The
Carl-Zeiss award, endowed with prize money of 25000 Euros, is granted to the
experimental phycisist Rainer Blatt and the theorist Ignacio Cirac in a
ceremony at the Carl Zeiss AG headquarters in Oberkochen, Germany. Both
scientists have contributed seminal work to the new field of quantum
information. “It is a great honour for me to accept this prize,” says Rainer
Blatt, ”even more so because I share it with a very dear colleague with whom I
have collaborated closely over many years and who has given us decisive impetus
for our experimental research.“
Towards a
Quantum Computer
Rainer Blatt
works with trapped ions, which are manipulated by laser beams. In 2004, based
on ideas developed by Ignacio Cirac and Peter Zoller, Blatt and his research
team successfully transferred quantum information from one atom to another atom
(teleportation) in a completely controlled way for the first time ever. In this
experiment the scientists trapped three particles – a year later, they were
able to entangle up to eight atoms in a controlled way. Another important step
towards a quantum computer was the development of ‘quantum bytes’. Rainer Blatt
is also a successful supporter of junior scientists - six former research
assistants were appointed to a professorship abroad.
Highly
decorated scientist
Rainer
Blatt graduated in mathematics and physics from the University of Mainz.
Between 1984 and 1994, after having worked at the Joint Institute of Laboratory
Astrophysics (JILA) in Boulder, USA and in Berlin, he worked at the University
of Hamburg. In 1994 he moved to the University of Göttingen and a year later he
accepted a professorship at the Institute for Experimental Physics in
Innsbruck, which he has headed since 2000. Since 2003 Rainer Blatt has also
been Scientific Director at the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum
Information (IQOQI) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW). In 2008 he
received an ”ERC Advanced Grant“ by the European Research Council and was
awarded the Kardinal-Innitzer Prize. Together with his European project
partners he was nominated for the Descartes Prize by the European Commission in
2007. In 2006 he received the Erwin Schrödinger Prize of the Austrian Academy
of Sciences. Since 2008 Rainer Blatt is a full member of the Austrian Academy
of Sciences.