“Gradiant gives me the opportunity to develop into a leading expert in a strategic field of quantum technologies”, Moshelem Molho López, Research Engineer in Communications and Sensing
Curiosity has always been Moshelem’s starting point: understanding how things work, questioning easy answers and looking for explanations grounded in scientific knowledge. This curiosity led him to study Physics and to develop an early interest in quantum computing and quantum communications, a field in which he is now building his professional career.
He joined Gradiant in 2023 as part of the quantum technologies team and, since then, has worked on quantum-system simulation, quantum memories, sensing, quantum computing and quantum-inspired techniques. This progression also led him to complete the Master’s Degree in Quantum Information Science and Technologies (MQIST) and, subsequently, to begin an Industrial PhD focused on the use of quantum memories in quantum communication networks, supported by GAIN.
His career has recently reached another milestone: taking part in QCrypt 2026 in Ottawa, his first international conference, where he had the opportunity to exchange knowledge with some of the world’s leading experts in quantum cryptography and communications. We spoke to him about this journey, his research and the challenges ahead.
Moshelem, you joined Gradiant in 2023 as part of the quantum technologies team. How has your work evolved from the time you joined Gradiant to starting your Industrial PhD with the support of GAIN?
In a few words, my progression at Gradiant began with my time as an intern, continued with my work as a research engineer on a range of quantum technology projects, and has now brought me to my current position as an Industrial PhD student within the organisation. The longer version of the story is what follows.
I joined Gradiant in January 2023, a few months after completing my degree in Physics at the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela. I started as an intern in the quantum technologies line, working on models and simulations of quantum systems. In these systems, atoms and light allow us to exploit some of the most subtle properties of the quantum world to “tune” the lasers we use in the laboratory, rather like tuning a highly sophisticated musical instrument. Once “tuned”, the laser can be used in extremely demanding experiments and technological developments.
After this initial stage, my supervisor, Miguel Ferreira, suggested that I enrol on the newly created Master’s Degree in Quantum Information Science and Technologies (MQIST), and I became part of the first cohort of this programme, created jointly by Galicia’s three universities. For me, studying this Master’s was an incredible experience, as it allowed me to immerse myself in disciplines such as quantum communications, quantum optics, quantum sensing and quantum thermodynamics, among others.
I returned to my work at Gradiant at the beginning of 2024 to complete my Master’s thesis, which focused on the simulation of optical quantum memories capable of storing and releasing photons on demand in an atomic vapour. I am genuinely very proud of the outcome of that work and of the deep understanding I gained from studying and simulating these types of systems.
In the meantime, I became a permanent member of staff in September 2024 and had the opportunity to take part in projects involving what are known as NV centres, quantum diamonds that are ultra-sensitive to magnetic fields, as well as projects involving Rydberg atoms, which are capable of detecting extremely weak electromagnetic fields.
I also had the opportunity to participate in quantum computing projects such as DIH DataLife, where we explored how hybrid classical-quantum Quantum Machine Learning algorithms could be used for drug discovery, including running them on real quantum computers such as CESGA’s QMIO and IBM systems.
In addition, I worked with quantum-inspired techniques such as Tensor Networks. In parallel, within QUORUM, the Cervera Innovation Ecosystem in Quantum Computing led by Gradiant, I prepared technical documentation on photonic quantum computing, reviewing the state of the art in linear optics techniques as well as other photonic approaches such as Boson Sampling, which could offer a quantum advantage over conventional computing.
Following this first stage, GAIN launched its call to fund Industrial PhDs. At Gradiant, we submitted a highly ambitious doctoral proposal on the use of quantum memories in quantum communication networks. This marked the beginning of my PhD stage at the end of 2025.
Tell us a little more about your Industrial PhD. What does it involve and what does your work at Gradiant contribute to it?
An Industrial PhD is conceived as research into a subject that will drive the development of a specific technology of interest to a company or technology centre. In other words, it starts from a technological and strategic vision that the organisation has already identified and is willing to support through research because it believes that this work can strengthen its position in that particular technology.
This commitment is reinforced by the Xunta de Galicia through the Axencia Galega de Innovación, GAIN, which sees Industrial PhDs as a way of improving the competitiveness of Galician companies and technology centres. It is what you might call a “win-win” for everyone involved.
On top of that, we have the opportunity to conduct research into a cutting-edge or “deep tech” technology at the frontier of knowledge, firmly grounded in the fundamental knowledge generated through academic basic research.
In our particular case, Gradiant is making a strong commitment to developing technology in quantum communication networks, and we have been able to bring the academic sector into this effort through the Universidade de Vigo.
The conceptualisation, supervision and execution of the thesis, coordinated by Gradiant, is complemented by the co-supervision and academic guidance of Marcos Curty, Director of the Vigo Quantum Communication Center, who has carried out highly significant work on analysing the security of different quantum communication protocols and proposing new ones. In this way, the Gradiant–GAIN–UVigo circle is completed, creating the ideal conditions for us to carry out our work.
Our research sits within this highly favourable ecosystem. The thesis is entitled “Quantum-Memory Mediated Quantum Conference Key Agreement” and is supervised at Gradiant by Miguel Ferreira.
I can summarise the essence of the work by saying that we aim to enable a secret key, which can be used to secure communications, to be distributed among several users, and to do so efficiently by using quantum memories.
What we really want to determine is whether this is possible, and we will focus on analysing these systems, simulating them and testing them in the laboratory to find out.
One consequence of this work will be to make protocols beyond the well-known Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) schemes viable. Recently proposed protocols make it possible to involve several users simultaneously — rather like a video conference or a group messaging chat, if I may use that analogy — and secure their communications.
It is fascinating because, to achieve this, we will use one of the most remarkable properties of quantum physics: entanglement. Moreover, this will involve many-to-many, multipartite entanglement. This is precisely what these new protocols, known as Quantum Conference Key Agreement (QCKA), explore.
You have recently taken part in QCrypt in Ottawa, one of the leading international events specialising in quantum cryptography and communications. What was the experience like?
QCrypt 2026 was my first international conference. I travelled to Canada and found myself within a young research community where PhD students, postdocs and established researchers came together in the same space for five very intense days.
Every day, a succession of talks, tutorials, discussions and poster presentations showed me just how broad the field of quantum cryptography really is.
I was also able to identify several research lines and original ideas that could be interesting to bring back to Gradiant and that fit extremely well with different technological lines being developed at our centre.
But what has left the most lasting impression on me was being able to put faces to a research community that, until then, had existed for me only as names in scientific publications.
I realised that this is a living community, made up of people whose highly relevant contributions across different areas of quantum technologies are being developed in research groups around the world, and who are willing to share their progress and discuss their results with any other member of the community.
Seeing in person the people whose names appear at the top of a paper or review article you have been working with for months, and feeling that you are part of a wider community, gives all of this a profoundly human dimension.
Was there any particular trend, piece of research or conversation that caught your attention during QCrypt? How has the experience contributed to the next stage of your Industrial PhD?
I should highlight that at QCrypt 2026 I met several researchers who are particularly relevant to my work.
For example, I spoke with Paul G. Kwiat, a key figure who proposed one of the first efficient sources of entangled photon pairs. His work on the use of active delay lines for deterministic single-photon generation and photon synchronisation serves as an important reference point for our research.
I also met the person I jokingly referred to as the “Quantum Conference Key Agreement Guy”, Federico Grasselli. His doctoral thesis on this very subject was supervised by Prof. Dr Dagmar Bruss, who leads the Institute for Theoretical Physics III in Düsseldorf at Heinrich Heine Universität. I will be spending several months there next year.
Other important names, such as Ramona Wolf, author of a key reference book on QKD, and Duncan England, a researcher working on ultrafast switches and quantum memories, also attended the conference and shared their research.
Anyone working in my field will recognise these names, and having the opportunity to share the same space, talk and discuss ideas with them was a privilege.
Alongside these leading researchers, I was also able to discuss and exchange ideas with a small subgroup of the community that I nicknamed the “Multipartite Guys”: researchers from around the world whose main focus is exploiting multipartite quantum entanglement in areas such as communications, sensing and repeaters.
They include very young researchers such as Nicolas Laurent-Puig from France, Tommaso Feri from Italy, Yoshihiro Ueda and Naoaki Koyama from Japan, Ranendu Adhikary from India and, once again, Federico Grasselli from Italy. I have a photo with several of the “Multipartite Guys” that I am very fond of. I am sure there are “multiple” advances ahead of us.
Despite the international nature of the conference, we should not overlook the strong Spanish presence and, in particular, the significant Galician participation.
I had the opportunity to meet several researchers from the Vigo Quantum Communication Center, with whom I hope to have many more meetings and discussions in the future, as well as other Galician researchers currently carrying out their doctoral work in different European countries.
Since returning from the conference, I have continued to follow these threads and have been able to identify the research groups, doctoral theses, companies and main developments associated with several of the people I met there.
I now have a much stronger mental map of the developments and technologies that may align with the areas that matter to us at Gradiant in general, and to the doctoral project in particular.
Being able to look beyond the cold, impersonal advances described in a paper and recognise the real people behind those developments — and behind the work of their research groups, is something that conferences and meetings like this make possible and that is very difficult to achieve from an office.
Speaking of your Industrial PhD, what advantages do you see in being able to carry out a thesis within a technology centre such as Gradiant?
As I mentioned earlier, Gradiant enables synergies between industry, academia and public and private institutions.
Another advantage is the technological and strategic vision behind the organisation’s strong commitment to quantum technologies. At Gradiant, there is a dedicated Quantum Technologies line within the Communications and Sensing area, which is attracting increasing amounts of both internal and external talent and where highly significant projects are being developed.
My professional career also continues to progress within the framework of the Industrial PhD. I am not carrying out research in isolation: I can also participate in the conceptualisation of ideas, proposals and projects that contribute to the centre’s technological capital.
Gradiant gives me the invaluable opportunity to develop into a leading expert in a specific and strategic field of quantum technologies, while at the same time Gradiant can strengthen its position and know-how as our research progresses.
I deeply value having a clear horizon ahead of me and the confidence that comes from belonging to a team of people who are working towards it.
In your day-to-day work, you can combine scientific research with technological projects and real-world challenges. How does this connection with industry and R&D projects influence the development of your thesis?
It means that every advance or specific development resulting from my research is partly motivated by needs arising in related quantum communications projects.
Simulations that are useful for my thesis are conceived from the outset as tasks that can feed into work packages in other projects, contribute to a code repository that can be useful to other colleagues, or support a proposal that can be developed or conceptualised thanks to my ideas or calculations.
At the same time, someone first needs to establish a direction: what we are going to work on, which lines we are going to develop and which proposals or projects we are going to pursue, so that when I apply my particular capabilities, they benefit the organisation as a whole.
If we also consider the fact that Gradiant has invested in strong experimental facilities and quantum technology laboratories, my work becomes even more meaningful, because I model and simulate the physics of systems that will subsequently be tested in those laboratories.
Researchers with a profile like mine, which is more theoretical and simulation-oriented, do not always have the opportunity to keep one foot in the laboratory and translate ideas into concrete problems.
This is extremely valuable in my field and often results in simulations of realistic systems that are highly ambitious and considerably more complex than the idealised or simplified scenarios often considered in academia.
This is where bridges with industry begin to be built, because complex real-world problems are part of everyday life in industry.
If we also consider the fact that Gradiant has invested in strong experimental facilities and quantum technology laboratories, my work becomes even more meaningful, because I model and simulate the physics of systems that will subsequently be tested in those laboratories.
Researchers with a profile like mine, which is more theoretical and simulation-oriented, do not always have the opportunity to keep one foot in the laboratory and translate ideas into concrete problems.
This is extremely valuable in my field and often results in simulations of realistic systems that are highly ambitious and considerably more complex than the idealised or simplified scenarios often considered in academia.
This is where bridges with industry begin to be built, because complex real-world problems are part of everyday life in industry.
Gradiant’s quantum technologies area is growing rapidly. In fact, the team’s involvement in key European initiatives and projects such as QUPIDO and QUEENS has increased considerably. How would you describe Gradiant’s Quantum Technologies team, and how do you assess the capabilities being developed at the centre?
Our quantum technologies team is a diverse one. On the one hand, we have more experienced people with greater levels of responsibility who contribute every day to aligning the direction of the technology line with the centre’s strategic vision.
We are investing in technological areas in which we can differentiate ourselves within today’s technology ecosystem. This work may sometimes go unnoticed, but it makes the difference between having a future and not having one.
On the other hand, there are junior and mid-level profiles with several years of experience who are beginning to enter a stage of professional maturity, where we can sometimes see ourselves as reference points for less experienced colleagues.
I want to pause on this point to emphasise that Gradiant is investing in providing us with the resources and opportunities to participate in projects that will allow us to become recognised professionals in our technological fields in the medium term.
This gives our professional careers an upward trajectory from which we can contribute to advancing the technological capabilities of our environment.
Regardless of whether our profile is more engineering-oriented or research-focused, Gradiant is investing in people. New colleagues joining us, whether as interns or in junior or senior positions, will be in the right environment to grow and contribute.
We are also encouraged to play an active part in building that environment, whether by strengthening our skills and training, helping to improve the laboratories, developing and maintaining our software repositories, tackling complex engineering challenges, participating in demanding internal and external collaborations, contributing to national and European proposals, or receiving support to develop new deep-tech ideas through our doctoral projects.
QUPIDO Y QUEENS: Estos proyectos ha sido desarrollado en el marco de un programa de la Agencia Espacial Europea (ESA)