Austrian Awarded Nobel Prize in Physics 2022
This year, the Nobel Prize for Physics goes to an Austrian, among others. Anton Zeilinger won the prize for his unique achievements in the field of quantum physics. The Frenchman Alain Aspect and the US-American John F. Clauser won together with him.
Zeilinger's the first Austrian Nobel Price winner since Wolfgang Pauli in 1945. / Picture: © Wikimedia Commons, Jaqueline Godany, CC BY 4.0
The Nobel Prize Committee announced on Tuesday that it will award the2022 Nobel Prize in Physics to Frenchman Alain Aspect, US-American John F. Clauser and Austrian Anton Zeilinger for research in the field of quantum physics.
The Nobel Prize is the world's most visible scientific honour and is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. "The prize crowns an outstanding scientific career and is a great sign of the success of Austrian basic research at the highest international level," said Christof Gattringer President of the Austrian Science Fund FWF.
The Austrian Science Fund FWF has been supporting Anton Zeilinger's research projects for decades. The award thus also shows how important it is to have well-positioned funding for basic research in order to keep up with the world leaders.
With his groundbreaking basic research in the field of quantum physics, and in particular quantum cryptography, quantum teleportation and quantum information, Anton Zeilinger has helped to build up the entire field of science from the very beginning and has played a decisive role in shaping it.
The many well-wishers were joined by the Austrian Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen. Zeilinger had been mentioned several times in recent weeks as a possible Nobel Prize winner and now it was finally time for the ingenious physicist to receive his laurels for his work.
Herzlichen Glückwunsch an Anton #Zeilinger! Immer wieder wurde sein Name in Zusammenhang mit dem #Nobelpreis genannt. Nun, mit dem heutigen Tag ist es so weit. (1/2) https://t.co/AvmyCUWeB9
— A. Van der Bellen (@vanderbellen) October 4, 2022
Alain Aspect, John Clauser and Anton Zeilinger have each conducted groundbreaking experiments with entangled quantum states, in which two particles behave as one, even when they are separated. Their results have paved the way for new technologies based on quantum information.
The Nobel Prize Committee's citation for the Austrian's award states that Zeilinger's research group has, among other things, demonstrated a phenomenon called quantum teleportation, which makes it possible to transfer a quantum state from one particle to another that is at a certain distance.
Enthused by the achievements of the three scientists who won the Nobel Prize this year, Anders Irbäck, chairman of the Nobel Committee for Physics, noted: "It is becoming increasingly clear that a new kind of quantum technology is emerging. We can see that the laureates' work with entangled states is of great importance, even beyond the fundamental questions about the interpretation of quantum mechanics."
The highly decorated award makes Zeilinger the first Austrian since Wolfgang Pauli in 1945 to win the Nobel Prize. Zeilinger himself was very surprised by the call from the Nobel Prize Committee, the 77-year-old announced at an initial press conference in Stockholm.