Antonio Acín

Timeline

1. 1997–2001

   Physics and engineering degrees

   He earns degrees in telecommunications engineering and physics in 1997, then completes a theoretical physics PhD at the University of Barcelona in 2001.

2. 2003

   Joining ICFO from Geneva

   After postdoctoral work in Geneva in Gisin’s GAP-Optique group, he joins ICFO in 2003.

3. 2007

   An ERC grant for quantum networks

   In 2007, he receives the ERC Starting Grant PERCENT, named for “Percolating Entanglement and Quantum Information Resources through Quantum Networks.”

4. 2010

   Certifying quantum randomness

   In 2010, he and an international team describe in Nature how non-local correlations between entangled particles can detect and quantify a device’s intrinsic quantum randomness.

5. 2020

   Mapping quantum phases with machine learning

   In 2020, he and Korbinian Kottmann, Patrick Huembeli, and Maciej Lewenstein use unsupervised machine learning and deep neural networks to map the phase diagram of a one-dimensional extended Bose Hubbard model.

6. 2024

   King Jaume I Prize

   The jury awards him the 2024 King Jaume I Prize for Basic Research for theoretical work in quantum information, including random-number certification for quantum communication.

7. As of October 2026

   ICREA Professor at ICFO

   In September 2026, he gives the ICFO lecture “Quantum Information Without Trust.” As of October 2026, he is an ICREA Research Professor at ICFO and leads its Quantum Information Theory group. The group studies quantum protocols for information processing and communication, with an emphasis on quantum cryptography.