2012 Nobel Prize in Physics Goes to Quantum Pioneers

The 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded this morning to American physicist David Wineland and French physicist Serge Haroche for "for ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring & manipulation of individual quantum systems."

Both Wineland and Haroche are recognized for earlier work in which they developed and refined quantum measurement processes wherein quantum systems can be measured very precisely with a minimum amount of disturbance, so that the peculiar quantum properties (namely quantum superposition, as often demonstrated by the Schroedinger's cat thought experiment) are not destroyed.

These methods have significant implications for fields that rely on these quantum properties being handled very delicately, such as the development of quantum computers.

David Wineland