Alby Conlan

I've been sitting at an unusual intersection for a while now, and I think that intersection is exactly what this role needs.

On one side, I'm a Physics student who takes quantum science seriously — thinking carefully about what good research looks like and how it gets done. On the other, I spend time at a quantum VC fund, where the conversation is less about the physics and more about what it means for the world. That gap — between the lab and the market, between the formalism and the stakes — is where I live, and it's where I think the society's research output should operate more deliberately.

My ambition for this role is fairly specific: I want the research we produce to have a point of view. Not neutrally summarising papers, but asking harder questions — what does this result actually change? Who funds this line of inquiry, and why? Where is the field quietly stalling? I come from a Science and Technology Studies background alongside Physics, and that shapes how I read quantum science: never just as technical progress, but as something embedded in institutions, incentives, and assumptions worth interrogating.

I think the society is well-placed to model that kind of intellectual seriousness. I'd like to help build it.