Events

Dominic O'Brien is a Professor of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford and Director of the UK National Hub in Quantum Computing and Simulation. His research focuses on optical wireless communications and quantum key distribution systems, drawing on two decades of expertise in photonic systems integration. He has authored over 200 publications and collaborated extensively with leading international academic and industrial partners to develop world-leading optical wireless system performance.

Quantum optical wireless communications exploits the quantum properties of light to achieve secure and efficient data transmission over free-space channels. This talk presents recent advances in quantum key distribution systems integrated with classical optical wireless communications, demonstrating how quantum and classical signals can coexist in a single optical beam for simultaneous secure key exchange and high-speed data transmission. We discuss practical implementations of handheld quantum-secured wireless links with dynamic beam steering and motion compensation, as well as architectural innovations enabling fibre-wireless-fibre terminals suitable for indoor and outdoor deployments.

Andreas Reiserer is a professor of Quantum Networks at the Technical University of Munich. His research focuses on large-scale quantum networking using a novel hardware platform, erbium dopants in silicon, that combines scalable manufacturing with exceptional coherence and light emission in the minimal-loss band of fibre-optical communication.

Scalable quantum networks and distributed quantum information processing remain major challenges despite decades of research. In this talk, Andreas will present his work on erbium dopants in silicon and silicate crystals as a promising platform for quantum networking. Erbium combines second-long spin coherence at accessible cryogenic temperatures with one of the narrowest optical transitions in any solid, enabling dense frequency-multiplexed addressing of individual emitters. By coupling erbium dopants to high-quality optical resonators and nanophotonic silicon structures, he demonstrates strong Purcell enhancement, lifetime-limited single-photon emission in the telecommunications C-band, and optical control and readout of both nuclear and electronic spins, highlighting erbium dopants as a compelling route toward scalable quantum networks and repeaters operating at telecom wavelengths.

Mohsen Razavi received his BSc and MSc degrees in Electrical Engineering from Sharif University of Technology, in 1998 and 2000, and his PhD from MIT, in 2006. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo until September 2009, when he joined the School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at the University of Leeds, where he is now a Professor of Quantum Communications. He is a recipient of the Marie-Curie International Reintegration Grant and coordinated the European Innovative Training Network QCALL, which aimed at providing quantum communications services to all users. He has authored a book on quantum communications networks in the IOP Concise Physics series.

Data security in the quantum era can be one of the key challenges that telecom operators will face in the coming years. With the recent trend in advanced quantum computing machines, the need for implementing alternative solutions for secure communications (those that do not rely on computational complexity assumptions) has become more urgent. This would be of special interest in scenarios that forward secrecy, or long-term security, is a requirement. Fortunately, there is a possible solution to this problem, known as quantum key distribution (QKD), whose security relies on the laws of physics as we understand them by quantum mechanics. In this talk, I will give an overview of this technology and how it has evolved over the past few decades. I will also describe how the backbone networks could be enhanced, in multiple phases, to accommodate a global quantum communications network.

Luca Sapienza is an Associate Professor in Quantum Engineering at the University of Cambridge, where he leads the Integrated Quantum Photonics research group. His activities focus on the fundamental understanding of quantum optics effects on a chip, the development of quantum and nano-photonic devices integrating single-photon emitters, and the study of quantum effects in bio-molecules. He has held visiting positions at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (USA) and at the Ecole Normale Superieure de Paris (France). He is a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a member of the Institute of Physics, an Editor of Materials for Quantum Technology, and Fellow, Director of Studies and Tutor at Christ's College Cambridge.

Light-matter interactions allow adding functionalities to photonic on-chip devices, thus enabling developments in classical and quantum light sources, energy harvesters and sensors. These advances have been facilitated by precise control in growth and fabrication techniques that have opened new pathways to the design and realisation of semiconductor devices where light emission, trapping and guidance can be efficiently controlled at the nanoscale. In this talk, I will show the implementation of semiconductor quantum dots in nano-photonic devices that can create simultaneously bright and pure, triggered single-photon sources, critical for quantum information technology. I will then present photonic geometries for controlling light propagation and brightness in broadband, scalable devices. Hybrid systems can allow overcoming limitations due to specific material properties and I will show how such devices can be an efficient platform for on-chip light emission, guidance, interference, and detection. These are essential elements to move from electronic to all-photonic circuits. Finally, I will discuss photonic designs based on bio-inspired aperiodic geometries, showing efficient light confinement and quantum light emission control.

Alexander Lvovsky is a Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford specialising in quantum optics and optical computing. His research centres on optical neural networks that harness quantum optical phenomena for energy-efficient computation, machine vision, and sensing applications. His work extends optical processing to achieve imaging resolution beyond conventional diffractive limits, enabling transformative applications in computer vision and quantum information processing.

From self-driving cars to medical diagnostics, computer vision underpins technologies that identify objects, recognise patterns, and analyse images. Traditionally, computer vision has relied on capturing images of an object followed by computational analysis through digital neural networks. These classical pipelines, while powerful, treat light purely as a classical entity and thus overlook its fundamental quantum nature. This limits machine vision performance, particularly in situations when only faint light is available, such as reading a road sign at night, examining fragile biological cells under a microscope, or detecting distant exoplanets. We address this limitation by considering vision as a quantum sensing problem. Instead of image capture followed by digital analysis, we design and train optical neural networks that implement the optimal measurement basis. This approach extracts information in the most efficient way permitted by quantum mechanics. Our optical neural networks based quantum machine vision enable microscopes of unprecedented resolution and computer vision systems that can see in almost complete darkness.

Dr Ross Donaldson is an Associate Professor at Heriot-Watt University on the outskirts of Edinburgh, specialising in optical and quantum communication technologies. He leads research on free-space optical and quantum communications systems, with a focus on advancing resilient, all-weather communication links. His work bridges cutting-edge photonics with practical applications for future space networks. In addition to his role at the university, he has a part-time sabbatical role as Chief Scientific Officer at Lumino Technologies, helping develop the first generation of quantum networking service.

The UK is at the forefront of a global revolution in secure, high-speed space connectivity, driven by breakthroughs in optical quantum communications. This talk introduces the Quantum Communications Hub's flagship mission, the Satellite Platform for Optical Quantum Communications (SPOQC). This pioneering satellite is designed to deliver quantum-secure links across international networks and accelerate the path toward the quantum internet. We'll dive into the cutting-edge technologies behind SPOQC and reveal how they will transform global communications. At the heart of this effort is the Hub Optical Ground Station (HOGS) in Edinburgh, a UK National facility enabling advanced free-space optical research and serving as a critical node for international quantum trials. Looking beyond SPOQC, we'll explore the ambitious roadmap of quantum satellite missions set to launch over the next five years.

Prof. Dr. Tobias Vogl received his M.Sc. degree in physics from the University of Munich. For the Ph.D. he moved to the Australian National University, where he developed processes around quantum emitters in 2D hexagonal boron nitride. These quantum emitters were further advanced and brought into application during postdoc positions at the University of Cambridge and the University of Jena. In 2022, he started his own junior research group at the University of Jena and was shortly afterwards appointed as Professor at the Technical University of Munich. He is also the coordinator of the QUICK3 space mission and recipient of several research prizes.

Near-future optical quantum technologies promise breakthrough applications with the quantum computer, quantum communication, and nanoscale super-resolution quantum sensing. One of the crucial components needed to realise these quantum technologies are sources of single photons. Colour centres in solid-state crystals have become a frequently used system for single photon generation. Recently, defects hosted by two-dimensional hexagonal boron nitride attracted the attention of many researchers, due to its chemical and thermal robustness as well as high single photon luminosity at room temperature. In this talk, we present recent advances in engineering this type of emitter and couple with resonant optical systems and integrated photonics. We realise a complete quantum logic that operates at room temperature and includes quantum state preparation, manipulation, and detection. A prototype of the circuit is also part of the QUICK3 space mission which tests it for a future quantum communication network.

Emilio Onorati is a mathematical physicist specialising in the foundational structures of quantum generators. He earned his PhD at Freie Universitat Berlin with a thesis on random processes over unitary groups, before moving to UCL in London to investigate the dynamics of open quantum systems. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Technical University of Munich, analysing properties of Markovian and continuous-time evolutions, with recent work on Lie-algebraic structures underlying the Magnus expansion. His research is driven by fundamental questions in the mathematics of quantum information, with results that extend naturally to Lindbladian learning and noise characterisation tasks.

Random quantum circuits provide a powerful framework for characterising and understanding noise in large-scale quantum processors. This talk explores how random circuits transform local noise sources into global noise dynamics, and presents scalable methods for extracting quantum noise models directly from experimental data. We discuss connections to fundamental concepts in quantum dynamics including Markovian and non-Markovian evolutions, Lindbladian structures, and the Magnus expansion. By leveraging random circuit ensembles and randomised benchmarking protocols, we can efficiently diagnose and quantify noise channels in near-term quantum devices, providing crucial insights for designing robust error mitigation and correction strategies tailored to realistic quantum hardware.

Angela Sara Cacciapuoti is a Professor at the University of Naples Federico II and an ERC Consolidator Grant holder. Her research focuses on quantum internet design, arguing that the classical internet's layered architecture is fundamentally unsuitable for quantum networks. She advocates for quantum-native design principles including entanglement orchestration, quantum-aware routing, and flexible protocol composition.

The classical internet's layered architecture was designed for transmitting classical bits and is fundamentally unsuitable for a quantum internet. This talk makes the case for quantum-native design principles — entanglement orchestration, quantum-aware routing, and flexible protocol composition rather than rigid layering. We explore how to rethink networking from the ground up to support the unique demands of quantum communication, from entanglement distribution to distributed quantum computing.

Online via Zoom

Siddarth K. Joshi is a researcher at the University of Bristol who pioneered wavelength-multiplexed entanglement distribution since 2018. He also built the quantum transmitter payload for the SPOQC satellite. His work focuses on network architecture and ongoing research into the reliability and scalability of entanglement distribution networks.

Wavelength-multiplexed entanglement distribution offers a scalable route to multi-user quantum networks by sharing entangled photon pairs across many channels simultaneously. This talk covers the network architecture behind wavelength-multiplexed entanglement distribution, from the foundational 2018 experiments to ongoing work on reliability and scalability, as well as the quantum transmitter payload developed for the SPOQC satellite mission.

St Hilda's College (in-person)

Daniel Oi did his DPhil at Oxford under Artur Ekert and now leads research at the University of Strathclyde spanning quantum theory, computation, and space quantum technologies. His work bridges fundamental quantum science with practical satellite-based quantum communication systems.

Exponential loss in optical fibre fundamentally limits the reach of terrestrial quantum communications. Satellite links offer a way to overcome this barrier. This talk covers the Micius satellite's landmark achievements — QKD between China and Austria, teleportation from Earth to orbit, and entanglement distribution over 1,000 km — as well as the CubeSat approach to making space quantum communications more accessible, and the vision for a Space Quantum Internet distributing entanglement globally.

East-Audrey Wood Room, Physics Department

Alexandra E. Moylett (they/she) is the Quantum Error Correction Group Lead at Nu Quantum, a Cambridge-based company working on distributed quantum computing. Their research explores how to implement quantum error-correcting codes in a distributed setting, with a particular interest in dynamic codes and logical gates. Prior to joining Nu Quantum, Alex was a Quantum Scientist at Riverlane, where they worked on quantum algorithms and quantum error correction. They hold a PhD in Physics and an MEng in Computer Science, both from the University of Bristol.

Quantum computing is set to offer significant benefits for a wide variety of problems — but managing the errors that quantum computers experience introduces significant overheads. In this talk, Alex will explain how distributed quantum computing can help tackle this challenge of scale, and share some of Nu Quantum's latest efforts in making it a reality.

Online via Zoom