Chinese quantum prize rewards the international stars of the field

A private Chinese foundation has announced the first 12 winners of the Micius Quantum Award, a new prize awarded to quantum scientists from around the world.

On April 26, the Micius Foundation announced the winners of the 2018 and 2019 awards, which recognize quantum computing and quantum communication respectively. Six scientists won each year, each receiving one million yuan (about $ 150,000).

Although the award recognizes international winners, it celebrates an area in which China values ​​and contributes more and more. "The award symbolizes China's growing ambition, but also the results of research on quantum technologies," says quantum physicist Artur Ekert of the University of Oxford, UK, One of the 2019 laureates for his theoretical contributions that helped establish the field of quantum cryptography.

Among the winners are other stars of quantum science, such as Peter Shor, a mathematician at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, and David Deutsch, a physicist at Oxford University in the United Kingdom – both of whom wrote innovative quantum algorithms – and Pan Jian-Wei, a physicist at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in Hefei. Pan was the lead architect of the world's first quantum communications quantum satellite, also called Micius, after a former Chinese philosopher. Eleven of the winners come from Europe and North America; Pan is the only Chinese winner.

Encouraging development

The Micius Foundation, located at the USTC, was established in 2018 with 100 million yuan of donations from private entrepreneurs.

"We are witnessing a rapid and encouraging development of quantum information science around the world, and we are very pleased," said USTC physicist Luo Yi, president of the foundation. and a member of the selection committee composed of seven people. "We hope to be part of the story."

The Shaw Award, which recognizes international scientists in astronomy, life sciences and mathematics, is based in Hong Kong. But the mainland awards that celebrate scientists around the world are rare.

"I see this award as an effort to integrate and recognize an international quantum physics community going beyond national interests," says theoretical physicist Peter Zoller of the University of Innsbruck, Austria , one of the winners of 2018, for his theoretical work on quantum technology. calculation. He says the award is recognition that Chinese quantum science "is part of an international family".

Other prizes in quantum science include the Rolf Landauer and Charles H Bennett Award in Quantum Computing, sponsored by the American Physical Society, and the International Conference Award on Communication, Measurement and Computing quantum. Gilles Brassard, a quantum physics specialist at the University of Montreal in Canada, one of the winners of the Micius Prize in the Quantum Computing Category 2019, says the Micius Prize is "certainly the most important in terms of "most important in terms of prestige". The "future will say," he adds.

Lu Chaoyang, secretary general of the foundation and quantum physicist at Hefei National Laboratory of Physical Sciences at the microscopic scale, was supervised by Pan and collaborated with him. But Luo says this collaboration did not create a conflict of interest when selecting winners. "The secretary general is in charge of the day-to-day operations of the foundation," he says. "Dr. Lu is not part of the selection committee and does not have the right to appoint, recommend and evaluate."