The 2013 Wolf Prize in Physics has been awarded to Juan Ignacio Cirac of the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Munich, Germany, and Peter Zoller of Innsbruck University in Austria for “groundbreaking theoretical contributions to quantum-information processing, quantum optics and the physics of quantum gases”. The duo will share the $100,000 prize, which will be presented by the president of Israel at the Israeli parliament (Knesset) in May.

Read more at this physicsworld.com blog entry.

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2012 was awarded jointly to Serge Haroche and David J. Wineland "for ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems".

Read the official announcement on nobelprize.org.

We are proud to note that Serge Haroche is an active member of the European QIPC community, and in particular, a project partner of the currently running Integrated Project AQUTE.

The Charles Hard Townes award was established in 1980 to honor Charles Hard Townes, a pioneer in the field of masers and lasers, whose contributions led to the development of quantum electronics. It is awarded to a researcher or a group of researchers for outstanding experimental or theoretical work within the field of optics and quantum electronics.

This year it has been given to Philippe Grangier for "major advances in fundamental quantum optics, based on the invention or development of methods and experimental techniques that have led to innovative applications in quantum information".

Philippe Grangier, who is a QUIE2T WP leader and an AQUTE PI, is research director at CNRS since 1988 and leads the group of Quantum Optics Laboratory Charles Fabry, UMR CNRS and the Institut d'Optique Graduate School. He is also professor at the Ecole Polytechnique. 

After making many experimental studies on non-classical properties of light (single-photon states, squeezed states, QND measurements), it is currently using the methods and tools of quantum optics in the broader context of treatment quantum information, one goal is to perform simple logic operations acting on "quantum bits" or qubits. 

He is also a board member of the IFRAF, and of the Scientific Council of the start-up SEQURENET, which operates the applications of his work in quantum cryptography.

Further details

http://www.ifraf.org/a-la-une/article/philippe-grangier-recoit-le-prix (in French)
http://www.osa.org/Awards_and_Grants/Awards/Award_Description/charlestownes/

Read the full story (in German).

Professor Klaus Mølmer receives the Villum Kann Rasmussen Annual Award for Technical and Scientific Research.

For further details, please visit the following link:

http://www.au.dk/en/about/news/single/artikel/kvantemekanikkens-stemme-faar-danmarks-stoerste-forskerpris/

 

A recent PRL on the realization of a hybrid atom-optomechanical system involving AQUTE researchers in the University of Basel, received some attention, including a "Physics viewpoint" and an article in the January issue of the Physik Journal. 

These are the links to the articles:

http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v107/i22/e223001

http://physics.aps.org/articles/v4/97

http://www.pro-physik.de/details/physikjournalIssue/1430829/PJ_01_2012.html

 

The 2nd year AQUTE review meeting has been scheduled on the 20th of April, 2012, in Mainz. As usual by now, the review will happen within the cluster review meeting, that will run in Mainz from the 18th to the 20th of April, 2012, featuring the QIPC open day on the 19th.