robert Clarke:
A leap into quantum computing


Contact Robert