28-06-2025
Dr Sally Shrapnel became one of Australia's leading scientists in her area after taking a quantum leap
After more than two decades as a general practitioner, Sally Shrapnel took a quantum leap to become a full-time physicist.
Based at the University of Queensland, she's since become one of Australia's leading quantum scientists.
Before transitioning to science full-time, Dr Shrapnel split her week between working as a doctor and writing her PhD on exploring the mysteries behind quantum theory.
The associate professor's interest in the fundamental laws of the universe began at a young age.
Dr Shrapnel grew up in a house full of science fiction books and would devour each one at a rapid pace.
Her favourite book from her childhood was John Wyndham's 1960 Trouble with Lichen, which centred around a young female biochemist.
"I was about eight or nine [years old] when I read that, but just this idea of a female scientist was pretty cool," Dr Shrapnel said.
Her curiosity about how the world worked and a desire to find scientific explanations continued into adulthood.
Dr Shrapnel had planned to be a radiologist, but while studying for her radiology exam, she fell in love with working as a GP in the small regional town of Bothwell in Tasmania.
"It was the first time I got to ... really put into practice all the stuff I'd learnt," she said.
Her career as a general practitioner led to her working across Tasmania, Queensland, and the United Kingdom.
But while she enjoyed the social side of working as a doctor, she was missing the "techie" aspects of science.
Dr Shrapnel, who now hopes to inspire the next generation of female scientists, decided she had "a bit more space in her brain" to take on further study once her "two beautiful boys" started primary school.
While working as a GP, Dr Shrapnel said she had to explain complex scientific ideas in simple terms for her patients to understand.
"I was really kind of fascinated by the nature of scientific explanation," she said.
"It led me to kind of be wondering, 'What is it about the world that makes scientific explanation true? Why do we believe in science?'
Dr Shrapnel returned to university in her early 40s, when she enrolled into a diploma in philosophy at the University of Queensland.
During her studies, she learnt there were well-developed philosophical theories around why we believe scientific explanations are true, but "all of them had this little footnote that says, 'except for quantum theory'".
To her, that seemed to be saying "quantum theory we can't [or] we don't understand … let's just ignore that bit", she said.
"I was like, 'Wow, this is some part of science that we use [in practice] ... we're building quantum computers, and yet there's all these mysteries around why it's true'."
A fascination with wanting to understand those mysteries led her to complete a PhD in quantum theory.
"[It's] our most fundamental theory ... [the] physical theory of how the world works," she said.
While studying, Dr Shrapnel continued to split her time, spending three days as a GP and then two days working on her PhD, exploring the quantum world.
Now working full-time as a physicist, her research explores how quantum principles can inform and potentially improve artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.
She is developing new algorithms and theoretical frameworks that could one day inform and potentially improve AI, including in areas such as healthcare decision-making.
This year marks 100 years since the quantum revolution began and some say it's a theory that's as important to the understanding of the world as Charles Darwin's theory of evolution was.
The United Nations (UN) marked the occasion by declaring 2025 to be the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology.
Quantum technology is used in smart phones, medical imaging, manufacturing and elsewhere.
Until recently, Dr Shrapnel was the deputy director of the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems (EQUS), which officially ended in May.
Dr Shrapnel described Australia as the "quiet achiever" in the field.
During its time, scientists at EQUS developed the world's first focused research program on systems engineering in the quantum regime, according to its website.
It connected and supported academics from UQ, the University of Sydney, Macquarie University, the Australian National University and the University of Western Australia.
This year marked the end of EQUS's maximum 14-year funding term, but Dr Shrapnel said its legacy will live on through its alumni, including a group of impressive female scientists.
The centre has resulted in 10 startups and its alumni have gone on to lead quantum ventures across Australia and internationally.
That includes stand-out Iceberg Quantum, which has secured $2 million in pre-seed funding, and is partnering with global quantum computing leader PsiQuantum.
"Redback Systems, another EQUS spin-out, created a compact, highly accurate light sensor called a spectrometer, now used by scientists and companies around the world," Dr Shrapnel said.
Dr Shrapnel and her fellow researchers describe EQUS's closure as "the end of the beginning".
And she said its legacy goes beyond the science.
"If there's anything that came out of EQUS that I'm most proud of, it's we've got this cohort of incredible women who [are] really well set up to lead Australia into the next quantum revolution," Dr Shrapnel said.
"There were very few females in physics back in 2011. But our initiatives have drawn these incredible, talented women from all around the world."
Dr Shrapnel said she is now living the life she had read about as a child.
"It's like you get to be a sci-fi novelist and then try to provide the mathematical justification for your seemingly crazy ideas," she said.
Her advice to young aspiring female scientists is not to be intimidated by quantum science.
In fact, she characterised it as the "most exciting and interesting area of science that you can work in".
