Colloquium

Privacy for the paranoid ones - the ultimate limits of secrecy

Speaker: Artur Ekert (Founding Director of the CQT, National University of Singapore Professor, The University of Oxford, UK)

Date and time

Abstract

Among those who make a living from the science of secrecy, worry and paranoia are just signs of professionalism. Can we protect our secrets against those who wield superior technological powers? Can we trust those who provide us with tools for protection? Can we even trust ourselves, our own freedom of choice? Recent developments in quantum cryptography show that some of these questions can be addressed and discussed in precise and operational terms, suggesting that privacy is indeed possible under surprisingly weak assumptions. I will provide an overview of how quantum entanglement, after playing a significant role in the development of the foundations of quantum mechanics, became a new physical resource for all those who seek the ultimate limits of secrecy.

Artur Ekert

Short Biography
Artur Ekert is Lee Kong Chian Centennial Professor and the founding director of the Centre for Quantum Technologies (CQT) at the National University of Singapore. He is also Professor of Quantum Physics at the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford, UK. He is one of the co-inventors of quantum cryptography, and his current research extends over most aspects of information processing in quantum-mechanical systems. He has worked with and advised several companies and government agencies. He is a recipient of several awards, including the 1995 Maxwell Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics and the 2007 Royal Society Hughes Medal. In 2016 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. In his non-academic life, he is an avid scuba diver and pilot.