Tuesday, 13 October 2026 04:00pm
The Tayarisha Initiative on Digital Governance, hosted by the Wits School of Governance, invites you to a public lecture by Dr Ilana Wisby titled "Governing Emerging Technologies: Preparing States for Quantum Futures". Professor Andrew Forbes, Director of the South African Quantum Technology Initiative (SA QuTI), will be the respondent.
- Date: Tuesday, 13 October 2026
- Time: 16:00–17:30 SAST (registration and arrivals from 15:30)
- Venue: Lecture Theatre 1, First Floor, Bert Wessels Building, Wits Management Campus, No.2 St Davids Place, Parktown
ABOUT THE LECTURE
Every government now has a quantum strategy. Far fewer have a plan for the decisions quantum will force on them, and most of those decisions are not about physics. Drawing from her decade inside the technology, first as a physicist and then as founding CEO of Oxford Quantum Circuits, Dr Ilana Wisby explores what states must get right as quantum moves out of the laboratory into procurement, regulation, and national planning. Reflecting on the UK's experience of building a national quantum programme, she makes a case that speaks directly to South Africa: the countries that do best will not necessarily build the technology first, but will build the capacity to judge it, buy it well, and regulate it.
REGISTRATION
Please register by Friday, 9 October 2026 at:
https://wits-za.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Qyq7Yb_NR7idhBu4DSXIiQ
Dr Ilana Wisby is a quantum physicist and the founding CEO of Oxford Quantum Circuits (OQC), which she led from 2017 to 2024, growing the team to around 130 people across three countries and raising over $100m to build full-stack quantum computers. She is now an Entrepreneur in Residence at Cambridge Innovation Capital, an Entrepreneur in Residence and Science Advisory Board member at the UK's National Physical Laboratory, and a non-executive director of SpinOr. Through her own firm, ISW Advisory, she advises investors and governments on quantum strategy and emerging technology preparedness, as she readies her next venture.
Professor Andrew Forbes is a Distinguished Professor in the School of Physics at the University of the Witwatersrand, where he established a structured light laboratory in 2015. He is Director of SA QuTI and Editor-in-Chief of APL Photonics. His research focuses on structured light and its applications. He is a Fellow of SPIE, Optica, PIERS and the South African Institute of Physics, and an elected member of the Academy of Science of South Africa. His honours include the Alexander von Humboldt Georg Forster Prize and Fellowship and the Sang Soo Lee Award. Listed among Clarivate's Highly Cited Researchers, he also communicates science through public articles, television and radio.
For event enquiries, please contact:
Zibusiso Manzini-Moyo: Zibusiso.Manzini-Moyo@wits.ac.za
