outreach
Public talks, media, awards, and a single-photon source travelling across Europe.
Impact of QuantERA award
For its 10th anniversary, the QuantERA programme invited its projects to tell their story in the IQ – Impact of QuantERA action. Our video “Impact of QuantERA: COMPHORT” presents the seven-partner COMPHORT consortium and our quest for a simple, reliable single-photon source working at room temperature for secure quantum communications.
On 29 September 2026, at the QuantERA Strategic Conference in Basel, COMPHORT received the Social Media Impact award, given to the project whose IQ story reached and engaged the widest audience.
Hackers vs Photon Messengers
On Friday 30 May 2025, Elena del Valle and Carlos Antón gave the public talk “Hackers vs Photon Messengers: How Quantum Light Protects Information — An Introduction to Quantum Cryptography”, part of IFIMAC’s celebration of the centenary of quantum mechanics and the International Year of Quantum (IYQ2025).
An introduction to how quantum photonics offers new answers to cybersecurity threats. Sala de Grados, Fourier Building, Escuela Politécnica Superior, UAM.
The QuanTour
Adolfo Menéndez Rúa, Raúl Díez Martínez, Carlos Antón-Solanas, Lucía Lázaro Gutiérrez, Diego Marni Sobrino and Alejandro Izquierdo Molina.
We took part in the DPG activity QuanTour for the International Year of Quantum Science & Technology 2025, organised by Doris Reiter and Tobias Heindel: a single-photon source travelling from lab to lab across Europe. Follow its trip on Instagram.
29 July 2024: the first Hong-Ou-Mandel interference ever measured at UAM, with a path-unbalanced Mach-Zehnder interferometer on the QuanTour sample — by Juan V. Vidal Martínez-Pons, Diego Marni, Alejandro Izquierdo, Lucía Lázaro and Adolfo Menéndez.
in the media
- “Impact of QuantERA: COMPHORT” — QuantERA (YouTube), Social Media Impact award 2026
- “QuanTour: Iluminando Europa con fotones individuales” — Revista Española de Física
- “221. Hot Single Photons for Quantum Communications” — The Science Talk podcast
- “Así funciona la antorcha cuántica que viaja en tren por Europa” — The Conversation
- Radio interview in “Hoy por hoy” — Cadena SER
- Radio interview in “Madrid Norte 24 Horas” — Onda Cero
- “Una ‘antorcha cuántica’ viaja por Europa” — UAM news
past events
| Apr 2025 | Scientific news in La Vanguardia (link) on the recent TF-QKD work from the group of Andrew Shields. |
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| Dec 2024 | Podcast in Universo de Misterios, “Comunicación cuántica con el Dr. en Física Carlos Antón Solanas” (iVoox). |
| Dec 2024 | Articles in the Agencia Estatal de Investigación and Escudo Digital. |
| Mar 2024 | The tricks of light in cavities and 2D materials at Madrid es Ciencia. |
| Feb 2024 | Workshop about light and its properties for the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. |
| Nov 2023 | “Ciencia y palomitas — introducción a la luz” in the Semana de la Ciencia y la Innovación, coordinated by IFIMAC. |
| May 2023 | Interview in ABC on the Leonardo Grant for QKD with solid-state single-photon emitters (link). |
| May 2023 | Interview on the IFIMAC YouTube channel about the ULTRA-BRIGHT project (video). |