LOS ANGELES, March 18 (Xinhua) -- The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) on Wednesday named American physicist Charles H. Bennett and Canadian computer scientist Gilles Brassard as the recipients of the 2025 Turing Award for their essential role in establishing the foundations of quantum information science and transforming secure communication and computing.
Often referred to as the "Nobel Prize in Computing," the Turing Award carries a 1 million U.S. dollar prize, with financial support provided by Google Inc.
Bennett and Brassard are widely recognized as founders of quantum information science, a field at the intersection of physics and computer science that treats quantum mechanical phenomena not merely as properties of matter, but as resources for processing and transmitting information.
Over the past four decades, Bennett and Brassard's collaboration bridged two previously distinct disciplines -- physics and computer science. By incorporating quantum principles into computational models, their work has influenced cryptography, algorithm design, computational complexity, learning theory, interactive proofs, and mathematical physics, according to ACM.
"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," said ACM President Yannis Ioannidis. ■
