Michelle Simmons

Early life and education Simmons was born on 14 July 1967 in London, to a mother who worked as a bank manager and a father who worked as a policeman. Simmons grew up in South-East London with an older brother.

Between 1985 and 1988 she undertook her undergraduate degree at Trevelyan College, Durham University, where she studied physics and chemistry of materials.

As a postgraduate at St Aidan's College, Durham she was awarded a PhD in 1992 for her thesis "The characterisation of CdTe-based epitaxial solar cell structures fabricated by MOVPE", with research supervised by Andrew W. Brinkman.

Career and research From 1992 to 1998

In 1999, she was awarded an Australian Research Council (ARC) QEII Fellowship and went to Australia, conducting research for four years under this fellowship.

Simmons founded Silicon Quantum Computing, a Sydney based quantum computing company, in 2017 and is the current CEO.

She has held several other positions over the course of her career, including:

In 2025 Simmons was elected to the Board of Directors of the Tech Council of Australia.

Achievements Simmons is well-known internationally for creating the field of atomic electronics, that is, building electronic devices at the atomic scale. Her research team at ARC created the first precision single atom transistor and the narrowest conducting wires in silicon, among other achievements. and the narrowest conducting doped wires in silicon.

Publications and other activities

Simmons has published over 450 peer-reviewed journal papers, amassing over 13,000 citations, written five book chapters, and published a book on nanotechnology.

She has also filed 44 patents and delivered over 400 invited and plenary presentations at international conferences.

She gave the Australia Day address for New South Wales in 2017, in which she spoke about the importance of setting high expectations for students.

Simmons delivered the 2023 Boyer Lecture in four parts, titled The Atomic Revolution.

Recognition and awards 1999: Australian Research Council QEII Fellowship 2004: Australian Research Council Federation Fellowship 2005: Australian Academy of Science's Pawsey Medal 2006: Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (FAA) 2009: Australian Research Council Federation Fellowship 2011: NSW Scientist of the Year (named by the NSW Government Office of the Chief Scientist & Engineer) 2013: Australian Laureate Fellowship, Australian Research Council 2014: Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 2015: Thomas Ranken Lyle Medal 2015: Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (FTSE) 2015: Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology, Foresight Institute, for the fabrication of single-atom transistors 2017: Profiled in a short documentary on France24 TV 2018: Australian of the Year, for her work in quantum physics 2018: Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) 2019: Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) as part of the 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours 2020: Chair, Division of Quantum Information, American Physical Society 2023: Erna Hamburger Prize 2026: Promoted to Companion of the Order of Australia in the 2026 Australia Day Honours.

, Simmons was an elected trustee of Sydney Grammar School.

Personal life and views Simmons has resided in Australia since 1999, taking citizenship in 2007.

She is married to Thomas Barlow, formerly, a Financial Times columnist and a Fellow of MIT and Balliol College, Oxford, now a novelist and business analyst. They have three children. She says she enjoys "planning expeditions and keeping fit. But the thing that brings me the most joy is my funny husband and three adorable children".