Daniel Pereira, a former researcher with the Quantum Communications Group of Instituto de Telecomunicações (IT) and a PhD in Electrical Engineering at the University of Aveiro (UA), was recently honored at the sixth edition of the International Conference on Optics and Photonics – AOP 2024. He won the prestigious Best PhD Thesis in Optics and Photonics in Portugal in 2023.

Daniel's award-winning thesis "Analysis and Optimization of Continuous Variables Quantum Cryptographic Systems” presents an innovative study demonstrating the feasibility of implementing quantum-secure cryptographic systems using equipment already deployed in fiber optic networks. This groundbreaking research was conducted as part of the QuantumPrime and Quantagenomics projects, supported by a PhD grant (SFRH/BD/139867/2018) from the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). Armando Nolasco Pinto and Nuno Silva, both researchers at IT, supervised his work. Daniel Pereira is now a researcher at the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT).

International Conference on Optics and Photonics – AOP 2024 was held from July 16 to 19, 2024, at the University of Aveiro in Portugal. It is considered the leading optics conference in Portugal and one of the most significant globally, aiming to discuss recent progress and establish a vision for the future across all fields of optics and photonics.

Photo credits: AOP