The pair are considered originators in their field, which blends physics and computer science in treating quantum mechanical phenomena as resources for processing and transmitting information.
This year’s Turing Award has gone to an American physicist and a Canadian computer scientist for their foundational collaborative work in the field of quantum information science.
Charles H Bennett and Gilles Brassard received the annual Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) award “for their essential role in establishing the foundations of quantum information science and transforming secure communication and computing”, said the body.
The pair’s pioneering work in quantum cryptography and quantum teleportation is recognised for having redefined secure communication and computing, according to the ACM.
The award, often referred to as the ‘Nobel Prize of computing’, is named after Alan Turing, who articulated the mathematical foundations of computing. The winner receives a $1m prize in recognition of their major contributions of lasting importance to computing.
Bennett and Brassard are considered originators in their field, which blends physics and computer science in treating quantum mechanical phenomena as resources for processing and transmitting information.
In 1984, inspired by the insights of their late collaborator Stephen Wiesner, the pair introduced the first practical protocol for quantum cryptography – now known as BB84 – by demonstrating that two parties could establish a secret encryption key with security guaranteed by the laws of physics.
This established a fundamental property of quantum information: it cannot be copied or measured without disturbance, and any attempt at ‘eavesdropping’ leaves detectable traces before any information can be compromised.
Prior to this breakthrough, the consensus around secure communications held that mathematical and computational encryption barriers were the foundation of information secrecy.
“Bennett and Brassard fundamentally changed our understanding of information itself,” said ACM president Yannis Ioannidis. “Their insights expanded the boundaries of computing and set in motion decades of discovery across disciplines. The global momentum behind quantum technologies today underscores the enduring importance of their contributions.”
Variants of BB84 have already been implemented in operational quantum communication networks around the world, using both landlines via fibre and free space communication through satellites, according to the ACM, which also noted that progress in this area could represent one pathway for achieving secure digital communications in the coming decades.
“Charles Bennett and Gilles Brassard’s visionary insights laid the groundwork for one of the most exciting frontiers in science and technology,” said Jeff Dean, a chief scientist at Google DeepMind and Google Research. “Their work continues to influence both fundamental research and real-world innovation.” Google gives financial support to the annual award.
Bennett and Brassard’s other work of note includes contributions in quantum teleportation and entanglement, which are significant to the application of quantum networking.
In Europe, France’s Pasqal and Finland’s IQM are significant players in the quantum computing sector.
In Ireland, interest in the quantum computing sector features at both private and public levels.
Last year, Andrew Barto and Richard Sutton won the Turing award for developing the foundations of reinforcement learning, which is key to advanced AI. Previous winners include theoretical computer scientist Avi Wigderson, AI leader Geoffrey Hinton and Lisp programming inventor John McCarthy.
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