Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, has announced the appointment of Dr Jim Rabeau as Director of the organisation’s new Quantum Technologies Future Science Platform.

The former Professor and Deputy Director of Sydney Nano Institute for Industry, Innovation and Commercialisation, Dr Rabeau will commence at CSIRO on September 6.

Dr Rabeau said he sees opportunities to leverage the breadth and depth of CSIRO’s multidisciplinary capability to grow Australia’s quantum technology expertise.

“The Quantum Technologies Future Science Platform aims to build a quantum technology ecosystem across CSIRO and the broader quantum community,” Dr Rabeau said.

“I’m excited about CSIRO’s entrepreneurial spirit and vision and see great opportunity to amplify quantum technology and continue to establish innovative opportunities for Australian industry”.

Australia’s Chief Scientist, Dr Cathy Foley, who last year as CSIRO’s Chief Scientist led the development of a Quantum Technology Roadmap for Australia, welcomed the news of Dr Rabeau’s appointment.

“Jim is a global leader in quantum technology and knows how to link up research outputs and their application.”

“I am confident that with Jim at the helm of the newly established Quantum Technologies Future Science Platform, CSIRO’s quantum research will be in good hands. I look forward to seeing what is delivered.”

The new Future Science Platform will develop quantum technologies for a range of applications that are aligned with the Modern Manufacturing Priorities as well as in agricultural and environmental applications.  

Initial areas of focus for CSIRO are accelerated drug development, enhanced climate modelling, mineral exploration, materials discovery and sensing and measurement for defence and space.

Dr Rabeau brings a wealth of commercialisation and collaboration experience and is excited about furthering his passion for quantum at CSIRO and driving Australia’s quantum technology sovereign capability.

A past participant of CSIRO’s ON Accelerator program, Dr Rabeau was also a key collaborator on the development of the recent Quantum Technology Roadmap.

He has previously worked at Microsoft and Deloitte and is co-founder and CEO of LuciGem, a quantum technology company that focuses on the use of diamond in quantum and information security applications.