2012 Physics Nobel Prize Announced

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

Wineland is an American physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) physics laboratory in Boulder and he has worked in optics, specifically laser cooling of ions in Paul traps and use of trapped ions to implement quantum computing operations.

Haroche, a French physicist, born in Morocco, is a Professor at the Collège de France and holds the Chair of Quantum Physics. His main research activities include work in quantum optics and quantum information science.

Haroche has been a visitor to ICTP and was last here in 2008 to lecture at a workshop titled Quantum Phenomena and Information: From Atomic to Mesoscopic Systems.

More information is available in the Nobel Prize in Physics press release.