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J.Ignacio Cirac

Max-Planck Institute

for Quantum Optics

Efficient Descriptions of Many-Body Quantum Systems

November 20, 2008 - 5:10-5:35pm

RLE Conference Center 36-428

Abstract

The efficient description of many-body quantum systems is a very difficult problem which lies at the interface of several branches of Physics and Chemistry. In this talk I will mention some of the challanges and possible solutions to this problem.

Bio

J. Ignacio Cirac has been Director of the Theory Division at the Max-Planck Institute for Quantum Optics since December 2001. His main areas of research are the theoretical description of atomic systems interacting with light, as well as the development of a theory of Quantum Information. In those fields he has proposed several ways of constructing quantum computers, quantum simulators and quantum repeaters using ions, atoms and photons. Dr. Cirac was originally trained in Theoretical Physics at the University Complutense of Madrid (B.S. 1988) and obtained his PhD in Theoretical Quantum Optics in 1991 at the same university. He was Professor Titular at the University of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain) from 1991 to 1996, and carried out a postdoc at the same time at the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (University of Colorado). Then he moved to the University of Innsbruck (Austria) as a Professor of Theoretical Physics. He is also honorary professor at the Technical University of Munich (Germany) since 2002. Dr. Cirac is Associate Editor of Review of Modern Physics, and a Founding Managing Editor of Quantum Information and Computation. His Scientific publications include more than 200 research  articles in scientific journals, including nature, Science an dPhysical Reiew Letters.  Dr. Cirac is a corresondent member of the Spanish and Austrian Academies of Science, and Fellow of the American Physical Society. He also holds the Felix Kuschnitz Prize 2001 of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the National Prize for Young Investigators (1993), the Medal (2003) of the Spanish Royal Physical Society, the Quantum Electronics Prize of the ESF (2005), the International Quantum Communication Award (2006), the Prinz of Asturias Award (2007) and the National Physics Prize (2007). He also has an honorary doctorate from the Universities of Castilla-La Mancha (2005) and Politecnica de Catalunya (2007).