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Abstract

Quantum Cryptography is the first near-term practical application of the emerging field of quantum information processing. It allows two parties who share only a short prior secret to exchange messages with provably perfect confidentiality under the nose of an eavesdropper whose computational power is unlimited and whose technology is restricted only by the accepted laws of physics. In this talk, we shall tell the tale of the origin of Quantum Cryptography from the birth of the first idea by Wiesner in 1970 to the invention of Quantum Key Distribution in 1983, to the first prototypes and ensuing commercial ventures, to exciting prospects for the future. No prior knowledge in quantum mechanics or cryptography will be expected.

Speaker's bio

Professor of computer science since 1979 and Canada Research Chair at the Université de Montréal, Gilles Brassard laid the foundations of quantum cryptography at a time when only a handful of people worldwide were interested in quantum information processing. Among his many other achievements are the invention of privacy amplification, quantum teleportation, quantum entanglement distillation and amplitude amplification. Editor-in-Chief for Journal of Cryptology from 1991 until 1997, he is the author of three books that have been translated into eight languages. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (Academy of Science), of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and of the International Association for Cryptologic Research. Among his many awards, we note the E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship, the Killam Research Fellowship, the Prix Marie-Victorin, the Rank Prize in Opto-Electronics and the NSERC Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering. He was awarded a honorary doctorate by the ETH in Zürich.