Immanuel Bloch (Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, Munich)
Professor Immanuel Bloch is managing director of the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Munich.
His research is focused on the investigation of quantum many-body systems using ultracold atomic and molecular quantum gases. He is famous for his work on ultracold atoms in artificial crystals of light, so called optical lattices and especially the first realization of a quantum phase transition from a weakly interacting superfluid to a strongly interacting Mott insulating state of matter. More recently, his research team was able to realize single-atom resolved imaging and addressing of ultracold atoms held in an optical lattice.
Immanuel has been awarded a number of awards, including the EPS Senior Prize for Fundamental Aspects of Quantum Electronics and Optics (2011), the International BEC Award (2013), and the Körber European Science Prize (2013).