CSIRO’s Newly Established “Quantum Technologies Future Science Platform” Appoints Dr Jim Rabeau as First Director

(InnovationsAustralia) CSIRO’s newly established Quantum Technologies Future Science Platform has found its first director with the appointment of Dr Jim Rabeau, the former Sydney University professor and deputy director of the Sydney Nano Institute for Industry, Innovation and Commercialisation.
The Future Science Platform program is a multi-year and multi-disciplinary investment in science in areas of specific challenge, and where there is the opportunity to create new industries. They are set up as ‘platforms’ to attract expertise from across the CSIRO and from industry partners.
The focus on Quantum Tech as a Future Science Platform is new for CSIRO and is the result – in part at least – of the work on the agency’s Quantum Technology Roadmap by Australia’s Chief Scientist Cathy Foley, which was published in May 2020.
The Future Science Platform will develop quantum technologies for a range of applications that are aligned with the government’s Modern Manufacturing Priorities, as well as in agricultural and environmental applications.
Its 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.