Rate My Professor Peter Evans

Dr Peter Evans is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Philosophy and Discipline HDR Coordinator in the School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry at the University of Queensland. He holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Science from the Australian National University, and a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Sydney. Evans specialises in the philosophy of physics, with key research interests in quantum foundations, retrocausality in quantum mechanics, analogue quantum simulation, quantum causal models, perspectival objectivity, and the epistemology of quantum experimentation. His work addresses challenges to classical notions of causality, time, and reality posed by quantum phenomena.

Evans received an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) for the project 'A philosophical exploration of simulating and controlling the quantum world' (2017–2019). He currently leads an ARC Discovery Project as Chief Investigator, 'The View From Somewhere: embodied agents and the quantum perspective' (2025–2028), exploring agency in quantum theory and embodied learning physics. He collaborated on the FQxi project 'Information as fuel' (2023). Key publications include 'Is Quantum Mechanics Merely a Theory for us?' (Foundations of Physics, 2025); 'What is it like to be unitarily reversed?' (European Journal for Philosophy of Science, 2024); 'How to engineer a quantum wavefunction' (Philosophy of Science, 2024, with Dominik Hangleiter and Karim P. Y. Thébault); 'Physical grounds for causal perspectivalism' (Entropy, 2023, with Sally Shrapnel and Gerard J. Milburn); 'A sideways look at faithfulness for quantum correlations' (The Journal of Philosophy, 2021); 'Retrocausality in quantum mechanics' (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2019, with Simon Friederich); 'Quantum causal models, faithfulness, and retrocausality' (British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 2018); and 'New slant on the EPR-Bell experiment' (British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 2013, with Huw Price and K. B. Wharton). His research influences ongoing debates in quantum ontology and philosophy of science through publications in premier journals.