Centre Director Professor Warwick Bowen took to the stage at the annual Churchie Physics Lecture to explore how quantum technologies are poised to transform medicine — and why that future is closer than most people think.

On 12 May, around 300 high school students from across Brisbane gathered at Anglican Church Grammar School (Churchie) for the school’s annual Physics Lecture. This year’s keynote was delivered by QUBIC’s Director, Professor Warwick Bowen, whose talk — How quantum is set to change medicine — traced the journey from the fundamental strangeness of quantum mechanics to its growing role in medical imaging, drug discovery, and brain science.

Warwick opened by grounding students in Quantum 1.0: the first revolution in quantum understanding that already underpins technologies many take for granted — from MRI and PET scans to magnetoencephalography. He then turned to Quantum 2.0, the era we’re now entering, in which scientists are actively engineering quantum phenomena to do things classical technology simply cannot.

“These students are going to inherit a world shaped by quantum technology — and most of them don’t know it yet. If even a few of them walk away wanting to understand the physics behind an MRI machine, or curious about what a quantum computer could mean for drug development, then the evening did exactly what it should.”

— Professor Warwick Bowen, Director, QUBIC

The lecture drew on QUBIC’s three grand challenges: imaging and modelling individual protein molecules in real time, understanding how cell-scale behaviour emerges from molecular interactions, and achieving whole-brain electromagnetic imaging at single-neuron resolution. Warwick illustrated each with concrete examples — from the exponential complexity that makes molecules so hard to simulate, to quantum diamond microscopes and the prospect of next-generation brain scanners affordable enough to reach regional hospitals.

The evening was a strong success. Warwick noted enthusiastic engagement throughout, with students asking questions that reflected genuine curiosity about both the science and its real-world stakes. Elizabeth Jenkins, Head of Physics at Churchie, echoed that sentiment in a note to the Centre afterwards, describing the evening as something students “value enormously” and extending an open invitation for QUBIC to return.

Outreach events like this one are central to QUBIC’s mission — bringing the science of quantum biotechnology out of the lab and into the broader community, and helping the next generation of students see themselves as part of that story.