Public Lecture by Professor Anton Zeilinger: Quantum Puzzles and their Application in Future Information Technologies

Professor Anton Zeilinger. Photo credit:Jacqueline Godany

Tuesday, 11 November 2008. HG20, Nursing Building, DCU at 7.00 p.m.

Anton Zeilinger's achievements have been most succinctly described in his citation for the Isaac Newton Medal of the Institute of Physics (UK):

For his pioneering conceptual and experimental contributions to the foundations of quantum physics, which have become the cornerstone for the rapidly evolving field of quantum information.

Professor Anton Zeilinger is Professor of Experimental Physics at the University of Vienna and Scientific Director of the Institute of Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI), Austrian Academy of Sciences. He has recently been awarded the Isaac Newton medal of the Institute of Physics for outstanding contributions to physics and for his pioneering conceptual and experimental contributions to the foundations of quantum physics, which have become the cornerstone for the rapidly evolving field of quantum information. His profound insights into the microscopic nature of reality, as described by quantum theory, and his ability to turn new concepts into innovative experiments have excited the scientific community - as well as capturing the popular imagination.

Starting his career investigating the wave nature of matter through quantum interferometry experiments with neutrons and atoms, his team later went on to demonstrate the wave-particle duality concept in large molecules such as fullerenes, exploring the frontier between quantum and classical behaviour. He also re-visited and extended established theoretical interpretations of the quantum world. In the 1990s, he carried out a series of brilliant experiments exploring the behaviour of entangled photons. He developed a method to create for the first time entangled three-particle states - Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states. Professor Zeilinger?s work helped open the way to new quantum information technologies. He developed the first entanglement-based cryptographic system, and more recently worked on implementations of quantum computing using photon cluster states.

Professor Zeilinger is in Ireland on the invitation of Dr. Sile NicChormaic of TNI and UCC. His visit to Ireland is sponsored by the Institute of Physics and Science Foundation Ireland.