The first annual Rosse medal for the finest postgraduate physics research is awarded for the study of data security based on quantum cryptography, writes Dick Ahlstrom.
Communicating science is tough enough without having to throw a subject like quantum mechanics into the mix. But this is exactly what Iris Choi achieved to win the inaugural award of the Rosse Medal for graduate research in physics.
Choi received the Institute of Physics -sponsored award earlier this month from Sir Brendan Parsons, the seventh Earl of Rosse. The Medal is named after Sir William Parsons, the third Earl who is famous for having built in the 1840s what for 75 years remained the largest telescope in the world.
She received her medal at Birr Castle from Sir Brendan while standing under a portrait of Sir William, who with his "Leviathan" telescope was able for the first time to pick out distant galaxies far beyond our own Milky Way.
This morning Science Today is all about the communication of scientific discovery. All of the reports are about making science accessible to the widest audience possible.
More and more students and post graduates are challenged by educational institutions to communicate their discoveries to their peers and to the public. This is a valuable endeavour given the need to help people understand where their tax euro go when invested in scientific research.
The events described here, and others such as AccessScience held last month at University College Dublin are a valuable part of a science student's education.
The Institute of Physics (IOP) competition involved the research efforts of 48 postgrads from 10 institutions from across the island of Ireland. All were asked to prepare a poster explaining their work in clear and understandable terms, explains Dr Sheila Gilheany of the IOP.
Unusually the initial judging was done by the competitors themselves who selected the eight best posters. These researchers then facing an interview by a panel including three physicists and the Countess Rosse.
"I think the hardest part was explaining my research to the Earl and the Countess Rosse," says the competi-tion winner Choi. "She asked a lot of general questions about the research."
Based at University College Cork's Tyndall Institute, Choi couldn't have had a tougher subject to explain, cryptography based on the use of quantum mechanics. "Quantum cryptography is a smart coding scheme for protecting information by using quantum mechanics," she explains. "You really need something that gives you excellent security and quantum cryptography gives you that."
These systems are based on a peculiarity of quantum mechanics, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, which in the world of individual atoms means if you attempt to measure a particle's speed or position, you will change the particle.
In the UCC system this produces "errors" given the change from the original state. "It is based on the idea that you can't measure without creating errors and by counting the number of errors I can tell if there is an eavesdropper," explains Choi.
Quantum cryptography systems already exist, but they are complex and expensive. The UCC group wants to overcome these limitations to allow wider use of the technology.
"Our main concern is can we combine quantum cryptography with conventional channels. We want to incoroprate this with existing systems. You want to make it as cheap and practical as possible," she says. They have succeeded in sending quantum encrypted data over a 38kmlong conventional fibre optic cable, showing that it can be merged with existing technology.
Choi received the inaugural Rosse Medal award for graduate research in physics along with a cheque for €100.
Second place went to Jonathan Anderson of University College Dublin, and third place went to Barry Fitzgerald of University of Limerick. There was also a special visual impact award for the poster prepared by Thejesh Bandi of Cork Institute of Technology. All three received a cash award of €50.