Giants of quantum information science win Turing Award — the “Nobel prize” in computing
Drs. Charles H. Bennett and Gilles Brassard’s foundational work underpins central research areas at the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC)
The Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) at the University of Waterloo congratulates Drs. Charles H. Bennett and Gilles Brassard on receiving the 2025 ACM Turing Award for their key role in establishing the foundations of quantum information science and inventing quantum key distribution (QKD), which keeps information exchanges safe, even against an attack from a quantum computer.
Their work connected quantum science with communication security and built the toolbox that quantum computing researchers use today, underpinning key research areas at IQC including QKD, quantum-safe cryptography, and quantum algorithms.
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) gives the award which comes with a $1 million prize. It is often called “the Nobel Prize in computing.”
Bennett and Brassard’s major discoveries include introducing the first practical protocol for QKD, known widely as BB84 after the two inventors. They were also among the group of scientists to introduce the idea of quantum state teleportation, paving the way for many long-distance quantum communication protocols and for measurement-based approaches to quantum computing.
“Bennett and Brassard fundamentally changed what is possible in cryptography thanks to the use of quantum principles. The resulting work influenced many careers of IQC members.”
- Dr. Norbert Lütkenhaus, IQC executive director and professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy.
Their work gave rise to a central area of research at IQC anchored by a range of leading research initiatives in cryptography including: the Quantum EncrYption and Science Satellite (QEYSSat) mission led by Dr. Thomas Jennewein, IQC affiliate; the security analysis work performed in Lütkenhaus’s own research group; and the design of modern cryptographic infrastructure based on QKD led by Dr. Michele Mosca, IQC faculty and professor, Department of Combinatorics and Optimization. It also gave rise to more cryptographic applications led by IQC faculty Drs. Debbie Leung and Ashwin Nayak, professors, Department of Combinatorics and Optimization and Graeme Smith, professor, Department of Applied Math.
During a visit, Dr. Gilles Brassard sat down with IQC to discuss the power and importance of quantum-encrypted communications.
In an interview with IQC, Dr. Charles Bennett explains the development of quantum teleportation.
Influences beyond scientific applications
Brassard, a Canadian scientist educated at the University of Montreal where he later became faculty, and Bennett have connections to IQC that go beyond their scientific discoveries. They published papers with several IQC faculty and Brassard was involved in the training of several students, post-docs and faculty members, including cryptographer Dr. Sara Zafar Jafarzadeh and Dr. John Watrous, director of education and training at IQC.
“One of the most important things I learned from Gilles is perseverance. When I got my first paper rejection, the first thing he asked me was 'How do you feel about it?' I said: 'Unhappy and surprised.’ He assured me that while it was okay to be sad, I didn't have to be disappointed. He told me how persistence and curiosity carried his and Bennett's ideas of QKD forward despite repeated rejections of early ideas—and that ultimately led to their groundbreaking work.”
-Dr. Sara Zafar Jafarzadeh, part-time IQC research associate.
"Gilles Brassard is the reason I am Canadian. After completing my graduate studies in 1998, I moved to Montreal to work with Gilles as a postdoc and have lived in Canada ever since. There was no more exciting place in the world for quantum information at the time than Montreal because of Gilles and the group he built. It was an honour to work with him, and the Turing Award is a well-deserved recognition of his foundational work with Charlie Bennett upon which the entire field of quantum information and computation rests."
- Dr. John Watrous, director of education and training, IQC