Artur Ekert

Also known as ARTUR K. EKERT, Artur Konrad Ekert

Artur Ekert is a physicist whose invention of entanglement-based quantum cryptography and work on quantum computation helped build quantum information science. As a graduate student at Oxford's Wolfson College from 1987 to 1991, he showed how quantum entanglement can distribute cryptographic keys with perfect security, and in 1995 he coauthored a proof that almost any quantum logic gate on two quantum bits is universal. After professorships at Oxford and Cambridge, he became founding director of the Centre for Quantum Technologies at the National University of Singapore and led it until 2020. He won the Royal Society's Hughes Medal in 2007, became a Fellow of the Society in 2016, received the Micius Quantum Prize in 2019, and won the Society's Milner Award in 2024. He is a professor of quantum physics at Oxford's Mathematical Institute, a post he has held since 2006, and he joined the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology as an adjunct professor in 2020.

Now at: University of Oxford, National University of Singapore and Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University
Born: 1961
Badges: Boomerang
Loyal

Years link to their sources.

Timeline

1987–1991

Doctoral work at Oxford

He studies physics at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków and at Oxford, where he is a graduate student at Wolfson College from 1987 to 1991. His doctoral thesis, Correlations in quantum optics, shows how quantum entanglement and non-locality can distribute cryptographic keys with perfect security.
1991–1992

Entanglement-based quantum cryptography

In 1991, he invents entanglement-based quantum cryptography and shows that Bell's inequalities can test for eavesdropping. In 1992, he publishes with John Rarity, Paul Tapster and G. Massimo Palma a scheme for practical quantum cryptography based on two-photon interferometry; his work with Rarity and Tapster, from the Defence Research Agency in Malvern, yields a proof-of-principle experimental quantum key distribution.
1995–1996

Universal gates and privacy amplification

In 1995, the Institute of Physics gives him its Maxwell Medal and Prize, and he, David Deutsch and Adriano Barenco publish "Universality in quantum computation", which proves that almost any quantum logic gate operating on two quantum bits is universal. In 1996, he and five coauthors publish "Quantum privacy amplification and the security of quantum cryptography over noisy channels", which develops a security proof for quantum cryptography based on entanglement purification.
1998–2006

Chairs at Oxford and Cambridge

In 1998, he becomes a professor of physics at Oxford and a fellow and tutor in physics at Keble College, and he founds the Oxford research group called the Centre for Quantum Computation, which grows into a large interdisciplinary enterprise. From 2002 to 2006, he is the Leigh-Trapnell Professor of Quantum Physics at Cambridge's Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics.
2006–2020

Founding the Centre for Quantum Technologies

In 2006, he becomes professor of quantum physics at Oxford's Mathematical Institute and a Lee Kong Chian Centennial Professor at the National University of Singapore. He is the founding director of the Centre for Quantum Technologies, which Singapore establishes in December 2007 as its first Research Centre of Excellence, and he leads it until he retires from the director position in 2020.
2007–2016

Hughes Medal and Royal Society fellowship

The Royal Society awards him its Hughes Medal in 2007 for his work on quantum cryptography and the theory of quantum computation, and elects him a Fellow in 2016.
2019–2024

Micius Prize and Milner Award

In 2019, he wins a Micius Quantum Prize in the Theory category for his invention of entanglement-based quantum key distribution, entanglement swapping and entanglement purification. In 2024, he receives the Royal Society's Milner Award for his contributions to quantum communication and computation, and he gives the Milner Lecture, "Privacy for the paranoid ones: the ultimate limits of secrecy".
As of October 2026

Oxford chair and an OIST post

In 2020, he joins the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology as an adjunct professor and remains a Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for Quantum Technologies. He is a professor of quantum physics at Oxford's Mathematical Institute, and in May 2026 he coauthors "Towards a quantum algorithm deciding the separability problem" in Quantum Science and Technology.