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A Plethora of Conferences Celebrating the Quantum Year in Asia

writerLeong Chuan Kwek

Vol.36 (Feb) 2026 | Article no.4 2026

A Plethora of Conferences Celebrating the Quantum Year in Asia by Leong Chuan Kwek

2025 was designated as the International Year for Quantum Science and Technologies. To celebrate this milestone event, several conferences were organized in Singapore in November 2025 and Hong Kong in December 2025. Also, in November 2025, the French–Singapore Quantum Conference took place, and in December 2025 the ASEAN Quantum Summit was held.

3.1 Quantum conferences in Singapore in November

3.1.1 Quantum Techniques in Machine Learning 2025

From November 16–21, 2025, Quantum Techniques in Machine Learning (QTML) 2025 was held at the Marina Bay Sands and the National University of Singapore. QTML was first hosted in Verona, Italy (2017), and then in Durban, South Africa (2018), Daejeon, South Korea (2019), virtually (2020, hosted by Zapata Computing), virtually (2021, hosted by RIKEN-AIP), Naples (2022), CERN (2023), and Melbourne (2024). Held annually, it brings together researchers and industry experts to explore how quantum computing can transform learning, optimization, and data-driven discovery. Nearly 500 researchers participated in this conference, and there were over 50 talks and 300 posters.

3.1.2 Singapore Fintech festival

The Singapore Fintech festival took place from November 18–20, 2025. A Roadmap for AI & Quantum was one of six themes that shaped the Singapore Fintech Festival (SFF) in 2024. The Festival is a global nexus for the policy, finance, and technology communities, welcoming some 65,000 participants.

3.2 French–Singapore Quantum Symposium 2025

Under the high patronage of Mr. Emmanuel Macron, president of France, the French-Singaporean Quantum Symposium (FSQS) 2025 marks the second edition of this flagship event, reaffirming the deepening ties between France and Singapore in the rapidly advancing field of quantum technologies. Held in Paris from November 25–27, 2025, this year’s symposium convened thought leaders, researchers, industry players, and end-users across both nations. A highlight of the symposium was a panel discussion aptly named “A Pioneers’ Dialogue: Alain Aspect & Artur Ekert” (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4
Fig. 4

Panel discussion: A Pioneers’ Dialogue: Alain Aspect & Artur Ekert


3.3 Two quantum conferences in Hong Kong

3.3.1 Quantum HK

On December 2,2025 Poly University of Hong Kong (PolyU) organized the second Quantum HK. More than 100 researchers and students participated in this 1-day event. Nine talks, covering different aspects of quantum information science ranging from quantum computing to terahertz photonics and integrated photonics, quantum key distribution, quantum metrology, quantum error correction, and quantum open systems, were presented. Four distinguished industrial leaders, Wen Kai of QBosoN, ZiPeng Wu of SpinQ, Jon Allcock of Tencent, and Yingming Zhou of XunTai Quantum Technology, were invited to a panel discussion, chaired by Yung Man Hong from Huawei and Shihai Sun from Sun Yat-Sen University.

At the International Conference on Quantum Technology 2025, Prof. Christopher Chao, PolyU senior vice president (Research and Innovation), said the university would continue to nurture talent, foster interdisciplinary collaboration, and accelerate the translation of quantum technology scientific achievements into societal applications, contributing to global quantum development (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5
Fig. 5

Prof. Christopher Chao


The speakers included Academician Dapeng YU from the Shenzhen Institute for Quantum Science and Engineering; Prof. Xicheng ZHANG from the University of Rochester; Prof. Guilu LONG from Tsinghua University; Prof. Leong Chuan KWEK from Nanyang Technological University; Prof. Abolfazl BAYAT from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China; Prof. Tim BYRNES from NYU Shanghai; Prof. Yanoar P. SARWONO from The National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), Indonesia; Prof. Qi ZHAO from The University of Hong Kong (HKU); and Prof. Haidong YUAN from The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK).

The Conference was co-chaired by Prof. Ai-Qun Liu, Prof. Oscar DAHLSTEN, and Prof. Din-Ping CAI from CityUHK, as well as Prof. Giulio CHIRIBELLA from HKU.

3.3.2 2025 Hong Summit of Quantum Frontiers (Fig. 6)

Fig. 6
Fig. 6

2025 Hong Summit of Quantum Frontiers


From December 15 to 18, 2025, the Chinese University of Hong Kong hosted the 2025 Hong Summit of Quantum Frontiers. To engage the public, particularly young students, the organizers arranged two public talks at the Yasumoto International Academic Park on December 14, featuring Artur Ekert and Chao-Yang Lu. Both speakers also delivered technical presentations during the main conference sessions.

The summit attracted over 30 invited speakers and hundreds of researchers and students from around the globe, who gathered to share and discuss their latest research. Topics ranged from quantum communication and quantum simulations to photonic chips, superconducting multiqubit platforms, and non-equilibrium quantum sensing. Additional discussions covered the fractional quantum Hall effect, emergent quantum phenomena, bird magnetoreception, the realization of the Haldane model, multi-photon entanglement, the complexities of open quantum systems, and diamond NV centers.

The conference was organized by Renbao Liu from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, along with Dajun Wang (CUHK) and Jeff Zheyu Ou (CityU).

3.4 The Inaugural ASEAN Quantum Summit (Fig. 7)

Fig. 7
Fig. 7

Quantum Researchers from ASEAN


In April 2024, a gathering of quantum researchers from ASEAN took place in Bangkok. During this meeting, the Bangkok Quantum Manifesto was established, and plans for a quantum conference for ASEAN members were proposed. The Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in Johor was chosen to host the inaugural ASEAN summit on December 10–11, 2025, at the Dewan Sultan Iskandar.

At the summit’s official opening ceremony, ASEAN Secretary General Kim Hourn Kao declared that the quantum era has officially begun. He emphasized the importance of “training programs, youth initiatives, and industry partnerships in cultivating this expertise.” Kao further remarked, “Today’s summit signifies not just a milestone but the start of coordinated quantum development. As a region poised to become the world’s fourth largest economy, serving over 680 million digitally connected citizens, we must act with coherence, confidence, and a commitment to building our capabilities.”

Acknowledgements

ASEAN Quantum Summit 2025 was sponsored by strategic partners from

1. Tier II sponsors: the Johor state government, the Ministry of Digital Malaysia, and Quantinuum;

2. Tier III sponsors: Yaqumo, Open Quantum Institute (OQI), the Center for Quantum Technologies (CQT), Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), Global Research and Development Center for Business by Quantum-AI technology (G-QuAT), and the Quantum STrategic industry Alliance for Revolution (Q-STAR); and

3. Tier IV sponsors: ABEX, the Quantum Technology Research Initiative Collaboration (QTRic), the Program Management Unit for Human Resources and Institutional, Development, Research and Innovation (PMU-B), SpeQtral Zurich Instruments, and Oxford Instruments.

ASEAN Quantum Summit 2025 was supported by stakeholders from

1. The Malaysian government: The Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (MoHE), the Ministry of Digital Malaysia, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation Malaysia (MOSTI), the Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA), and the Malaysian Institute of Physics (IFM);

2. Local academia: UTMSpace, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM), Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Xiamen University Malaysia (XMUM), Universiti Malaya Center of Excellence Quantum Information Science and Technology (UM CoE QIST), and Malaysia Quantum Information Initiative (MyQI); and

3. International stakeholders and close collaborators, i.e., the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the National Institute of Metrology (Thailand), Nicolaus Copernicus University (Poland), the Center for Quantum Information and Quantum Biology (QIQB), The University of Osaka (Japan), the National Quantum Office (Singapore), the Quantum Technology Research Initiative Collaboration (QTRic, Thailand), the Quantum Computing Society of the Philippines (QCSP, Philippines), VNQuantum (Vietnam), the Indonesian Quantum Initiative (IQI, Indonesia) and BRIN-Q, Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator (GESDA, Switzerland), the Open Quantum Institute (OQI, Switzerland), and AQSolotl (Singapore).

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[Source: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s43673-026-00182-0]