Wednesday 01 July 2026: The Ramsay Postgraduate Scholarship distinguishes itself through its unique multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional approach, offering an exceptional pathway for future leaders, innovators and change makers to reach their potential and create a lasting impact in Australia and beyond.
In the scientific space, we have supported an exceptional group of physicists and chemists, all helping to unlock the fundamental secrets of our universe and push the frontiers of inquiry and innovation.
2022 Scholar Pablo Bonilla is a quantum scientist and University of Sydney medallist, studying a PhD in Theoretical Physics at Harvard, from which he is expected to graduate in November. His research focuses on quantum computing, specifically quantum error correction – the field devoted to making quantum computers reliable enough to solve practically important problems.
“While quantum computers have enormous theoretical potential, they remain extremely susceptible to errors, making fault tolerance one of the central challenges in the field,” Pablo says. “Working closely with the experimental neutral-atom quantum computing team in Professor Mikhail Lukin’s group at Harvard, my research develops new architectures and error-correction techniques that help bridge the gap between theoretical ideas and experimentally realizable quantum computers.”
During his PhD, Pablo has published between fifteen to twenty research papers, including several in Nature and other leading journals, contributing to advances that bring practical, fault-tolerant quantum computing closer to reality.
“Earlier this year, I was honoured to receive Harvard’s Goldhaber Prize, awarded to the University’s outstanding graduate student in physics. As part of this recognition, I was invited to attend a dinner with Nobel Prize-winning physicist Giorgio Parisi. I’ve also had the opportunity to present my research at leading international conferences, including the APS Global Physics Summit and the Quantum Innovation Conference in Japan, where I shared recent advances in quantum error correction with researchers from around the world.”
“The Ramsay Scholarship played a significant role in making this journey possible. Beyond the financial support, it gave me the freedom to pursue ambitious research opportunities overseas, collaborate with world-leading scientists, and focus on tackling fundamental problems in quantum computing. I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunities it has opened and for the community it introduced me to.”
2021 Scholar Matthew Blacker was part of the inaugural Ramsay cohort, and completed a Masters in Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge. That opened the door to subsequently win a Gates Scholarship and continue onto a PhD in Theoretical Physics at Cambridge starting in 2022.
Whilst completing his PhD studying quantum gravity, he directed the 2023 Gates Orientation program, a week-long program facilitating leadership development and interdisciplinary discussions for 80 scholars around the world. He also captained the Cambridge Marathon and Cross-Country Mob Match teams multiple times and worked with the charity The Lord’s Taverners, which improves the lives of young people across England through life skills and sports workshops.
Matthew recently submitted his PhD, and in September will move to the Institute for Theoretical Physics, Madrid as a postdoctoral researcher; continuing investigations into quantum gravity, studying how quantum theories can probe the interior regions of black holes.
“Ramsay opened the door to me studying in England and accessing the field of quantum gravity which was out of reach in Australia. Being part of the inaugural cohort was a unique chance to help establish the culture of the scholar’s community,” Matthew says.
The most recent cohort of Ramsay Postgraduate Scholars included Alexandra Mort, a physical chemist from Sydney, and Jesse Woods, a theoretical physicist from the Sunshine Coast, Queensland.
2025 Scholar Alexandra Mort is in her first year undertaking a Doctor of Philosophy in Physical and Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Oxford.
With a primary research focus on rational design, Alexandra is currently investigating the way anisotropy and aperiodicity of shape and orientation at microscopic scale impacts macroscopic and long-range material properties. Solidly in the development stages of her project, Alexandra has been focusing on experimental design and protocol and is excitingly hoping to realize her novel systems in the next couple of months. She is hopeful that her structural synthesis is successful and will have properties highly desired within the photonics and the renewable energy sectors as predicted.
On top of her studies, Alexandra has been an active member of the Oxford and St Edmund Hall Community, for which she has organised multiple fundraising events and raised a significant amount of money for Parkinson’s UK.
“For me, this is the heart of the Ramsay Postgraduate Scholarship; supporting young individuals so they can thrive in their academic and professional careers whilst still maintaining an active involvement in social and community-based endeavours,” Alexandra says.
“I am especially thankful to the Ramsay Centre for the unique leadership opportunities provided to me. These sessions have enabled me to think outside my immediate research and see the impact I can have within both the STEM community and wider Australian community.”
2025 Scholar Jesse Woods is currently nearing the midpoint of his PhD at the Albert Einstein Centre for Fundamental Physics, University of Bern.
His topic of research is “Gauge Theory at Large Charge.” Gauge theories are the mathematics used to describe the forces of nature. In materials like superconductors or protons, forces are so strong that our usual tools are ineffective. Studying these systems when they carry a very large charge is an exciting new technique to understand the behaviour of strongly interacting quantum matter.
During his PhD, Jesse has travelled throughout Europe to attend schools and conferences on cutting-edge topics in mathematics and theoretical physics.
“Being located so centrally to many leading institutions in Europe has been invaluable for honing my skills and absorbing as much as I can from world experts. I wouldn’t have this extremely enriching opportunity without the life-altering generosity of the Ramsay Centre,” Jesse says.
“For instance, at the beginning of this year, I visited CERN in Geneva to learn about black holes, gauge dynamics, and string field theory. I also visited the ALICE detector, which studies collisions of nuclei in the ultra-relativistic energies produced by the Large Hadron Collider. In April, I published the first research paper of my PhD, in which we studied the behaviour of defects and impurities with large charge in superconductors. We obtained new results about rigid superconductors and disproved a long-standing claim about the onset of superconductivity.”
“In May, I was invited to present my research as a poster in Athens at Eurostrings, an annual conference gathering researchers from across Europe and beyond, working on string theory, gauge/gravity duality, quantum gravity and quantum field theories, and the relations among them. As a Ramsay Scholar, it was especially meaningful to discuss fundamental questions in physics in a city so deeply connected to the intellectual foundations of Western civilisation, with the Parthenon standing in view above us as a quiet reminder of that legacy.”
2023 Ramsay Postgraduate Scholar Stuart Nicholls, a quantum physicist from Adelaide, used his scholarship to study a Master of Advanced Study in Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge.
Since completing his Masters, Stuart has commenced a PhD in quantum computing at the University of Sydney, supported by a Westpac Future Leaders’ Scholarship. He is currently in London, as part of a three-month research visit at University College London. Right after finishing at Cambridge, he spent a month hiking the Kungsleden (King’s Trail), a 440km trail through the mountains in northern Sweden.
Stuart says the Ramsay Scholarship made his dream to study at Cambridge possible.
“The Ramsay Scholarship gave me the chance to immerse myself in a very intense and very focused year of theoretical physics at the University of Cambridge,” Stuart says.
“I took inspiration from living and studying in the same place as many great physicists like Newton and Maxwell, and also from the talented people that I met. I learned a lot which is useful for my research now and pushed my academic abilities to the limit. I’m grateful to the Ramsay Centre for funding my course which I wouldn’t have been able to do without their support.”
Are you a scientist interested in a Ramsay Postgraduate Scholarship?
Our scholarships support young Australian leaders to study at the world’s best overseas universities and are valued at up to AUD$100,000 p.a.
For more information visit: https://ramsaypostgradscholarship.com/
Media contact: Sarah Switzer 0407 816 098 / sarah.switzer@ramsaycentre.org