Masahiro Kitagawa

Prof. Masahiro Kitagawa is a Professor in the Graduate School of Engineering Science and the Director of the Center for Quantum Information and Quantum Biology at Osaka University, Japan. He has been working on quantum optics and quantum information since 1985 when he was a research scientist at Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) Basic Research Laboratories.

His research interests cover quantum measurement and sensing, quantum communications, quantum computing, and quantum biology. Dr Kitagawa serves as the Program Director of Japan’s Moonshot Research and Development Program Goal Six which seeks to realize a fault-tolerant universal quantum computer that will revolutionize the economy, industry and security by 2050.

He is also Project Leader of the Quantum Software Research Hub at Osaka University and a member of the quantum innovation committee in Japan’s Cabinet Office. Dr Kitagawa is a co-founder of QunaSys Inc., a quantum software startup, and QuEL Inc., a quantum middleware startup. In 2020, his paper on “Squeezed Spin States” was selected for Physical Review A’s 50th Anniversary Milestone Collection.