Ronald Hanson

Ronald Hanson (1976) is Distinguished Professor at Delft University of Technology and CEO of Delft Networks. He was one of the four founding professors of the interdisciplinary quantum institute QuTech (2014), serving as its Scientific Director in 2016-2020. Ronald was a main driving force in establishing the 7-year, 615MEuro Dutch program Quantum Delta NL, leading the team in the run-up phase and serving as the first chairman of its Executive Board (2021-2023). In 2024 he co-founded Delft Networks to commercialize the university R&D on quantum networks.

Ronald’s academic research focused on developing the fundamentals of a future quantum internet on the road towards large-scale deployment. His work combines quantum optics, solid-state physics, nuclear magnetic resonance, quantum information theory and nanofabrication. Key results from his academic group include teleportation of quantum data between distant chips (2014), the first loophole-free Bell test (2015), the first multi-node entanglement-based quantum network in the lab (2021) and heralded entanglement generation between chips separated by 10km via 25km of deployed optical fiber (2024).

Ronald has received several awards for his work, including the Nicholas Kurti European Science Prize (2012), the John Stewart Bell Prize (2017) and the Physica Prize (2022). In 2019 he received the Spinoza Prize, the highest scientific award in the Netherlands. He is member of the Dutch Royal Academy of Sciences and Fellow of the American Physical Society. In 2020 he was appointed as the university’s 6th Distinguished Professor.