Lancaster physicist Gizem Acar Tekin was recently awarded one of five “Ones to Watch” awards as a part of the “Most Inspiring Women in Cyber” awards ceremony, hosted in London.

The awards – which are run jointly by companies IT Security Guru and Eskenzi PR – have been running since 2020, and were instigated to celebrate the contributions of women across the cybersecurity sector, both those with long established careers and those newer to the field. The “One to Watch” category recognises rising leaders whose work is expected to have significant impact on the future of cybersecurity. This year’s awards ceremony was held in London’s BT Tower, and welcomed dozens of women excelling within the cyber field, including Lancaster’s Gizem Acar Tekin.

Gizem is about to complete a PhD in Lancaster’s Physics Department under the pan-European doctoral training centre Quantimony. She was nominated for the award due to her innovative work on semiconductor device technology for quantum-secure communications, which has directly led to the incorporation of the Lancaster spinout Photarix, with Gizem as CEO. Current information encryption techniques are vulnerable to hacking from quantum computing, but while quantum computers are insufficiently developed to do so at present, a “harvest now, decrypt later” approach is widely adopted. Quantum key distribution (a secure communication system based on the laws of quantum mechanics) provides protection against eavesdropping, but is currently impractical and expensive. Photarix aims to address this through the development of semiconductor devices called quantum-ring single-photon LEDs, that can provide customers with a compact, convenient and affordable single-photon light source that is compatible with optical-fibre-based telecommunication infrastructure.

Photarix was incorporated in June 2025 and has since gone from strength to strength. The company was invited to join the UK Government Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) stand at the International Cyber Expo in September, received an introduction to DSIT Minister Baroness Lloyd of Effra, CBE, at the Greater Manchester Digital Security Hub (DiSH) in November and awarded a hyper-competitive Innovate UK “Growth Catalyst Early Stage: New Innovator” grant. Photarix was also selected to join an Innovate UK Global Business Innovation Programme mission to Singapore in early March.

"I’m truly honoured to receive this award,” said Gizem. “As a quantum physicist working in cybersecurity, it means a lot to see the work we’re doing at Photarix gaining recognition. We’re building at the intersection of quantum technologies and secure communications, and it’s encouraging to see both this space and the role of women within it becoming more visible. This recognition also reflects the support of the Lancaster University ecosystem and the wider cyber and deep-tech community."

Gizem’s supervisor, Professor Manus Hayne added: “I am delighted to see Gizem’s achievements to date rewarded in this way, along with the expectation that there is more to come as ‘One to Watch’. When she arrived in Lancaster at the start of her PhD, Gizem already had entrepreneurial aspirations, which is quite unusual. To her credit, not only has she achieved the scientific and technical research success required for the completion of her PhD, she has revitalised a research topic that had been paused, enthusiastically breathing new life into it, even to the point of co-founding a spinout, as CEO, for its commercialisation. I am proud of her success, and excited to continue to work with her in Photarix.”