As a high school senior visiting Stony Brook University, Leonardo Castillo Veneros did not expect his future to be shaped by a visit to Professor Eden Figueroa’s physics lab. "Professor Figueroa gave an incredible tour," said Castillo Veneros, now a first-year PhD student in physics at Stony Brook. "Even though I didn’t understand everything at the time, the equipment, the instruments — it was all so impressive."
Castillo Veneros enrolled as an undergraduate at Stony Brook in 2017 and quickly reached out to Figueroa about joining the lab. “He told me, ‘You don’t need to know everything to get started,’” Castillo Veneros recalled. He is now part of Figueroa’s Quantum Information Technology Lab, working on quantum networking and communication projects.
His current focus involves developing cryptography systems for a quantum network spanning from Stony Brook to Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). “It’s a really big project,” he noted.
Growing up in Clifton Park, New York, Castillo Veneros completed high school physics before pursuing studies at Stony Brook’s Department of Physics and Astronomy. After earning his undergraduate degree in 2021 and completing a Master of Science in Instrumentation program, he entered the PhD program.
In the lab, he has faced challenges while building complex systems with real-world applications. “With the quantum cryptography project... there wasn’t a lot of existing infrastructure for what we’re trying to do,” he explained.
Figueroa's mentorship style allows students freedom to explore their ideas. “He gives us a lot of freedom as grad students,” said Castillo Veneros.
Castillo Veneros also participates in various projects including quantum tomography and heralding quantum memory and gate projects. His animated explainer video was recently featured at Quantum 2.0/AspenNet Town Hall in San Francisco.
Additionally, Castillo Veneros is supported by the Bridge to the Doctorate Fellowship from the National Science Foundation’s Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation program managed by Stony Brook’s Center for Inclusive Education.
The collaboration between Stony Brook and BNL aims to establish Long Island as a hub for quantum research with long-term goals like building a quantum repeater that extends secure communication ranges.
Despite his achievements, Castillo Veneros considers himself still learning: “There’s still a lot of physics I need to learn.”
While his career path remains open-ended, he hopes to stay involved in research either at national labs or academic institutions. His advice for undergraduates is simple: “Don’t be afraid to reach out... especially at Stony Brook.”