Keynote Speakers
Prof. Alain Aspect
Institut d’Optique - Université Paris-Saclay, France
Biography :
Alain Aspect is an alumnus of ENSET Cachan (now ENS Paris-Saclay) and Orsay University. He is currently Professor at the Institut d’Optique-Université Paris-Saclay and Professor at the École Polytechnique. His doctoral thesis (1983), at the Institut d’Optique, focused on experimental tests of the foundations of quantum mechanics (tests of Bell’s inequalities, for which he was awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics along with John Clauser and Anton Zeilinger). After experiments on single photons, with Philippe Grangier (1984-86), he worked on laser cooling of atoms at the Kastler Brossel laboratory of ENS Paris, with Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, Jean Dalibard and Christophe Salomon. The group he founded at the Institut d’Optique in 1993 focuses on atomic quantum optics and atomic quantum simulators with degenerate gases.
Alain Aspect is Emeritus Senior Researcher at the CNRS and a member of the Académie des Sciences, the Académie des Technologies and several foreign academies (Austria, Belgium, Italy, UK, USA).
The two quantum revolutions : from concepts to applications
The first quantum revolution, based on wave particle duality, has led to the society of information and communication. The second quantum revolution is based on entanglement. Will its applications lead to a new societal revolution?
Prof. Pierre ROUCHON
Center Automatic and systems , Mines-Paris, University PSL, Member of Académie des sciences, France
Biography :
Pierre Rouchon is professor with the Centre Automatique et Systemes at Mines-Paris, Université PSL and member of Académie des Sciences. He graduated from Ecole Polytechnique in 1983, has obtained a PhD in 1990 and an “habilitation à diriger des recherches” in 2000. From 1993 to 2005, he was associated professor at Ecole Polytechnique in Applied Mathematics. From 1998 to 2002, he was the head of the Centre Automatique et Systèmes. From 2007 to 2018, he was the chair of the department “Mathématiques et Systèmes” at Mines-Paris. Since 2015, he is a member of the Quantic Research team between Inria, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris and Mines-Paris. His fields of interest include nonlinear control and system theory with applications to physical systems. His contributions include differential flatness and its extension to infinite dimensional systems, non-linear observers and symmetries, quantum filtering and feedback control. In 2017, he received the “Grand Prix IMT – Académie des sciences de Paris.” He is the principal investigator of the ERC Advanced Grant « Quantum Feedback Engineering » (2021-2026).
Quantum error correction and feedback.
Quantum error correction relies on a feedback loop. This feedback generally corresponds to a classical controller. Quantum error correction can also exploit the dissipation associated with the phenomenon of decoherence. Called autonomous correction by physicists, it then uses feedback where the controller is a dissipative quantum auxiliary system. This talk focuses on the development of such quantum controllers to stabilize logical qubits encoded in harmonic oscillators (bosonic code). Two types of encoding will be considered: cat-qubit encoded in two coherent states of opposite phases for which bit-flip errors induced by usual noises can be experimentally almost suppressed ; GKP-qubit encoded in finite energy grid-states approximating position/impulsion Dirac combs where, in principle, both bit-flips and phase-flips could be almost suppressed.
Olivier EZRATTY
Freelance quantum engineer, mostly known for “Understanding Quantum Technologies”
Biography :
Olivier Ezratty is a freelance quantum engineer, mostly known for “Understanding Quantum Technologies”, his comprehensive open-source book on quantum technologies (September 2025, 8th edition). He is a teacher and lecturer on quantum and classical technologies at EPITA, CentraleSupelec, Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay, and other Universities. He works for a diverse set of government institutions and industry organizations, as a referent expert for Bpifrance, Agence Nationale de Recherche (France) and the European Commission. He is also one of the cofounders of the Quantum Energy Initiative. He has an Msc in Computer Science from CentraleSupelec.
The interplay between Quantum Engineering and Quantum Science
Quantum engineering is a relatively new discipline that takes shape as quantum technologies are maturing and turning into commercial products. But what is it exactly? How are science and engineering intermingled in this innovation process? Is the science done, and we are just left with engineering and technology development? What is the engineering scope required for the development of complex quantum systems, particularly fault-tolerant quantum computers? How quantum engineering connects the dots between the software and hardware stacks? Is the environmental footprint of these emerging technologies integrated in vendors engineering goals? Are there quantum engineers? How are they and will they be trained?
Richard VERSLUIS
Quantum Enabling Technologies Engineering, TNO / TU Delft, Netherlands
Biography :
Richard Versluis (Rotterdam, 1971) is principal systems engineer at TNO and Quantum and Computer Engineering (QCE) fellow at the Delft University of Technology. From 2022 to 2024 he was coordinator of the Catalyst Programme 1 of the National Growth Fund Quantum Technology with the mission to build scalable prototypes of a quantum computer.
Richard is system architect of Quantum Inspire, Europe’s first public online quantum computing platform. Quantum Inspire includes two superconducting qubit processor, with 5 and 7 qubits, provides the world’s first public access to a spin qubit based processor named Spin-2+ and recently was upgraded with a an emulator of a neutral atom quantum processor, as a stepping stone to adding a Rydberg Atom QPU later.
Recently, Richard was appointed as Quantum and Computer Engineering Fellow at the University of Delft, to establish a strategic connection between the academic world and external partners. As a QCE Fellow, Richard will focus on advancing systems engineering approaches for quantum computers, pioneering the integration of different layers both from a blueprint/theoretical perspective and by building small-scale prototypes. The quantum computer architecture includes language specifications, compiler specifications, control hardware and software and quantum hardware to perform hybrid classical and quantum calculations.
Quantum enabling technologies from science to engineering
In this talk Richard will share an overview of the most critical engineering challenges in Quantum Computing that we will face in the upcoming years. He will delve into the transition from academic research to practical engineering, emphasising the complexities and hurdles that need to be overcome. Aspects like scalability, reliability and modularity will be quantified and related to practical design choices and design requirements for future quantum computers and their constituent components.
European Commission Representative, DG CNECT
Biography :
Will shortly be updated
The European Commission’s Vision for Quantum Engineering: Challenges and Opportunities in EU-Funded Projects
Will shortly be updated