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Portrait 43 Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics Serge Haroche Serge Haroche, quantum world explorer Recipient of the CNRS Gold Medal in 2009, 68-year-old Serge Haroche was awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics, together with American physicist David Wineland, for his work in quantum physics. “The Nobel laureates have opened the door to a new era of experimentation in quantum physics by demonstrating the direct observation of individual quantum particles without destroying them.” Serge Haroche is the current administrator of the Collège de France, where he is also a Professor. He works at the Kastler Brossel laboratory (CNRS/ENS/UPMC/Collège de France) in Paris. He began his research in 1965, when atomic physics and quantum optics were undergoing a revolution driven by the discovery of lasers and the development of new techniques that used light to influence atoms. He pioneered research in quantum optics by observing interactions between light and atoms at the most basic level. The physicist is a co-founder of cavity quantum electrodynamics, which studies interactions between a single atom and a few photons confined in a “box”. He managed to isolate a photon within a cavity whose walls were almost perfect reflectors, and then forced the photon (without destroying it) to interact with atoms crossing the cavity. His work has made it possible to experimentally verify several thought experiments devised by the founders of quantum mechanics such as Niels Bohr, Albert Einstein, and Erwin Schrödinger. It has also helped explain the apparent difference in behavior between the microscopic quantum world and the conventional macroscopic world. Today Serge Haroche is a champion of fundamental research, which will no doubt lead to the development of new technologies. As he likes to point out, “the great discoveries stemming from quantum technology such as lasers, transistors, and magnetic resonance imaging, were not predicted. Scientists never anticipated the use of these technologies before they were created.” 2012 A year at CNRS


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