Director, Quantum Many-Body Systems Division; Professor of Experimental Physics
Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics / LMU Munich · Germany
Bloch develops ultracold-atom quantum simulators, using optical lattices and microscopic imaging to prepare and observe many-body states that are difficult to understand classically.
Bloch’s work makes abstract models of interacting matter experimentally accessible. A landmark optical-lattice experiment observed a controlled transition between a superfluid and a Mott insulator. Later, single-atom imaging exposed the structure and defects of a lattice gas one site at a time. Together, these contributions supplied both a controllable system and a way to read it out. They underpin the use of ultracold atoms as quantum simulators, where the goal is to study a chosen physical model rather than to execute every possible digital quantum algorithm.
Calarco develops quantum-control approaches and helps organize European quantum research, connecting the precise manipulation of devices with coordinated programs for building quantum technologies.
Calarco’s contribution links technical control research with the institutions that support it. His institute works on methods for steering quantum systems toward desired operations, a problem shared by multiple qubit approaches. He also helped shape the Quantum Manifesto and the European coordination that followed, connecting a research agenda to a broader technology program. This combination matters because useful quantum computing depends on both precise operations and sustained collaboration across groups. The profile identifies those documented activities without crediting him with every result produced by the programs he helped organize.
A quantum theorist whose proposals helped turn trapped ions into a computing architecture and entanglement purification into a strategy for long-distance quantum communication.
Cirac’s contributions connect the abstract requirements of quantum information with specific physical systems. His trapped-ion proposal with Peter Zoller described how laser-controlled ions could perform quantum computation. His work with Briegel, Dür and Zoller then addressed the different challenge of preserving entanglement across long communication distances. Both examples show why architecture matters: a useful quantum device needs a method for combining imperfect physical operations into a larger, coordinated task.
