Imperial's Institute for Mathematical Sciences opens up seminars to global audience<em> - News Release</em>
Imperial College London News Release
For immediate use
Monday 8 January 2007
Scientists based in Imperial College London's Institute for Mathematical Sciences are revolutionising the way they deliver their seminars with the launch of QILive – a new scheme which will see quantum information seminars being broadcast live on the internet, for academic audiences worldwide.
Quantum Information Live launches today at 17.00 GMT with a talk by Professor Gerard Milburn from the University of Queensland, Australia. The team behind the project hopes to transmit all of the seminars and workshops being run by Imperial's Quantum Information research group – approximately one every week during College term time. In the coming weeks, seminars will be given by both researchers from Imperial and across the UK, as well as leading academics visiting from institutions overseas. These include Dr Jens Siewert from Regensburg University, Germany, and Professors Vladimir Buzek from the Slovak Academy of Sciences Bratislava and Sandu Popescu from Bristol University, both leading figures in quantum information.
Professor Martin Plenio from Imperial's Department of Physics and the Institute for Mathematical Sciences said: "QILive is really a new initiative in the field of quantum information. It will allow academics from around the world to 'take part' in our research group's seminars by listening and watching, but we are also inviting the audience to participate by submitting questions. This will give large groups of scientists and researchers the unique opportunity to share ideas on groundbreaking topics without the need for costly and environmentally-unsound international travel.
"What's more, QILive also stands to benefit our academic colleagues working in the physics and mathematics departments of universities in developing countries, where resources may not be available for overseas trips to share ideas and discuss recent breakthroughs in our field.
"My PhD student Oscar Dahlsten and Faculty of Natural Sciences web manager Tom Johnson have done an excellent job overcoming various obstacles along the way to turn our initial idea into reality."
The inaugural QILive seminar given today by Professor Milburn will focus on nanotechnology and so-called quantum electromechanical systems. These are very small nano-fabricated systems such as cantilevers that may vibrate mechanically. Such devices may for example be used for extremely sensitive force measurements or to scan surfaces with atom scale sensitivity.
Anybody wishing to view this and other live seminar broadcasts should go to www.imperial.ac.uk/quantuminformation and click on the Quantum Information Live icon. All seminars broadcast will be archived following transmission and made available to download on the same website, for people whose internet connection is not fast enough to support the live transmission.
For more information please contact:
Danielle Reeves, Imperial College London Press Office,
Tel: +44 (0)20 7594 2198
Mob: +44 (0)7803 886248
Email: danielle.reeves@imperial.ac.uk
Notes to Editors:
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