Professor Winston Seah receives research fellowship.

Professor Winston Seah has been awarded a James Cook Research Fellowship in Engineering Sciences and Technology.

The fellowship, managed by the Royal Society Te Apārangi, comes with annual funding of $110,000 and is one of three James Cook Research Fellowships awarded this year.

Professor Seah has received the award for his research on designing new protocols for the Quantum Internet—a network of quantum computing devices, future generation ‘supercomputers’.

Quantum computing relies on the “quantum bit”. This bit can’t be copied without being detected, making it extremely attractive for security applications. However, the fact it can’t be copied also means it can’t use existing telecommunications technologies.

Professor Seah’s research will include developing new algorithms and protocols for connecting quantum network devices, potentially unlocking networking capacity many times larger than what’s currently possible.

Since 2009, Professor Seah has been the professor of network engineering at Victoria University of Wellington. He specialises in developing telecommunications networks for use in tricky environments and was the first person to propose using drones to enhance connectivity in underwater networks.

He has also developed networking protocols for wireless sensor networks powered by ambient energy, allowing them to be used for long periods when it’s not practical to change batteries.

James Cook Research Fellowships are given to researchers at the height of their careers, allowing them to undertake study or research in their field of expertise for two years.

Further details about the 2022 recipients are available on the Royal Society’s website.