Last year, Michelle Yvonne Simons received the award of Australian of the Year for her contributions to quantum physics and its practical applications.
She has launched Australia into "the space race of the computing era".
Simons, a Brit, formerly professor physics at Cambridge in England, said she emigrated to Australia and became a citizen because the country accepts young leaders in science, has public funds available to fund research, and its scientists have a culture of cooperative team spirit.
Since arriving in Australia from Britain in 1999, Professor Simmons' work at the University of NSW quantum physics department has helped develop leading technology on a global scale.
Five years ago, Professor Simmons and her team developed the world's first transistor made from a single atom, as well as the world's thinnest wire.
Now she is looking to build a quantum computer capable of solving problems in minutes, which would otherwise take thousands of years.
Conventional computers can only compute one algorithm at a time because they are limited to a binary coding of either zero or one
At the level of quantum physics, it's possible to have numbers between 0 & 1. This makes it possible for atomic computers to achieve parallel processing, hence solving several problems simultaneously.
Think back to how computers made it possible to calculate millions of iterations. Leibnitz's C17th equation had to remain undeveloped for two centuries until computers were invented. In a variation, Mandelbrot came up with zn+1 = zn2 + c. This created fractal mathematics and geometry, an explosion in the capacity to accurately estimate probabilities. It has revolutionised actuarial calculation of insurance liabilities, stock exchange movements, and weather systems.
Just imagine the order of magnitude! - the difference this makes to computing with large amounts of information and multiple variables.
Walt O'Reagun 