cv
Basics
| Name | Zacharie Van Herstraeten |
| Label | Quantum information & optics researcher |
| zacharie.van-herstraeten@inria.fr | |
| Url | https://zac-vh.github.io/ |
| Summary | Seeking photons in their most genuinely quantum regimes, tracking their Wigner functions across quantum phase space, and observing them through the lens of information theory. |
Work
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2024.02 - Present Paris, France
Postdoctoral Researcher
Inria — École Normale Supérieure (ENS)
Postdoctoral research in the QAT team with Dr. Ulysse Chabaud, employing phase-space methods to identify and characterize quantum resources.
- Operational characterization of Wigner-positive states
- Extending majorization theory to quasiprobabilities
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2022.01 - 2024.01 Tucson, AZ, USA
Postdoctoral Researcher
College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona
Postdoctoral research in the Quantum Photonic Applications Group of Prof. Saikat Guha, focusing on quantum communication with continuous-variable systems.
- Capacity of non-Gaussian bosonic channels
- Entanglement enhancement via photon subtraction
Volunteer
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2025.06 - 2025.11 Paris, France
Co-organizer
QuiDiQua 3 — Quasiprobability Distributions in Quantum Mechanics, Optics and Information
Member of the organizing committee of the international conference QuiDiQua 3 (Paris, 2025), focusing on quasiprobability distributions and phase-space methods.
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2025.05 - Present Package maintainer
qopy — Quantum Optics in Python
Developer and maintainer of an open-source Python toolkit for Wigner functions, bosonic channels, and visualization in quantum optics.
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2024.01 - Present Reviewer
Peer-reviewed scientific journals
Reviewer for various journals in quantum information and quantum physics.
- Quantum
- Physical Review A
- Quantum Information Processing
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2017.09 - 2021.12 Brussels, Belgium
Teaching assistant
École polytechnique de Bruxelles, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB)
Taught exercise sessions and lectures in the quantum mechanics course for third-year engineering students. Supervised the master's theses of two students.
Education
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2017.09 - 2021.12 Brussels, Belgium
PhD in Quantum Information
École polytechnique de Bruxelles, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB)
Doctoral research conducted at the Center for Quantum Information and Communication (QuIC), under the supervision of Prof. Nicolas J. Cerf. PhD thesis: Majorization theoretical approach to quantum uncertainty — From Wigner entropy to Gaussian bosonic channels.
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2015.09 - 2017.09 Brussels, Belgium
MSc in Physics Engineering
École polytechnique de Bruxelles, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB)
Specialized in photonics and quantum applications.
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2015.09 - 2016.09 Trondheim, Norway
International exchange
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
First year of the master’s degree completed as part of the Erasmus program.
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2012.09 - 2015.09 Brussels, Belgium
BSc in Engineering
École polytechnique de Bruxelles, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB)
General engineering curriculum.
Skills
| Quantum optics | |
| Continuous variables | |
| Phase-space methods | |
| Quasiprobabilities |
| Quantum information theory | |
| Resource theories | |
| Bosonic channels | |
| Entropic inequalities |
| Mathematical methods | |
| Theory of majorization | |
| Functional analysis | |
| Convex analysis |
| Scientific computing | |
| Python | |
| Matplotlib | |
| Mathematica |
Languages
| French | |
| Native speaker |
| English | |
| Fluent |
Awards
- 2021.01.29
BAEF Postdoctoral Fellowship
Belgian American Educational Foundation (BAEF)
One-year postdoctoral fellowship awarded to support Belgian scholars conducting research in the United States.
- 2017.12.15
F.R.S.-FNRS Doctoral Fellowship (FRIA)
Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS), Belgium
Competitive four-year doctoral fellowship supporting PhD training in the exact and natural sciences.