Hoi-Kwong Lo

Hoi-Kwong Lo is a Principal Investigator at the Centre for Quantum Technologies (CQT), and a Professor of Physics and Provost’s Chair Professor (2025-2028) at the National University of Singapore. He received his BA in mathematics from Trinity College, Cambridge University and PhD in physics from Caltech. After working at various institutions (the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, Hewlett-Packard Labs, Bristol, UK, and MagiQ Technologies, Inc, New York), he joined the University of Toronto as an Associate Professor. He was promoted to Full Professorship in 2009. Previously, he was a Research Division Director and Chair Professor at the University of Hong Kong. He co-founded Quantum Bridge Technologies, Inc, a leading quantum start-up on quantum-safe communication.

Lo has made important contributions to quantum information and quantum cryptography. He is particularly well-known for co-inventing measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDI-QKD). His research group was the first to experimentally demonstrate the decoy-state protocol and to hack successfully a commercial quantum key distribution system.

He was among the first in the world to establish three fundamental results: 1) to prove the information-theoretic security of quantum key distribution (QKD), 2) to co-invent quantum secret sharing, and 3) to prove the impossibility of quantum bit commitment. In addition, he co-developed the standard GLLP (Gottesman-Lo-Lütkenhaus-Preskilll) security model of QKD, and his research group proved the information-theoretic security of the decoy state protocol.

He is a Fellow of Optica, APS, and IEEE. He has won several awards, including the Leonard Mandel Quantum Optics Award, the CAP-INO Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Applied Photonics, the IEEE Photonics Society Quantum Electronics Award, and the QCMC International Quantum Award.