Andrew Briggs

Andrew Briggs directs the services provided by the University of Oxford for the Templeton World Charity Foundation, where he serves as Principal Advisor for the Power of Information initiative. He is the inaugural holder of the Chair in Nanomaterials at the University of Oxford. His research interests focus on nanomaterials for quantum technologies and their incorporation into practical devices. He uses similar techniques for experimental tests of the boundaries of non-classical behavior in materials. He has served as a member of the International Board of Advisors of the John Templeton Foundation.

In 1999, Professor Briggs was elected Honorary Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society for his innovative methods and applications of microscopy. From 2002–2009, he was Director of the UK Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration in Quantum Information Processing, which served to create new experimental and theoretical capacity in the UK and has since been followed by UK government investment of £585M in quantum technologies. He is now pioneering the use of machine learning for measuring and tuning quantum devices.

Professor Briggs has over 600 publications, with more than 24,500 citations. He has a degree in theology (winning the Chase Prize for Greek at Cambridge), and a private pilot license. His book with Roger Wagner is now available in paperback, The Penultimate Curiosity: How Science Swims in the Slipstream of Ultimate Questions. In the Expanded Reason Awards 2019, the book received Honorable Mention. Prizewinning author Julia Golding has written a children’s series based on the book, under the title The Curious Science Quest. In 2018, Oxford University Press published his book with Hans Halvorson and Andrew Steane, It Keeps Me Seeking: The Invitation from Science, Philosophy, and Religion.