“We carry out our research under ideal conditions”
Ignacio Cirac from Spain carries out research at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Mechanics and is joint winner of the Wolf Prize in Physics 2013.
MY APPOINTMENT by the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, where I’ve been Director of the Theory Division since 2001, has changed my life. At the campus in Garching on the outskirts of Munich, I’m surrounded by prominent scientists. We attract the best students and postdocs for our projects, and I can devote my attention entirely to our research. We are concerned with quantum mechanical multiparticle systems and are developing a new information theory based on the laws of quantum mechanics. This is where some of the ideas were developed that won the 2013 Wolf Prize in Physics. I’m being awarded the prize together with Peter Zoller at the University of Innsbruck – we work together very closely. I like the high standing that research enjoys in Germany. I come from Spain and notice great differences in this respect. In Germany, people recognize how important basic research is. I don’t know of any other research institution around the globe that provides scientists with such ideal research conditions as the Max Planck Society. In my spare time I watch my son playing football or tennis, and I even play soccer myself on campus with colleagues, or I go skiing. The Alps are close by.