Akira Furusawa received his MS degree in applied physics and PhD degree in physical chemistry from the University of Tokyo, Japan, in 1986 and 1991, respectively. His research interests cover the area of nonlinear optics, quantum optics, and quantum information science. He is currently professor of applied physics, School of Engineering, the University of Tokyo, the deputy director of RIKEN Center for Quantum Computing, and Director of OptQC which is a startup company for optical quantum computers. Furusawa has authored more than 100 papers in leading technical journals and conferences, which include the first realisation of unconditional quantum teleportation, which was achieved in 1998 at California Institute of Technology as a visiting scientist at Professor Jeff Kimble’s lab. He received the Ryogo Kubo Memorial Award in 2006, the JSPS prize in 2007, the Japan Academy Medal in 2007, the International Quantum Communication Award in 2008, the Toray Science and Technology prize in 2015, and the Medal with purple ribbon in 2016. He is a member of the Physical Society of Japan, the Japanese Society of Applied Physics, and OPTICA.