Yasser Omar studied Physics at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) in Lisbon, and did his PhD on Quantum Information at the University of Oxford. Currently, he is professor at IST, University of Lisbon, where he leads the Physics of Information and Quantum Technologies Group, and corresponding member of the Portuguese Academy of Sciences.
His research interests are focused on quantum computation, quantum networks, and the energetics of quantum technologies. He has won a dozen European projects and one American project in these domains. In 2019, he founded the Quantum Technologies Laboratory at IST, where free-space quantum communications were implemented for the first time in Portugal. In 2022, he co-founded the European Quantum Software Institute.
He has been involved in the creation and the coordination of the European programme Flagship in Quantum Technologies, and is Vice-Chair of the Quantum Community Network. He is also the Co-Chair of the Advisory Board of CERN's Quantum Technology Initiative, and the president of PQI – Portuguese Quantum Institute. In 2022, he launched, together with colleagues in 65+ countries, the World Quantum Day – 14 April, a global outreach initiative that also motivated the recent creation of the Global Quantum Connections Forum to promote international cooperation in quantum technologies between the different hemispheres of the World, namely through the future quantum Internet.
