QUANTUMCOMM 2009--the International Conference on Quantum Communi- tion
and Quantum Networking (from satellite to nanoscale)--took place in Vico
Equense near Naples, Italy, during October 26-30, 2009. The conference
made a significant step toward stimulating direct dialogue between the
communities of quantum physics and quantum information researchers who
work with photons, atoms, and electrons in pursuit of the common goal of
investigating and utilizing the transfer of physical information between
quantum systems. This meeting brought together experts in quantum
communication, quantum inf- mation processing, quantum nanoscale
physics, quantum photonics, and networking. In the light of traditional
approaches to quantum information processing, quantum communication
mainly deals with encoding and securely distributing quantum states of
light in optical fiber or in free space in order to provide the
technical means for quantum cryptography applications. Exciting advances
in the area of quantum c- munication over the last decade have made the
metropolitan quantum network a re- ity. Several papers presented at this
meeting have demonstrated that quantum crypt- raphy is approaching the
point of becoming a high-tech application rather than a - search
subject. The natural distance limitation of quantum cryptography has
been significantly augmented using ideas of global quantum communication
with stab- orbit satellites. The results presented at this conference
demonstrated that practical secure satellite communication is clearly
within reach.