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Staff Profile

Dr Jonte Hance

Lecturer in Applied Quantum Foundations, Interim AMBER Group Lead, and EPSRC Quantum Technologies Career Acceleration Fellow

Background

I'm currently a Lecturer in Applied Quantum Foundations, and the Interim Group Lead for the AMBER Research Group, in the School of Computing at Newcastle University. I'm also an Honorary Lecturer in the Dept of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Bristol. I have a PhD in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, and an MSci in Physics and Philosophy, both from the University of Bristol. After my PhD, I spent 11 months as a Phoenix Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Hiroshima University before starting at Newcastle.

I have published 21 articles so far, in high-impact journals (such as Nature Physics, npj Quantum Information, and Quantum Science and Technology). I have served as a peer reviewer over 60 times for various academic journals, and am part of the grant Peer Review Colleges for the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the British Council. I've also published two Opinion pieces (one in Physics World, one in Quantum Views), and contributed to the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology's recent POSTnote on Quantum Computing, Sensing, and Communications. I am on the Editorial Board for the UK Institute of Physics (IOP)'s Journal of Physics Communications, and am a Guest Editor for the IOP's Journal of Physics: Photonics's Focus Issue on Photonics for Quantum Foundations. I am co-Chair for the IOP's upcoming flagship conference, Photon 2026, and am on the Conference Organising Committee for the IOP's QuAMP 2025. I am on the Executive Committee for the American Physical Society's Forum for Diversity and Inclusion (FDI), and on the Group Committee for the IOP's Quantum Optics, Quantum Information, and Quantum Control (QQQ) Group.

I have just been awarded an EPSRC Quantum Technologies Career Acceleration Fellowship (worth £1.7 million fEC, plus £275k promised in-kind contributions from Project Partners), which I will hold at 50% FTE from 2025-2030. I will be using this to begin building my own research group, the Applied Quantum Foundations Lab, within the AMBER Group in the School of Computing.

Research

I research at the intersection of quantum foundations and quantum technologies: using quantum foundations to uncover new phenomena that can be used to develop new quantum technologies, and using quantum technologies to experimentally test models proposed in quantum foundations.

Most quantum technologies were originally based on quantum foundational work. For instance, quantum key distribution was developed from the uncertainty principle and no-cloning theorem, quantum computation (by Deutsch’s own account) was developed from quantum parallelism and interference, and quantum metrology was developed from consideration of quantum measurement and back action, and the leveraging of entanglement and squeezing.

My work contributes to the underpinning science of quantum technologies, showing how quantum foundational ideas can be adapted into quantum technological applications. It also shows quantum technologies can benefit quantum foundations – how these technologies can be utilised to test foundational hypotheses and demonstrate foundational principles. Therefore, this work demonstrates the interplay between quantum foundations and quantum technologies.

Worldwide, there is currently a race to develop useful quantum technologies. The fact that all quantum technologies were initially based on theoretical quantum foundational work illustrates how critically important quantum foundational research is, and why foundational work is necessary if we want to develop truly new quantum technologies (rather than just making short-term minor enhancements to current technologies).

Teaching

Here at Newcastle University, I teach on the BSc Computer Science's Stage 2 (second-year) module CSC2034: Introducing Contemporary Topics in Computing, for which I run the Quantum Computing topic, plus teach academic skills (how to research, how to do academic writing, how to read an academic paper, etc). I am also the Module Leader for our new module CSC3132: Introduction to Quantum Computing (returning Semester 1 2025/26), and am developing a new module on Quantum Algorithms (CSC3133).

I currently supervise a PhD candidate, Viktorija Bezganovic, as well as 3 MSc Advanced Computer Science students for their Project and Dissertation (CSC8499), and 3 final-year BSc Computer Science students for their Project and Dissertation (CSC3094). I have previously supervised two MSc Computer Science students for their Project and Dissertation (CSC8099), and one PhD student, James Byrne, for his three-month first-year project at the University of Bristol's Centre for Doctoral Training in Quantum Engineering. I have also co-supervised 7 final-year BSc Psychology students cross-faculty for their Empirical Project (PSY3097) with my collaborator Dr Barbara-Anne Robertson. I was one of the American Physical Society's 2023/24 cohort of Career Mentoring Fellows, and continue mentoring undergraduate and high-school students through the APS.

At the University of Bristol, I served as a Graduate Teacher Level 1 and 2 (Teaching Assistant) for over 400 hours on 8 separate units across the School of Physics, Department of Engineering Mathematics and Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. This included significant solo teaching in mathematics for physicists and engineers, and in quantum mechanics and quantum information. While doing this, I passed the PGCert Academic Practice unit AFACM0019: Engaging Higher Education Students in their Learning (University of Bristol, 30 credits), earning Associate Fellowship of the UK's Advance-HE.

Within the School of Computing, I am the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Lead for Students, and the Staff Facilitator for the Student-Staff Committee (SSC).

Publications