Biography
Prof Muhammad Usman is Head of Quantum Systems and Senior Principal Staff Member at CSIRO’s Data61 which is Australia's National Research Organisation. He has over 15 years of research and teaching experience in the field of quantum computing with a track-record over 125 research papers in high-impact international journals. Prof Usman is leading a team of over 20 researchers working at the forefront of quantum algorithms, quantum software engineering, and quantum security. He is a fellow of the Institute of Physics UK and the Australian Institute of Physics (FAIP). He is a member of the National Committee for Physics with the Australian Academy of Science and serves on the executive editorial boards of international journals ACM Computing Surveys, Springer Nature Quantum Machine Intelligence, IOP Nano Futures and Nature Scientific Reports. He is a committee member of Standards Australia to help in standardisation of quantum technologies and have academic associations at the University of Melbourne, Monash University, and RMIT. Prof Usman was the Chair of Organising Committee (Conference General Chair) of International Conference on Quantum Techniques in Machine Learning 2024 (now a Steering Committee Member). He has delivered numerous invited talks in international conferences and has been invited on several panel discussions at national and international events. His work on Quantum ML was the Winner of the State of Victoria iAward 2024, Innovative of the Year 2023 Award by Defence Industry, Winner of the Australian Army Quantum Technology Challenge in three years in a row (2021, 2022 and 2023), Rising Stars in Computational Materials Science by Elsevier in 2020, and Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research (Early Career) at the University of Melbourne in 2019. Prof Usman is a recipient of prestigious international research fellowships from Fulbright USA (20005-2010) and DAAD Germany in 2010. He has received his PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Purdue University USA in 2010. Prof Usman is a passionate quantum educator and has been promoting quantum education among school children as part of the CSIRO’s STEM Scientists in Schools program.
Other Interests
Quantum Computing, Quantum Machine Learning, Quantum Error Correction, Quantum Optimisation
Academic Qualifications
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2010
PhD
Purdue University USA
Achievements and Awards
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2024-current
Fellow
Australian Institute of Physics -
2024-current
Winner of the State of Victoria 2024 iAward for Innovative Technology Platform
iAwards -
2023-current
Winner Australian Army Quantum Technology Challenge 2023 in Perth
Australian Army -
2022-current
Winner Australian Army Quantum Technology Challenge 2022 in Adelaide
Australian Army -
2021-current
Winner Australian Army Quantum Technology Challenge 2021 in Brisbane
Australian Army -
2005-2010
Fulbright Fellowship
USA State Department -
2010-2010
DAAD Fellowship
DAAD Germany -
2020-2020
Rising Stars in Computational Materials Science Competition by Materials Today
Elsevier -
2026-Current
Fellow
Institute of Physics UK
Current Roles
-
Professor RMIT University
Honorary Affiliation -
Associate Professor University of Melbourne
Honorary Affiliation -
Associate Investigator, ARC Center of Excellence in Quantum Biotechnology (QUBIC), The University of Queensland Brisbane, Australia
Honorary Affiliation -
Partner Investigator, ARC Industry Training Center Future Leaders in Quantum Technology, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
Honorary Affiliation -
Executive Board Member, Australian Institute of Physics
Awards Officer -
Australian Academy of Science
Member National Committee for Physics
Fields of Research
Grants
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2025-2028
Queensland Government Olympics 2032 Challenge $492000
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2025-2028
Australian Defence ASCA Project $2.96 Million
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2025-2028
Queensland Government National Quantum Computing Testbed $6 Million
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2023-2025
Australian Army Quantum Technology Challenge $427000
Community and Corporate Citizenship
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2023-2025
Member Steering Committee and Advisory Committee Next Gen Quantum Graduate Program
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2022-current
Team Leader Quantum Systems
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2023-Current
Member JTC-3 Quantum with Standards Australia representing CSIRO
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2025-current
Editorial Boad Member, Nature Scientific Reports
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2025 -Current
Guest Editor, Quantum Technologies for Healthcare Nature Scientific Reports
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2024-Current
Guest Editor (with Prof Barry Sanders and Dr Christa Zoufal) for QTML 2024 Topical Collection Special Issue, Springer Nature Quantum Machine Intelligence journal
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2021-Current
Executive Editorial Board Member IOP Nano Futures (Leading Nanotechnology in Quantum Computing Strategy and Focus of the journal)
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2022-Current
Guest Editor IOP Nano Futures for Focus on Horizon 2025: Development Trends and Future Challenges in Nanoscience
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2021-2024
Editorial Board Member, IOP Modelling and Simulations in Materials Science and Engineering journal
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2025-2025
Invited International Referee for Research Grant Proposals submitted to the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)
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2024-2024
Invited International Referee for Research Grant Proposals submitted to the US Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Quantum Information Science Enabled Discovery (QUANTISED 2.0) for High Energy Physics
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2024-Current
Member, IBM Quantum Technologies for ‘Healthcare and Life Sciences (HCLS)’ Working Group
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2024-Current
Member, Whole of Government Quantum Network, Department of Industry, Science and Resources (DISR)
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2023-Current
Awards Officer and a Member of the Executive Board of the Australian Institute of Physics (AIP)
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2023-2023
International Referee for Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Alliance Quantum Grant Application