Ignacio Cirac

Born in Spain, he holds a degree in Theoretical Physics (1988) and a PhD in Physics (1991) from the Complutense University of Madrid. He has been Full Professor in the Department of Applied Physics at the University of Castilla-La Mancha (1991-1996), Research Associate, Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics at the University of Colorado (1993-1994), Professor at the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the Leopold Franzens University of Innsbruck (1996-2001), Director at the MPI of Quantum Optics and Scientific Member of the Max Planck Society (since 2001) and Honorary Professor at the Technical University of Munich (since 2002). He currently directs the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics focusing on research into the quantum world with laser light laying the foundations for the quantum computers of the future.