Speaker

Gilles Brassard，Université de Montréal and QuSoft Amsterdam

Time

2022.12.14 16:00-17:30

Abstract

Although practised as an art and science for ages, cryptography had to wait until the mid-twentieth century before Claude Shannon gave it a strong mathematical foundation. However, Shannon’s approach was rooted in his own information theory, itself inspired by the classical physics of Newton and Einstein. When quantum theory is taken into account, new vistas open up both for codebreakers and codemakers. Is this a curse or a blessing for the protection of privacy? The infrastructure currently in place to protect the Internet will be compromised by the advent of quantum computers, but quantum cryptography comes to the rescue and offers unconditional protection. We shall discuss quantum cryptography, from its humble origins more than a half-century ago to its current blooming, and speculate about prospects for the future.

No prior knowledge in cryptography or quantum theory will be assumed.

Bio

Born in 1955, Gilles Brassard received PhD in Computer Science from Cornell University in 1979. John Hopcroft, Turing Award winner in 1986, was his PhD supervisor. Professor of computer science at the Université de Montréal since 1979, Gilles Brassard laid the foundations of quantum cryptography at a time when nobody could have predicted that the quantum information revolution would usher in a multi-billion dollar industry. He is also among the inventors of quantum teleportation, which is one of the most fundamental pillars of the theory of quantum information. Fellow of the Royal Society of London and International Member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, Officer of the Orders of Canada and Québec, his many accolades include the Wolf Prize in Physics, the Micius Quantum Prize, the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Basic Sciences, and the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. He has been granted honorary doctorates from ETH Zürich, the University of Ottawa, and USI Lugano.