Gilles Brassard, co-founder of quantum cryptography, receives the A.M. Turing Award

In 5 seconds The UdeM computer-science professor is named a co-recipient of the annual award, considered 'the Nobel Prize in computing,' sharing $1 million for his work.
Gilles Brassard, Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Operations Research at Université de Montréal

Université de Montréal computer science professor Gilles Brassard is the co-winner of the 2025 A.M. Turing Award, a $1-million U.S. prize given by the biggest computing organization in the world, it was announced today. 

"The Turing Award is the most important of all international awards in computer science, and is the most significant of my career to date," Brassard, a pioneer in quantum cryptography, said of the honour bestowed by the New York-based Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).

"It demonstrates the importance of fundamental research that has at its core a curiosity to understand the universe in which we live, and it will help me promote what I have been advocating for decades," the researcher added. 

"We need to wake up and stop relying solely on outdated cryptographic infrastructure that is supposed to protect us, but which we've known since 1994 will collapse as soon as a full-power quantum computer becomes available."

Brassard is a co-recipient of the annual prize with Charles H. Bennett, a longtime colleague and physicist with IBM Research, north of New York City. 

Named after the late British mathematician Alan M. Turing, the award is funded by Google.

Calling them "visionaries”, the ACM, which was founded in 1947 and has close to 100,000 members, said in its announcement that Brassard and Bennett are being recognized "for their essential role in establishing the foundations of quantum information science and transforming secure communication and computing."

“Bennett and Brassard fundamentally changed our understanding of information itself,” said ACM president Yannis Ioannidis. “Their insights expanded the boundaries of computing and set in motion decades of discovery across disciplines. The global momentum behind quantum technologies today underscores the enduring importance of their contributions.”

Very few universities have two winners of the prize, as UdeM does. Computer-science professor Yoshua Bengio was a co-recipient in 2018 with Geoffrey Hinton of the University of Toronto and Yann LeCun of New York University. 

Brassard is only the eighth Canadian to win the award since its inception in 1966. His previous honours include the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics (with Bennett and two others) and the Wolf Prize in Physics; he is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of London.

‘We are immensely proud of professor Brassard, who is once again recognized as a leading figure in quantum science,’ said UdeM rector Daniel Jutras. "The presence of two Turing Award winners among our professors is a testament to the exceptional strength of our research in computer science. Whether it's discoveries that paved the way for artificial intelligence or those leading to quantum cryptography, this work illustrates the profound impact our researchers are having on the technologies that are shaping our future." 

Added Frédéric Bouchard, dean of UdeM's Faculty of Arts and Sciences: "Gilles Brassard is a shining example of how, when we trust and support our researchers, their discoveries, whether fundamental or applied, will help ensure our well-being, prosperity and security. We are all privileged to have such a professor in our ranks, whose curiosity for research has always been matched by the importance he attaches to teaching and the next generation."

Pioneered the field

Brassard pioneered the field of quantum cryptography in the late 1970s, shortly after obtaining his Ph.D. in theoretical computer science in the United States, at Cornell University.

At the time, academic cryptography was in its infancy, and in his thesis Brassard proved the theoretical existence of an "oracle", a mathematical construct that would make "public-key" cryptography, the newest form, provably secure. 

Brassard presented his findings at an international conference in Puerto Rico, where he first met Bennett. Together, they went on to develop a protocol, now known as BB84, that can encode information and transmit it safely using the principles of quantum theory. 

Named after their initials and the year they published their theory, BB84 guarantees absolute confidentiality; the transmitted message is indecipherable to outsiders and, in theory, can't be hacked. Encryption at this level outpaces what conventional supercomputers are capable of doing, and ushered in a new era: that of quantum computing.

"When I started this journey with Charlie Bennett, we never imagined that our inventions would one day form the basis of a technology worth billions of dollars and with the potential to transform society as dramatically as the invention of the transistor did almost eight decades ago," said Brassard.

Cryptology isn't his only area of expertise. He also helped invent quantum teleportation, laying its foundations in 1992 with another Quebecer, Claude Crépeau, now a computer-science professor at the École de technologie supérieure (ETS).

Brassard has long been associated with UdeM. He first began his studies at the university in 1968, at age 13, and has spent the subsequent 58 years there, 47 of those as a professor. Now, with the Turing Award, he has reached a new pinnacle in academia.

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Geneviève O'Meara
Université de Montréal
Phone: 514-343-6111, ext. 77040