Announcing the IYQ Quantum Pitch Winners
Physics Magazine is pleased to announce Paul Adepoju and Mkhululi Chimoio as the winners of the Quantum Pitch Competition, which we launched in partnership with Physics World to commemorate the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology. Adepoju’s winning piece—describing the discovery of large-scale galactic motion using the emission produced by tiny quantum “spin flips” in hydrogen atoms—appears today in Physics Magazine.
Adepoju is a freelance journalist and podcaster based in Ibadan, Nigeria. His writing has appeared in several scientific publications, including Nature, New Scientist, and Scientific American. He holds a PhD in cell biology and genetics, but his science writing cuts across disciplines, confronting complex research topics and their human impact. “I find quantum stories exciting but also challenging in the best way,” he says. “They push me to slow down, ask better questions, and translate complexity into something meaningful and accessible without losing the science.”
In his pitch-winning story, Adepoju describes a recent discovery of rotation within a galaxy-filled filament that stretches over 50 million light years (see Research News: Galaxies Wind Around a Cosmic Filament). The researchers used hydrogen-emission data from the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa to uncover this cosmic winding, which had never before been directly measured in a single filament. The results could lead to a new way to probe the dark matter that holds galactic structures together.
Chimoio is a Zimbabwean-born investigative journalist, now based in South Africa. He specializes in geopolitics, technology, security, and socioeconomic issues, with some of his writing appearing in Nature Africa and Africa Uncensored. His winning piece will soon appear in Physics World.
The IYQ Quantum Pitch Competition was open to participants of the 2025 World Conference of Science Journalists, in Pretoria, South Africa, where Physics Magazine organized workshops on quantum science and journalism.
We heartily thank all the journalists who submitted pitches to the contest. The selection process was truly challenging, given the strength of the many submissions we received. We hope that this endeavor will lead to more quantum-inspired stories
–Physics Magazine Editors