2012 Nobel Prize in Physics

The 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to Serge Haroche and David J. Wineland. The prize was announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm on 9 October 2012.

The citation

The citation reads: "for ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems". They share the prize equally.

The laureates

Serge Haroche was born in 1944 in Casablanca, Morocco, and is affiliated with Collège de France, Paris and École Normale Supérieure, Paris. David J. Wineland was born in 1944 in Milwaukee, the United States, and is affiliated with National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder and the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Why it matters

The two physicists found ways to trap and study individual particles of light and matter without destroying their quantum properties. The work is a step towards quantum computers and ultra-precise clocks.

The prize

The prize is worth 8 million Swedish kronor, divided between the laureates. It will be presented at a ceremony in Stockholm on 10 December, the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite whose will founded the prizes in 1895.