2026 Science in the Pub - A Quantum Future

This year's Science in the Pub: A Quantum Future, will feature: 

• Entry for self-paced exploration of Questacon’s Quantum Tomorrow: Imagined Futures Exhibit with peers.
• A bar token to redeem for your first drink (alcoholic and non-alcoholic options)!
• Snack foods such as spring rolls, samosas and pumpkin arancini balls (GF,VG)

Presentations will be on:

• The Quantum Tomorrow: Imagined Futures! exhibit by Michaela Ripper, Exhibition Developer, Questacon.
• Quantum entanglement: fundamentals to applications by Dr Sean Hodgman, Quantum Science & Technology, ANU.

The evening begins in Gallery 8 of Questacon, at 6:00pm with presentations commencing at 7:00pm, last drinks by 8:00pm and exit by 8:30pm.

This event is strictly 18+ due to the provision of liquor, and is open to all DISR departmental and portfolio agency staff, and invited guests of staff (incl. partners, family, friends) including but not limited to:

• Anti-Dumping Commission
• ANSTO
• Australian Space Agency
• CSIRO
• Geoscience Australia
• IISA
• IP Australia
• National Measurement Institute
• NOPSEMA
• NRF Corporation
• Office of the Chief Scientist
• All other divisions, sections, taskforces, teams, clubs and amalgamations within DISR!

Please email [email protected] with any recommendations, issues, questions or concerns.

Thank you for your interest in Science in the Pub 2026 and we'll see you there!

More info on presenters:

Michaela Ripper is an Exhibition Developer in Questacon’s Concepts Team. The Concepts Team are the directors, researchers and writers behind Questacon exhibitions. From shaping the initial concept – through to working with subject matter experts and creative partners – they direct how each exhibition will come to life.

Michaela has a background in physics and science communication from the ANU, and more than 12 years’ experience creating learning experiences for audiences of all ages. She recently led the development of Quantum Tomorrow: Imagined Futures and will be sharing a bit about its story – and explain why the exhibition might look a bit different to what you might expect a quantum exhibition to look like!

Dr Sean Hodgman completed his PhD in 2011 at the Australian National University on transition lifetime measurements and correlation experiments using ultracold metastable helium atoms, which was awarded the J.G. Crawford prize for best PhD thesis in the Sciences. He subsequently worked on optical lattice experiments as a postdoc at the Max-Planck Institute of Quantum Optics and Ludwig Maximillian University in Munich from 2012-2015, before returning to ANU on a DECRA fellowship. Since then he has worked at ANU, being awarded a Future Fellowship in 2023.  

Scientific highlights of his career include experimentally showing that negative absolute temperatures were possible, realising many-body localisation, measuring the longest lived neutral atomic state lifetime, verifying momentum entanglement for massive particles and demonstrating ghost imaging using atoms. He has more than 40 peer-reviewed publication which have been cited over 5,000 times.