Immanuel Bloch, Professor at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and Director at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, received the High-Tech Prize of the Minister President. The award, endowed with 300,000 euros, recognizes scientific milestones in the key technologies of the future and is the most highly endowed technology award in Germany. “I’m delighted to receive this prestigious new award by the Bavarian Minister-President and the Bavarian government,” says Immanuel Bloch. “The prize is also a recognition of the many people with whom I’ve had the privilege to work here in Munich over the past 17 years and with whom I was able to shape the “quantum future.” I owe them all my sincere and heartfelt thanks!” The prize money will be reinvested in research, teaching, applications, and supporting new talent.
In his tribute, State Minister Markus Blume, who was standing in for the Minister-President, had warm words for the Munich quantum physicist: “Professor Bloch is a world-leading researcher and new pioneer of quantum science.”
Immanuel Bloch does cutting-edge work in a new, interdisciplinary research field at the interface of quantum optics, quantum information processing, and solid-state physics – the study of quantum many-body systems. Bloch obtained his doctorate at LMU Munich under Nobel laureate Theodor Hänsch. Since 2009, he has been a director at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching and Chair Professor of Experimental Physics and Quantum Optics at LMU. In 2005, he became the youngest ever winner of the German Research Foundation’s Leibniz Prize.
Article adapted from the LMU‘s website.