From the Onassis Science Lectures to the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics: Alain Aspect honored for his research into quantum entanglement
Alain Aspect, the Paris-Saclay University Professor who has twice given Onassis Science Lectures, is one of three scientists awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics for research that laid the foundations for a new, quantum technology era.
Frenchman Alain Aspect, American John Clauser, and Austrian Anton Zeilinger are the three scientists sharing this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics for their experiments on quantum entanglement, a strange phenomenon that has paved the way for quantum computing.
This distinction also honors the Onassis Foundation, which has twice hosted the French physicist as a speaker at the Onassis Lectures in Physics: in 2007 as part of the “Bose-Einstein Condensation” series, and in 2017 as part of the “Quantum Frontiers Explored with Cold Atoms, Molecules, and Photons” series.
Alain Aspect receiving this prize means that the number of Nobel laureates to have appeared as speakers as part of the Onassis Science Lecture Series now stands at 23. This, combined with the fact another three Onassis Science Lecture speakers – Jules Hoffmann (in 2009), Jim Peebles (in 2008), and Jennifer Dudna (in 2019) – had not yet received the Nobel Prize when invited to appear at the Lectures, only later receiving the honor, demonstrates the exceptionally high standard and pedigree of the Onassis Science Lectures.
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As of 2001, more than 1,600 students have attended the 27 lecture series on physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics and computer science, organized by the Onassis Foundation in collaboration with the Foundation for Research and Technology. The lectures (Onassis Foundation Science Lecture Series) are of a summer school nature, taking place in July every year, and are realized by leading scientists from all over the world – among them 22 nobelists, 4 Turing Award winners and Fields Medal holder, Edward Witten. The lectures are delivered in English and are accompanied with lectures by prominent Greek scientists of the respective fields.