MONTREAL — The Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS) announced today one of its PhD candidates, Piotr Roztocki (pictured), is the first Canadian to receive the Paul Baran Young Scholar award from the Marconi Society, which honours the world’s most innovative young engineers in information and communications technology.
Roztocki won this year’s award for his work in developing scalable quantum resources that can be used within existing telecommunications networks. Under the supervision of INRS professor Roberto Morandotti, Roztocki’s work in quantum photonics is now being commercialized as part of the Montreal start-up Ki3 Photonics Technologies, where Roztocki is a co-founder. The company offers a unique, compact photonic system that could be particularly interesting for defence applications and ultra-secure information transfer, says the news release.
Quantum photonics can offer major advances in next-generation information security, says the release, and may be key in ensuring security infrastructures will be safe, even while current cryptographic methods may become vulnerable to attacks from increasingly mature quantum computing capabilities.
“A unique feature of our work is in the use of integrated photonic chips and optical fibre, rather than fragile and expensive setups, meaning that our quantum tools are scalable and compatible with existing communications infrastructures,” says Roztocki, in the release.
Roztocki’s work in the on-chip generation of quantum light, which exhibits phenomena such as photon entanglement, is a significant step in reducing the footprint and costs associated with quantum photonic technologies.
“While Piotr’s focus includes high-impact fundamental research targeting long-term payoffs, a majority of his work centres on applications critical to emerging industrial sectors and telecom markets,” said Morandotti. “Piotr’s interdisciplinary perspective bridges physics and telecommunications for truly creative results.”
To listen to Roztocki’s interview with American cryptographer Paul Kocher, please click here.
