She's one of Australia's "10 best and brightest young scientific minds", according to the respected science magazine Cosmos.

Professor Michelle Simmons, 38, of the UNSW School of Physics, has joined the select list in the magazine's 2006 '"Bright Sparks awards".

At 38, she is one of the nation's youngest full professors, a mother and a leading researcher in the highly complex field of quantum computing technology.

Professor Simmons 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.

Her 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.

After seven years of postdoctoral research at the University of Cambridge, she joined the University of New South Wales as a QE11 Research Fellow in June 1999.

Since then, she 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.

As well, it incorporates the challenging process of developing registration techniques for the subsequent alignment of surface metal electrodes above phosphorous qubits.

Professor SImmons is currently a member of the College of Experts for the Physics, Chemistry and Geosciences panel of The Australian Research Council.

She also 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.

She is also co-author of the book Nanotechnology, Small things, Big Science, (Chapman and Hall, May 2002).

in 2005 she won the Pawsey Medal, which
commemorates the contributions to science in Australia by the late Dr J. L. Pawsey FAA. Its purpose is to recognise outstanding research in physics, for work carried out mainly in Australia. The recipient must be no older than 40.

Links:

Professor Simmons's homepage

Our Federation Fellows

Cosmos magazine