Serkan Ateş is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences at Sabancı University, where he leads the Quantum Photonics Systems Laboratory (QPSL). His research lies at the intersection of quantum optics, nanophotonics, and materials science. He studies single-photon sources and quantum emitters in solid-state platforms, including semiconductor quantum dots and two-dimensional materials, and integrates them into photonic devices and systems for practical quantum communication, sensing, and on-chip quantum technologies.

Dr. Ateş received his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Stuttgart and held research positions at the Technical University of Denmark, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), USA, and TÜBİTAK BİLGEM, Türkiye, before joining İzmir Institute of Technology in 2015 and Sabancı University in 2025. He is the principal investigator of several national and European projects, including the Quantera projects "Atom-Light Free-Space Quantum Optics Networking" (AL FreSQO) and "Quantum Communications with Bright Solid-State Single-Photon Emitters at Room Temperature" (COMPHORT), and is the founder of QLocked Quantum Technologies. He received the TÜBA-GEBİP Presidential Young Researcher Award of the Turkish Academy of Sciences (2017) and the BAGEP Young Scientist Award of the Science Academy (2019).