Quantum science is reshaping our world—but what does it really mean for us? The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics celebrated breakthroughs in macroscopic quantum systems, while the 2022 award honoured experiments proving quantum entanglement. These achievements mark incredible progress, yet quantum theory still sparks debate, various interpretations of basic quantum principles are conflicting among the research community, while the gap between the technology development and public understanding remains wide.
On December 15, hear from a panel of leading voices from research, industry, and science communication on how quantum perspectives have evolved, what recent Nobel prizes contributed to its reputation and understanding, and why these developments matter far beyond the lab—impacting technology, society, and everyday life.
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Speakers
Maria Violaris, Quantum physicist and science communicator
Dr Maria Violaris is a quantum physicist and prize-winning science communicator, with a PhD in the foundations of quantum information from the University of Oxford. She works on quantum theory research and technical content creation at quantum computing spin-out Oxford Quantum Circuits. Alongside this, she runs a YouTube channel and the Quantum Foundations Podcast; writes for external venues such as Physics World; and researches fundamental aspects of quantum physics.
Richard Murray, Co-founder & CEO, ORCA Computing
Richard co-founded ORCA Computing in 2019. He is an accomplished business executive and technologist with a PhD in quantum atom-optics and over 15 years of experience managing scientific teams working on disruptive early-stage technologies such as quantum, AR/VR and other consumer and industrial applications of photonics. Under Richard's leadership, the company has grown to a team of over 65 people and expanded its global presence by establishing U.S. headquarters in Austin, Texas, following a strategic acquisition in 2024. Previously, Richard worked for the UK government supporting Sir Peter Knight leading the innovation activities for the £270m UK quantum technologies program. He was also pivotal in the early stages of the €1 billion EU quantum flagship program.
Ortwin Hess, Professor of Quantum Nanophotonics, Trinity College Dublin
Ortwin Hess is Chair Professor of Quantum Nanophotonics and SFI Research Professor at Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin, and the inaugural Editor-in-Chief of APL Quantum. A pioneer in active quantum nanoplasmonics, metamaterials and semiconductor laser dynamics, his research connects fundamental quantum physics with emerging quantum technologies and explores how photonic quantum effects can be harnessed at the nanoscale.
Dan Browne, Professor of Physics, University College London
Dan leads a research team on the theory of quantum computing. His research interests are broad, and include fault-tolerant quantum computation, architectures for quantum computing, measurement-based quantum computation, scalable linear optical quantum computing and quantum optics. He joined University College London in 2007, before which he was a Junior Research Fellow in at Merton College, Oxford. In addition to his PhD at Imperial College London, he also spent time as a research student at the University of Freiburg and LMU Munich.
Araceli Venegas-Gomez, Founder & CEO, QURECA
Dr Araceli Venegas-Gomez is the founder and CEO of QURECA, a company dedicated to connecting academia and industry in quantum technologies. With a background in aerospace engineering and quantum physics, she focuses on building the quantum workforce and promoting global collaboration. She is recognised for her leadership and advocacy in the quantum tech community.
Anastasiia Vasylchenkova, Associate Editor, Springer Nature
Anastasiia joined Nature Photonics in November 2025. She started her editorial career in Communications Engineering in July 2023, followed by an assignment in the Engineering team at Nature Communications. She received her PhD in optical communications from Aston University in Birmingham, UK, working on nonlinearity mitigation in the optical fibre. She then worked as a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellow at the University College London, UK, on the modelling of ultrawideband optical fibre transmission. Before that, she received a BSc and MSc in theoretical physics from Kharkiv National University, Ukraine. Her research background is in telecommunication and nonlinear photonics.
Produced with support from
HPE | D-Wave Quantum | IBM | Google Quantum AI
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