Gilles Brassard was born on April 20, 1955. He is a Canadian computer scientist who works as a professor at the Université de Montréal. He has been a Full Professor there since 1988 and a Canada Research Chair since 2001. In 2025, he shared the Turing Award with Charles H. Bennett for their research in quantum information science.
Early life and education
Brassard was born on April 20, 1955, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Computer Science from Cornell University in 1979. During his studies, he worked on secret codes, and his teacher was John Hopcroft.
Research
Brassard is best known for his important research in quantum cryptography, quantum teleportation, quantum entanglement distillation, quantum pseudo-telepathy, and the classical simulation of quantum entanglement. Some of these ideas have been tested in laboratories.
In 1984, along with Charles H. Bennett, he created the BB84 protocol for quantum cryptography. He later expanded his work to include the Cascade error correction protocol, which helps identify and fix errors caused by people trying to listen in on quantum cryptography signals.
Awards and honours
Brassard was the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Cryptology from 1991 to 1998. In 2000, he received the Prix Marie-Victorin, which is the most important science award given by the government of Quebec. In 2006, he was elected as a Fellow of the International Association for Cryptologic Research, becoming the first Canadian to earn this title. In June 2010, he was awarded the Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal, which is Canada’s most important science award. In 2013, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Royal Society of London. His nomination stated: On December 30, 2013, the Governor-General of Canada, David Johnston, announced that Gilles Brassard was named an Officer in the Order of Canada. In 2018, he received the Wolf Prize in Physics. In 2019, he was given the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Basic Sciences and the Micius Quantum Prize. In September 2022, Brassard was awarded the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, which is the world’s largest science prize. In 2023, he was honored with the Eduard Rhein Foundation Prize in Technology. In March 2026, Brassard was named, along with Charles Bennett, as the winner of the 2025 ACM Turing Award for work on the foundations of quantum information science and secure communication and computing.