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Governance & Support Team

The IYQ Secretariat

The Secretariat served as the primary operational body responsible for coordinating and managing activities related to the International Year. Its mandate includes overseeing the implementation of endorsed initiatives, managing the IYQ Global Coordination Fund held at the American Physical Society (APS), and serving as the central communication hub for stakeholders. 

The Secretariat was jointly provided by UNESCO and APS. Its day-to-day operations are led by a Global Coordination Bureau comprising officers with specific expertise relevant to the mission and oversight of IYQ activities.

  • Global Coordination Bureau: Claudia Fracchiolla, Mark Elsesser, Joe Niemela, and Paul Cadden-Zimansky.
  • Advisory Officers: John Dudley and Ana María Cetto.
  • Secretariat Support Staff: Yewande Lewis, Jackie Billek, and additional APS staff involved in IYQ.
  • Lead Fundraisers:  Marsha Maxwell and Kevin Kase
  • Program Managers:  Cesar Rodriguez and Brianne Wheeler
  • UNESCO Team: Amal Kasry and Jing Zhao

The IYQ Steering committee

The Steering Committee served as the high-level decision-making body of the initiative. Its governance structure was designed to connect scientific leadership with multilateral policy dialogue. Reflecting this dual mandate, the Committee is led by two Co-Chairs, one representing the global scientific community and one representing the international and multilateral policy community, ensuring both technical credibility and policy relevance.

The Steering Committee was responsible for reviewing and approving proposals for major global events, authorizing significant expenditures from the Global Fund, and endorsing strategic reports. Its composition includes representatives from six Founding Partners, the American Physical Society (APS), the German Physical Society (DPG), Optica, SPIE, the Chinese Optical Society (COS), and the Institute of Physics (IOP), along with distinguished experts appointed through consultation with UNESCO and partner organizations.

  • Co-Chair: Sir Peter Knight – Senior Research Investigator, Imperial College London; Chair, UK National Quantum Technology Programme Strategic Advisory Board; Optica.
  • Co-Chair: Rosario Fazio – Head, Condensed Matter and Statistical Physics Section, UNESCO-ICTP; Director, Trieste Institute for Quantum Technologies (TQT).
  • Aba Andam – Fellow and Past President, Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences.
  • Louis Barson – Director of Science, Innovation and Skills, Institute of Physics (IOP).
  • Hyoung Joon Choi – President, Association of Asia Pacific Physical Societies (AAPPS); Professor, Yonsei University.
  • Silvina Ponce Dawson – President, IUPAP; Professor, University of Buenos Aires & Higher Researcher at CONICET, Argentina.
  • John Doyle – Past-President, American Physical Society (APS); Henry B. Silsbee Professor of Physics, Harvard University.
  • Emily Edwards – Co-leader, US National Q-12 Education Partnership; Associate Research Professor, Duke University.
  • Jon Felbinger – Deputy Director, Quantum Economic Development Consortium (QED-C).
  • Andrew Forbes – Distinguished Professor of Physics, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
  • Bo Gu – Founder/President/CTO, Bos Photonics; Chinese Optical Society (COS).
  • Taeghwan Hyeon – Director, Center for Nanoparticle Research, Institute for Basic Science, Seoul National University.
  • Amal Kasry – Chief of Basic Science, Research, Innovation and Engineering, Natural Sciences Sector, UNESCO.
  • Claus Lämmerzahl – Member of the Executive Board | Public Relations, German Physical Society (DPG); Director for Space Sciences, ZARM, University of Bremen.
  • Gillian Makamara – Project Officer, International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
  • Julio G. Mendoza-Álvarez – President, Mexican Physical Society; Professor, Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN).
  • Joe Niemela – Emeritus Scientist, International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP).
  • Yasser Omar – President, Portuguese Quantum Institute (PQI); Professor, University of Lisbon; EU Quantum Flagship.
  • Peggy Oti-Boateng – Executive Director, African Academy of Sciences.
  • Enrica Porcari – Head of Information Technology Department, CERN.
  • Kent Rochford – CEO and Executive Director, SPIE, the International Society for Optics and Photonics.
  • María Sánchez-Colina – President, Iberoamerican Federation of Societies of Physics (FEIASOFI); President, Cuban Society of Physics.
  • Smitha Vishveshwara – Professor of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
  • Carl Wieman – Professor of Physics and of the Graduate School of Education, Stanford University.
  • Ahmed Younes – Professor of Quantum Computing, Alexandria University; Vice Dean of Education and Student Affairs, Faculty of Science, Alexandria University.

The IYQ Media Fellows

The IYQ Social Media Fellows were responsible for managing, soliciting, and creating content for the website and social media feeds throughout the Year.

Website Content Manager and Creator: Alexandra de Castro

Social Media Manager:  Solmar Verela

Web and Social Content Creator:  Serena Krejci-Papa

JNIPER IYQ Student Social Media Fellows:  Richard Sottie, Olivia Castillo, and Elle Roc.