Quantum researchers win prominent Wolf Prize
Two researchers funded by the European Research Council (ERC) have won the prestigious Wolf Prize in physics.
Austrian researcher Peter Zoller and Spanish physicist Juan Ignacio Cirac won the renowned Wolf Prize in recognition “for their groundbreaking theoretical contributions to quantum information processing, quantum optics and the physics of quantum gases”.
The $100,000 (~€76,000) award from the Wolf Foundation will be presented by President Shimon Peres at a ceremony at Israel’s parliament in Jerusalem. Zoller is the fifth ERC grantee to receive the Wolf Prize.
“It is a great honour and privilege to receive this prize together with Juan Ignacio Cirac,” said Zoller. “This award is recognition of a long and fruitful scientific collaboration”.
The foundation described their research as having significance: “Their quantum computer would be able to solve problems currently beyond the abilities of classical computers, such as the factorisation of large numbers, which currently requires exponentially large computing time”.
Zoller received an ERC grant along with Ehud Altman (Israel), Immanuel Bloch (Germany) and Jean Dalibard (France) for their ‘Ultracold Quantum Matter’ project last year. The €9.8m Synergy Grant will help establish an excellence network on quantum mechanics and create dedicated laser laboratories at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Munich and the Collège de France in Paris. Their project holds the promise of revolutionising materials and devices with yet unthinkable capabilities.
“The ERC Synergy Grant offers entirely new possibilities for intense co-operation. It is exciting for me to work in a team at the interface between novel and fundamental theoretical concepts and ideas, and to participate in the experimental efforts by leading laboratories to explore new quantum phenomena”, added Zoller.
The five prizes, each of $100,000, are shared by eight winners from Austria, Germany, Portugal and the United States. Prizes are awarded in the fields of physics, mathematics, agriculture, chemistry for sciences and architecture for the arts.
