Getting physical: IOP director talks skills to boost next-gen quantum

Institute of Physics director of science Louis Barson talks to SiliconRepublic.com about the UK’s quantum revolution and the value of a physics education.

For Louis Barson, director of science, business and education at the UK’s Institute of Physics (IOP), the second quantum revolution – which he thinks will be “transformative” – may be coming “a bit faster than most expected” and he for one is excited.

Barson says next-generation quantum will be transformative for areas such as drug discovery, sensors and materials, and for solving problems that are beyond today’s supercomputers.

The first quantum revolution enabled our digital age, Barson says. Technologies such as semiconductors, lasers and optical fibre all rely on quantum principles that were first introduced 100 years ago.

In fact, 1925 holds such significance for quantum science that the UN declared 2025 the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology to mark the anniversary. There were “hints” about quantum physics in the early part of the last century but 1925 “was when there was a flurry of results that really established quantum theory as a new theory”, DIAS quantum researcher Dr Shane Dooley told us earlier this year.

“Quantum technologies are already solving real-world problems in transport, healthcare, communications and finance,” Barson says.

And while practical quantum computing may still be a few years away, “the horizon seems to be shrinking”.

Barson predicts that in the next 10 years, we’ll see quantum computing move from the lab to practical deployment, while laying the foundations for “full-scale” technologies.

“As quantum technology comes of age, we’re seeing a whole new industry emerge.”

Examples of how the sector has been growing rapidly in recent years can be seen with the record-breaking fundraising of US-based PsiQuantum and Finland’s IQM, alongside key technology developments at quantum organisations around the world.

Based at University College Dublin, Equal1 uses existing semiconductor tech to develop cheaper, scalable quantum machines. The start-up claims its six-qubit Bell-1 is the first-ever Irish-made quantum computer, and its CEO is aiming for the start-up to be the “Nvidia of quantum” by the end of the decade.

For his part, Barson highlights the innovations of some of the UK’s most successful quantum companies as particularly interesting. For example, he talks about Oxford Ionics – which was recently acquired by US-based IonQ in a $1bn deal – that aims to develop silicon fabrication methods for quantum chips, and UK and US-owned Quantinuum that is developing quantum computing applications for cybersecurity and software and recently raised $600m.

“There are many businesses just as exciting coming through in sensing, imaging and communications – many with market-ready solutions,” Barson says.

“It’s interesting that what makes quantum computing difficult is that it’s difficult to keep particles in quantum states – they love to interact with their environment and ‘decohere’ or lose their quantum nature.

“And that’s exactly what makes them really effective sensors. So many of the applications we’re seeing come to market soonest are in sensing, imaging or positioning,” he says.

“There are lots of health applications for that: everything from more accessible brain scanning to more effective cancer detection. Similar principles can allow you to create better scans of the world beneath our feet.

“What excites me most is that these companies aren’t just demonstrating technical breakthroughs; they’re showing how quantum can start to deliver real-world impact and commercial value,” Barson says.

Developing skills for the next generation of quantum

Before joining the IOP, Barson was a senior civil servant in the UK, where he worked on growing what he calls the UK’s “future sectors” – areas such as AI, smart robotics and quantum. He was involved in shaping policies for these emerging sectors, and worked on bringing industry and research together, supporting UK businesses to engage with major international science facilities including CERN, ITER and Square Kilometre Array.

“For me, the excitement has always been about connecting brilliant ideas to real-world impact.”

This policy background makes him well-placed to understand and find solutions to challenges that the quantum sector is facing.

One area of need is quantum skills.

Barson says there is definitely a skills gap in the UK and Ireland, “with demand for talent growing faster than the supply of trained specialists at every level”.

He says that the only way to grow the quantum sector in the UK and Ireland is to ensure “people have the essential skills to drive innovation through research and development”.

The IOP has a role to play in this. Barson says the organisation works to highlight the scale of the challenge and also champions physics education and training, and helps to connect students, researchers and industry to “build the workforce needed to realise the potential of quantum technologies”.

He says the recent establishment of five quantum research hubs as part of the UK’s National Quantum Technologies Programme are “generating significant momentum” in terms of skills development, industry-research collaboration and targeted innovation funding. Each hub focuses on different areas of quantum research, including communications networks, navigation and timing systems for critical national infrastructure and quantum sensors for early disease diagnosis.

The UK’s National Quantum Strategy, published in 2023, includes the aim to train more than 1,000 PhD researchers in quantum or a related field in the next decade and included setting up a Quantum Skills Taskforce to work with industry to develop a skills action plan.

For Barson, though, the work of plugging the quantum skills gap must start way earlier than postgraduate education.

“The start of this skills pipeline is in school physics lessons – as it is for so many physics-powered industries.”

A new report from the IOP calls on the UK government to invest £120m over the next decade to train the next generation of physics teachers and tackle the STEM skills gap. About 25pc of state schools in the UK don’t have a physics teacher who is a specialist in the subject.

“Physics is a high-value sector with an enormous potential for growth in new physics-powered industries such as quantum and photonics which require physics skills,” wrote IOP learning and skills VP Judith Hillier in the report.

“In 2019, physics-based industries contributed £190bn to the economy in England, employing 2.23m roles across the nation, 1.3m of which are physics related. However, those businesses are finding it difficult to recruit.

“The primary route to addressing this dearth of skills is to improve the chances for an additional third of a million students per year to succeed in physics at GCSE level.”

The report calls for a 10-year plan to recruit, retain and retrain physics teachers to boost the subject’s uptake and student success rate in schools.

Ireland is also suffering from teacher shortages across the board, including in STEM subjects, with more than 1,800 teaching posts remaining vacant before the school year this summer.

Barson sees the growth of quantum technology as a great example of the ways that people with physics skills can create “amazing value for society” and hopes that this inspires more people to get interested in the subject.

“Physics shapes our understanding of the world around – and is vital to solving our biggest challenges, from tackling the climate emergency to diagnosing and treating diseases more accurately and quickly.

“So, I hope that in raising awareness of the potential of quantum technology we will also help people realise how important physics is to the world – and something that everyone, no matter your background, can and should be getting involved with.”

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