2022 – Rainer Blatt

University of Innsbruck, Austria

Rainer Blatt is a professor at the Institute of Experimental Physics at the University of Innsbruck. Here he heads one of the world's leading research groups in the field of trapped ion quantum computing that creates simulation algorithms for use in research on solid-state physics, molecular physics, and high energy physics. Blatt is among the world's most prominent researchers in his field and he enjoys an outstanding reputation. He has made a major contribution to quantum optics by means of his pioneering experiments.

Blatt was born in Idar-Oberstein in 1952 and studied and obtained his doctorate at JGU. He subsequently entered the world of research, collaborating in the USA with the eventual Nobel Prize winner John Lewis Hall. He holds numerous scientific prizes, including the Stern-Gerlach Medal, which is the most distinguished award given by the German Physical Society (DPG), the John Stewart Bell Prize of the University of Toronto, and the Micius Quantum Prize of China.


Rainer Blatt (photo: Stefan F. Sämmer)