PSI 15th Anniversary Reunion

"In this talk, I will share insights from my journey in driving innovation within the quantum space across various sectors, including space, financial services, healthcare & pharmaceuticals and across various emerging technologies. Drawing from my current role at the National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC), I will discuss the transformative potential of quantum readiness driven by the adoption of quantum computing use cases. I will briefly introduce the NQCC, which was established under the UK government's National Quantum Technologies Program, to address the challenge of scaling quantum computing and discuss the various support mechanisms we have put in place to support the quantum ecosystem in the Uk, including our flagship user engagement program, SPARQ. Through these initiatives, the NQCC supports the discovery of relevant quantum computing use cases and spearheads the development of quantum computing applications. Throughout the talk, I will emphasize the importance of engaging stakeholders from government, industry, academia, as well as regulators and policymakers to spearhead responsible innovation."

"We are faced with convincing evidence that approximately a quarter of the universe is composed of something whose gravitational effects can be seen in a variety of astrophysical phenomena, but which we have been unable to detect and identify in the laboratory. The majority of physicists agree that this ""dark matter"" (DM) consists of as-yet-undiscovered subatomic particle(s) that are not included in our Standard Model of particle physics; the quest to discover its exact nature is among the foremost missions in modern physics and the greatest treasure hunts in history. Direct DM searches over the past few decades have been largely focused on Weakly Interacting Massive Particles with masses much greater than that of the proton. The absence of any conclusive discovery, along with various theoretical developments and certain astrophysical observations, has recently motivated the direct detection community to broaden our experimental program to search for DM candidates in lower mass ranges. Solid-state detectors provide many advantages for such searches. This talk will summarize recent advances in phonon- and ionization-based semiconductor crystal experiments, cryogenic scintillating calorimeter experiments, and Charge-Coupled Device experiments. It will also discuss future prospects and discovery potential for solid-state detectors with respect to various low-mass DM candidates, including dark photons, axion-like particles, and lightly-ionizing particles."