A US physicist and a Canadian computer scientist have been awarded this year's Turing Award for their groundbreaking invention of an unbreakable form of encryption known as quantum cryptography.
Charles H Bennett and Gilles Brassard's work, dating back to 1984, has fundamentally changed the landscape of secure communication and computing, as recognized by the award-giving body.
With the growing reliance on electronic communications and the developments in quantum computing, scientists believe their research will play a pivotal role in safeguarding data exchanges in the future.
The Turing Award, often referred to as the 'Nobel Prize of computing', comes with a prize of $1 million (£800,000).
Bennett, aged 82, is a fellow at the technology company IBM in New York, while 70-year-old Brassard is a professor at the University of Montreal. The two first crossed paths at an academic conference in Puerto Rico in 1979, where Bennett suggested creating a forgery-proof banknote while swimming during a break.
This chance meeting marked the start of their collaboration, leading to the development of quantum encryption techniques based on the principles of quantum physics, including the behavior of electrons and photons.
Traditional encryption methods rely on complex mathematical calculations that are becoming less secure with the advent of quantum computers. In contrast, Bennett and Brassard's theory, known as BB84, assures that any attempts to hack or duplicate the quantum encryption key will alter its very behavior, making unauthorized copying impossible.
The Association of Computer Machinery, which awards the Turing Award, praised Bennett and Brassard's contributions as essential pathways for securing digital communications in the future.
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