Stephen Wiesner

Stephen J. Wiesner (August 30, 1942 – August 12, 2021)[1] was an American-Israeli research physicist, inventor and construction laborer. As a graduate student at Columbia University in New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s, he discovered several of the most important ideas in quantum information theory, including quantum money[2] (which led to quantum key distribution), quantum multiplexing[3] (the earliest example of oblivious transfer) and superdense coding[4] (the first and most basic example of entanglement-assisted communication). Although this work remained unpublished for over a decade, it circulated widely enough in manuscript form to stimulate the emergence of quantum information science in the 1980s and 1990s.

Stephen Wiesner
Wiesner in the straw hat (2015)
Born	August 30, 1942 US
Died	August 12, 2021(2021-08-12) (aged 78–79) Jerusalem, Israel
Citizenship	US, Israel
Known for	discoveries in quantum information theory, quantum money, quantum multiplexing
Parent(s)	Jerome Wiesner, Laya Wiesner
Awards	Micius Quantum Prize (2019)
Academic background
Education	Brandeis University
Alma mater	Columbia University
Thesis	Experimental test of the rotational invariance of the weak interaction (1972)
Academic work
Discipline	Quantum information theory
Notable works	Conjugate Coding, 1983 (published)

Stephen Wiesner is the son of Jerome Wiesner[5] and Laya Wiesner. He received his undergraduate degree from Brandeis University. In 2006 he shared the Rank Prize in Optoelectronics with Charles H. Bennett, and Gilles Brassard for quantum cryptography. In 2019, he received one of six Micius Quantum Prizes, along with Bennett, Brassard, Artur Ekert, Anton Zeilinger and Pan Jianwei for quantum communication.

After immigration to Israel, Wiesner "embraced Orthodox Judaism" and most recently worked as a construction laborer in Jerusalem.[6][1] He remained affiliated with the Quantum Foundations & Information Group at Tel Aviv University.[7][8]