INTERVIEW back, I see a clear continuity in my research journey.
How did you manage the transition between your MSCA grant and your permanent position? I stayed for a little over two years at Institut d’ Optique. During my second year, I got a permanent CNRS position. I could have started in the fall of 2008, but I decided to finish my experiments before beginning my new position, which postponed my arrival at CNRS to January 2009.
What did you start your own research activities? I was recruited to work at the Laboratory for Information Processing and Communication at Télécom Paris( I have now moved; since 2016 I am at the LIP6, the Computer Science Laboratory of Sorbonne University). I spent the first two years securing funding to establish an experimental research activity in this field. Philippe Grangier was incredibly supportive during this phase, notably by lending me equipment to continue my work in CV-QKD. This support allowed me to get started. At the same time, I spent a lot of time applying for additional funding for new projects. This included the successful application for a Franco- Canadian collaboration funded by the French National Research Agency( ANR) I was very happy about.
What were your main research activities during these years? The most impactful results before 2015 were undoubtedly our demonstration that our continuous-variable QKD system could operate over long distances. At that time, funding was still relatively modest, but this demonstration brought great visibility to our team. That was when I started gaining international recognition for my expertise in QKD, and it also encouraged other teams to enter this field, contributing for example later to building a European Quantum Flagship project around this topic. At the same time, I began developing a new research direction at the intersection of physics and computer science. I was already interested in this approach back then: taking quantum cryptography protocols beyond QKD, which were mostly theoretical at the time, and demonstrating their practical relevance using photonic systems. These efforts strengthened my collaborations with computer scientists, who appreciated that a physicist was engaging with their work and seeking to experimentally validate the quantum advantage of their protocols. This opened two parallel lines of research for me at that point.
The years 2016 – 2018 were a turning point for your research funding. Yes, 2016 was a pivotal year with the launch of the European Quantum Technologies Flagship. I was immediately very involved in this initiative. Then, in 2018, I secured an ERC project, which allowed me to launch new research activities that took several years to come to fruition. The COVID crisis slowed progress, particularly on the experimental side, but now, five or six years later, we are seeing the full results. Thanks to this funding and the support of talented PhD students, within the stimulating environment of our Quantum Information group at LIP6, we were able to conduct ambitious experiments, particularly on the generation of multipartite entangled states— a topic that had long interested me. This led to major advances in demonstrating quantum advantage, applied to cryptographic protocols and advanced quantum communications.
How did you become involved in the European quantum ecosystem? Our team’ s expertise was well recognized, and we were actively sought after to participate in European projects on quantum cryptography. Beyond the scientific results, this also led me to take on a more strategic role in shaping the field in Europe, particularly through participation in the management of large quantum communication projects. I now dedicate a significant part of my time to these collective and strategic activities. I strongly believe in collective intelligence and collaborative dynamics— everything we are building today should benefit the entire scientific and industrial community.
Can you describe your involvement in the European Quantum Flagship? I was present in 2016 when the Flagship manifesto was officially announced, but my involvement came in a later phase. In 2018, I joined the working groups responsible for setting up the strategic agenda, roadmap, and structuring of the program. The creation of the Flagship was a long process that took place between 2008 and 2015. At that time, I was still in the phase of building my team and developing my own research projects. It was researchers with already well-established teams who had the opportunity to dedicate time to this structuring effort. Today, I find myself playing that role. What these researchers were doing ten years ago, I am doing now— interacting with the European Commission and contributing to strategic decisions, in particular through my role as member of the Strategic Advisory Board of the program. We are currently discussing a future Quantum Act, which is the natural evolution of the Flagship, and I am happy to contribute to these discussions.
Do you manage quantum science at a national level? Yes, I coordinate the Paris Center for Quantum Technologies( PCQT), which brings together multiple teams from Sorbonne University, PSL University, Université Paris Cité, CNRS, and Inria, along with collaborations with other universities and research institutions in the Paris region. This center has become a major hub for quantum technologies in Paris and beyond. PCQT was initially created to bridge physics and computer science for quantum technologies, but it has since expanded to cover all aspects of the field. Today, we have strong research hubs in Saclay, Paris, and Grenoble, but other cities like Nice, Montpellier, Strasbourg, and Toulouse are also deeply involved in quantum research. The synergy between these different centers is, in my view,
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