02/09/2026
From Bossley Park High School to Harvard physics genius! 📚🧠👏
After solving a 20-year quantum computer problem while studying at Sydney University in 2021, the Bossley Park primary and high school alumnus, and now quantum scientist, will graduate from Harvard University in November with a PhD and the Goldhaber prize for best theory graduate student.
Pablo credits his high school teachers, particularly Maths teacher, David Foti, with having a defining influence on his physics career and speaks highly of his time at Bossley Park High School.
“The teachers not only tailored the program for me but also were amazing teachers and amazing mentors. Not only that, but Mr Foti also introduced me to some people at the University of Sydney.
“So, during the summer in year nine or after year 10, I worked as a summer intern at the University of Sydney in a quantum group … the group where we did all this amazing work. Without Mr Foti, I would not have gone down this path, and he was a fundamental part of me pursuing quantum physics.”
Pablo naturally went on to undergraduate studies in physics at Sydney University, where, in his second year, he tweaked some computing code to effectively double its capacity to correct errors in the quantum computers.
A Ramsay Postgraduate Scholarship in 2022 then secured Pablo a place at Harvard where his “research focused on quantum computing, specifically quantum error correction – the field devoted to making quantum computers reliable enough to solve practically important problems”.
For someone who “knew zero English back” when his family immigrated to Australia from Uruguay, his achievements can only be described as remarkable.
