Professor Lam Ping Koy

Chief Quantum Scientist
A*STAR

Professor Lam Ping Koy is the Chief Quantum Scientist at A*STAR, and a renowned experimental physicist in the research field of quantum information and metrology. His research work includes quantum optical states generation, quantum teleportation, quantum encryption, quantum opto-mechanics, quantum levitation, optical metrology, and quantum communications.

Prof Lam started his career as an engineer for Sony (audio-electronics) and for Hewlett-Packard (semiconductor LED) after graduating with a BSc double major in mathematics and physics from the University of Auckland. After working for three years as an engineer, he returned to university to complete his MSc in theoretical physics and PhD in experimental physics at the Australian National University. He was awarded the Australian Institute of Physics’ Bragg Gold Medal and the Australian National University’s John G Crawford Prize for his PhD dissertation.

Prof Lam obtained tenure at the Australian National University immediately after his PhD graduation. He was awarded the Australian Research Council’s Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship, Future Fellowship and Laureate Fellowship. Prof Lam won two Australian Eureka Prizes, in recognition for his research in quantum teleportation and quantum encryption in 2003 and 2006, respectively. During his three decades at the Australian National University, Prof Lam also spent periods of time in Erlangen-Nürnberg Universität as an Alexander von Humboldt fellow, in Paris University as a CNRS visiting professor, in Tianjin University as an adjunct professor, and more recently in Nanyang Technological University as a visiting professor.

Prof Lam co-founded QuintessenceLabs – an award-winning Australian company that commercialises quantum communication technology. He was awarded the Australian Institute of Physics’ Alan Walsh Medal as a recognition for his contribution to Australian industry. In 2020, he was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. Prof Lam has published close to 300 scientific articles with more than 50 papers in Physical Review Letters, Science and Nature research journal suite.