Biography:

Professor Muhammad Usman will start as the Professor of Quantum Computing at the Faculty of Information Technology Monash University Australia in September 2026. From 2022 to 2026, Professor Usman was the Head of Quantum Systems and Senior Principal Staff Member at CSIRO 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 135 research papers in high-impact international journals. Professor Usman is leading a team of over 20 researchers working at the forefront of quantum algorithms, quantum software engineering, and quantum security. Professor Usman's lab is developing real-world applications for Quantum Computing which involves innovative new algorithms for transport/logistics optimisation for Olympics games, early stage medical diagnostics for fatal diseases such as cancer , and secure autonomous systems for self-driving vehicles and robotic military weapons.   

Professor Usman is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics UK (FInstP) and the Australian Institute of Physics (FAIP), and he is a Member of the National Committee for Physics with Australian Academy of Science. He is presently serving on the Editorial Boards of several international journals including 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 the standardisation of quantum technologies and have honorary academic affiliations at the University of Melbourne, Monash University, and RMIT. 

Professor Usman was the Chair of Organising Committee (Conference General Chair) of prestigious International Conference on Quantum Techniques in Machine Learning 2024 (now a Steering Committee Member). He has delivered over 50 invited/keynote talks in major international conferences and has been invited on 25 panel discussions at national and international events. His work on Quantum Artificial Intelligence 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 consecutive years (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. Professor Usman is a recipient of prestigious international research fellowships from Fulbright USA (20005-2010) and DAAD Germany in 2010. 

Professor Usman has a distinguished International standing which is reflected by his positions as Executive Editorial Board memberships and multiple guest editor roles at prestigious international journals. He has also frequently invited by international funding agencies to serve as a Referee which includes the US Department of Energy (DOE), Swiss National Science Foundation, NSERC Canada, and the Dutch Research Council. As such, he is a Global Science Citizen, making a strong impact in research, strategy and policy related to the field of Quantum Computing across Australia, Europe and North America.

Professor Usman has received his PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Purdue University USA in 2010. He 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.

Past Supervisors:

2014-2018       Lloyd C.L. Hollenberg (University of Melbourne, VIC Australia) -- Personal Web, Google Scholar

2010-2014       Eoin P. O'Reilly (Tyndall National Institute, Cork Ireland) -- Personal Web, Google-Scholar

2005-2010       Gerhard Klimeck (Purdue University, Indiana, USA) -- Personal Web, Google-Scholar