The 23rd International Conference on Quantum Physics and Logic (QPL 2026) brought nearly 200 quantum researchers, computer scientists, and mathematicians to the University of Amsterdam, Roeterseiland campus between August 15th and 21st, 2026. This year’s gathering marked the largest QPL conference in its 23 years history, spanning seven days of workshops, a job fair, and three parallel technical tracks.
QuSoft is pleased to announce Freek Witteveen, a senior researcher at QuSoft and CWI, as a recipient of QDNL funding and mentorship through QDNL Top Talent Initiative (TTI). Freek’s work sits at the intersection of physics, mathematics, and computer science – and he effectively aims to move ideas from one domain to another. Through the study of quantum tensor network states, he explores which quantum systems can be examined using a classical computer and which require quantum computation.
Jonas Helsen, a researcher in CWI’s Algorithms & Complexity group, has been awarded a prestigious €1.5 million European grant. Jonas will use the funding to develop methods for reliably analyzing and certifying the performance of fault-tolerant quantum computers. This is one of the major challenges in quantum computing: quantum computers are highly prone to errors, which can make their results unreliable.
Researcher Wessel van Woerden has received a Veni grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) to design compact digital ‘locks’ that protect systems against attacks by quantum computers. Van Woerden will join CWI’s Cryptology group in January to carry out the research.
Lorentz Center@Omega, Leiden, from 13 - 17 July 2026
Source: Wolfgang Löffler (LION, Leiden University)
Junqiao Lin (QuSoft, CWI) has won the best student paper award at STOC, a premier conference in theoretical computer science held in Salt Lake City (USA). His paper demonstrates how changing the mathematical rules we use to describe quantum physics completely changes what a computer is capable of discovering.
Source: CWI website
Charles H. Bennett and Gilles Brassard have been awarded the 2025 ACM A.M. Turing Award for “their essential role in establishing the foundations of quantum information science and transforming secure communication and computing.” The award, often referred to as the “Nobel Prize of Computing,” carries a $1 million prize. It is the first time the 60-year-old prize honours work in the quantum realm.
Christian Schaffner (QuSoft, IvI-UvA) joined Ben Van der Burg and @Mark Beekhuis at their Technoloog podcast of BNR Nieuwsradio to talk about where quantum computing stands right now — and what it means for cybersecurity.
Liam Bond, PhD candidate in the group of Arghavan Safavi-Naini, has been awarded an NWO Rubicon grant. Liam specializes in the research of quantum many-body dynamics, quantum simulations and quantum sensing. The grant allows him to carry out his project “Why not both? Hybrid qubit-oscillator systems for quantum advantage” at the University of Maryland. Congratulations to Liam!
Chinese onderzoekers zijn een stap dichter bij een toekomstig quantuminternet gekomen, een futuristisch netwerk waarmee gebruikers onkraakbare informatie kunnen uitwisselen, flitshandel kunnen bedrijven en datacenters efficiënter kunnen maken. ‘De eerste toepassingen komen steeds dichterbij.’
Onze IT-infrastructuur is alleen maar onveiliger geworden. Sterke encryptie is broodnodig, aldus Ot van Daalen, promovendus aan het Instituut voor Informatierecht aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam.
Christian Schaffner (Qusoft) was interviewed in a BNR podcast, discussing the impact of quantum computers on crytography and in particular on crypto currencies on October 31, 2019.
What is quantum supremacy, how does one demonstrate quantum supremacy and why is this such an important milestone ? A blog of Qutech by Adriaan Rol.
An invitation to contribute to a Gender Equality Survey that was prepared by a Gender Working Group of the Quantum Technology Flagship to collect the community’s views on gender equality.
If you take just one piece of information from this blog: Quantum computers would not solve hard search problems instantaneously by simply trying all the possible solutions at once.
On Friday the 13th of December, 2019 the Quantum Software Consortium held its first Junior Day. The idea was to create a get-together for all young quantum information and computation minded researchers in the Netherlands.
A great story about the impact of the National Agenda for Quantum Technology for the Netherlands (in Dutch): https://www.consultancy.nl/nieuws/26117/hoe-blijft-nederland-mondiaal-koploper-in-quantumtechnologie
Het kabinet investeert de komende vijf jaar 23,5 miljoen euro in quantumtechnologie, één van de sleuteltechnologieën met groot potentieel voor de toekomst. Het bedrag is bedoeld als financieel startschot van de uitvoering van de Nationale Agenda Quantum Technologie, die in september 2019 aan het kabinet werd aangeboden.
The Quantum Training and Junior Day (31/3 and 1/4) have been cancelled, because of the corona virus.
Bluetooth is watching you. De bezwaren nemen toe tegen de corona-apps van kabinet. Privacy-organisaties en prominente journalisten, schrijvers en experts hebben een pamflet opgesteld met een serie voorwaarden waaraan de nieuwe controle-app zou moeten voldoen.
Quantum researcher Harry Buhrman joins the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). The KNAW is the most relevant Dutch society of top scientists. Together with seventeen other researchers, Buhrman will be installed as a new Academy member on September 14, 2020. Buhrman is affiliated with the CWI and the University of Amsterdam. He is also director and founder of research institute QuSoft, which focuses on the development of quantum software and applications of quantum computers and quantum networks.
Professor Barbara Terhal, group leader at QuTech and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics & Computer Science of TU Delft, has been appointed as new member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). Barbara Terhal is a member of the Gender & Diversity Council of Quantum Software Consortium.
Minister Ingrid van Engelshoven and European Commissioner Mariya Gabriel launched Europe’s first public quantum computing platform: ‘Quantum Inspire’. The platform was developed by Delft-based QuTech, a collaboration between TU Delft and TNO. Quantum Inspire makes the quantum computer accessible to everyone and is the first in the world to use a quantum processor made of scalable ‘spin qubits’.
Shell cooperates with theoretical physicists and chemists of Leiden University to research how quantum computer algorithms can help simulate complex molecules.
De quantumhuiscomputer is nog ver weg. Lieven Vandersypen, hoogleraar QuTech, op de campus van de TU Delft, werkt aan technologie voor quantumcomputers. Lieven Vandersypen wordt er directeur.
Jana Sotáková, PhD student at Qusoft and UvA, won the best-paper award at the IACR flagship conference CRYPTO 2020 for her article "Breaking the Decisional Diffie-Hellman Problem for Class Group Actions Using Genus Theory".
The board of NWO-I, the institute organisation of NWO, appoints Prof. Ton de Kok as director of CWI. On 1 October 2020, De Kok will succeed the current director, Prof. Jos Baeten, who has led the institute since 2011 and will retire.
Léo Ducas from CWI's Cryptology Group in Amsterdam is awarded an ERC Starting Grant of 1.5 million euro for research on quantum-safe cryptography. Most of today’s cryptographic methods will not be secure against attacks based on possible future quantum computers. Ducas studies lattice-based and code-based cryptography, areas whose methods are widely viewed as the most promising to provide long-term cryptographic security for computers and networks worldwide in the face of quantum computing.
Since 2015, QuSoft has grown into a leading research institute where over 60 scientists of the Dutch national research institute for mathematics and computer science (CWI) and Faculty of Science from the University of Amsterdam (FNWI) work together on fundamental and multidisciplinary quantum research. After five years, director of CWI, Jos Baeten and Peter van Tienderen, dean FNWI, signed the agreement that continues this collaboration.