In a bilingual course, high school students can learn how to program for quantum computers. Two researchers from the QuSoft (established by the University of Amsterdam and CWI) are using this new initiative to introduce students to the kind of mathematics taught at the University.

Twelve young researchers, three from each of the four academic fields of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), received an KNAW Early Career Award. The prize is intended for researchers in the Netherlands who are at the start of their careers and who have innovative, original research ideas. The KNAW Early Career Award will be awarded for the second time this year.

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. 

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. 

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.

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".

Shell cooperates with theoretical physicists and chemists of Leiden University to research how quantum computer algorithms can help simulate complex molecules.

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’.

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.