Ian Walmsley is Provost of Imperial College London, UK, and a Professor of Experimental Physics. He is responsible for the academic mission of the College, overseeing a nearly £1bn research, education and innovation portfolio. His research in optical science and technology ranges from ultrafast optics to quantum information science. He has pioneered quantum photonics for simulation and metrology, and is the co-founder of a start up in quantum computing, ORCA Computing. He was the Founding Director of the Networked Quantum Information Technology Hub, the largest collaboration in the UK National Quantum Technologies Programme, which made significant progress in developing architectures, platforms and technology for quantum computing and simulation. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Optical Society (OSA), the American Physical Society and the Institute of Physics. He was President of the Optical Society in 2018.