Broadcast: News items

A book being published today [Thursday 10 September] hopes to inspire the next generation by highlighting the work of extraordinary scientists, including University of Sussex quantum expert, Professor Winfried Hensinger.

Scientists Making a Difference guides teenage students through what it’s like to work in the diverse field of modern science, through 47 of the world’s most inspirational people working in science today. Author and award-winning mechanical engineer Dr Shini Somara based the book on interviews with scientists who are working on some of the big questions of the future. It covers everything from growing human cells to test medicines, tracking African wild dogs, searching for life beyond our Solar System and, in the case of Professor Hensinger, building quantum computers.

He explains why he got involved: “Science is all about working together to solve problems and we need the best young minds to tackle the problems of our world, and some we don’t even know about yet. We’re just scratching the surface of the quantum revolution and in 10 or twenty years’ time pretty much all industries will be affected by their ability to run complex calculations at once.

I hope this project will help encourage more young people to explore the many routes into science, including apprenticeships and T-Levels. At Sussex we’ve just introduced an exciting new degree programme in quantum technologies where, alongside coursework, students take part in one of our research groups across all four years of their undergraduate degree. This means students get real experience in developing quantum computers, sensors and other groundbreaking technologies.”

Every state secondary school in the UK will be sent two free copies of Scientists Making a Difference as part of a collaboration between Imperial College London and The Gatsby Charitable Foundation, which was set up by Lord Sainsbury to strengthen STEM education.

In addition to the books themselves, schools will be given a teacher’s guide, a laminated timeline and posters covering a topic from each chapter. Further resources are available at scientists-making-a-difference.com.

As well as lecturing students at Sussex, Professor Winfried Hensinger is Director of the Sussex Centre for Quantum Technologies, and co-founder of Universal Quantum, a full-stack quantum computing company, where he serves as Chief Scientist and Chairman. He has been working for over 20 years on building quantum computers with trapped ions that can solve industry problems.