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While 5G is a reality and has already been commercially launched in several parts of the world, there exist already numerous efforts and initiatives from industry and academia to look beyond 5G and conceptualize 6G by describing its roadmap along with the emerging trends and requirements, as well as several enabling techniques and architectures. Future wireless systems should effectively support a universal and ubiquitous cyber physical structure, new spectrum access schemes, and new forms of communications, while taking into account the energy efficiency and security/privacy considerations.

Two promising technologies for enabling the 6G ecosystem are quantum communications and reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS). In this regard, this Newsletter will delve on these two key technologies envisioned for 6G wireless networks. In the quantum communications area, we have interviewed Prof. Robert Malanev, from The University of New South Wales, Australia, Dr. Angela Sara Cacciapouti, from University of Naples Federico II, Italy, and Prof. Mohsen Razavi, from University of Leeds, UK. We have also had the pleasure to get a position paper from Profs. Soon Xin Ng and Lajos Hanzo. Within the context of RIS, we have interviewed Prof. David Smith and Dr. Mohammadreza F. Imani, from Duke University, USA, Prof. Chau Yuen and Dr. Chongwen Huang, from Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore, and Prof. H. Vincent Poor, from Princeton University, USA, who provided us with their outlook on the opportunities and challenges on RIS. Furthermore, we are delighted to have two position papers on RIS, one written by Prof. George C. Alexandropoulos in conjunction with several collaborators, and another written by Prof. Ian F. Akyildiz, from Georgia Institute of Technology, USA.

I would like to thank our two feature topic editors: Dr. Daryus Chandra, from University of Naples Federico II, Italy, and Prof. George C. Alexandropoulos, from National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, for their hard efforts in arranging the content of this Newsletter. Moreover, we want to thank all authors and interviewees for sharing with us their experience and time. I would finally like to acknowledge the gracious support from the TCCN Chair, Dr. Yue Gao and all TCCN officers. If you have any suggestion, feel free to contact me at: danielbcosta@ieee.org. We hope that you enjoy the material of this Newsletter!

Daniel Benevides da Costa
Director, IEEE ComSoc TCCN Newsletter
Federal University of Ceará, Brazil