Prof. Michał Horodecki receives Minister's award for outstanding scientists
Prof. Michał Horodecki has received the Minister's award for outstanding scientists: http://www.nauka.gov.pl/aktualnosci-ministerstwo/tegoroczne-nagrody-ministra-rozdane.html
Professor Michał Horodecki from the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics at the University of Gdańsk is one of the leading Polish scientists who received the Minister of Science and Higher Education Award.
Prof. Michał Horodecki received an award in the basic research category. In his research he mostly works on quantum physics and is considered to be one of the leading world experts in research on quantum entanglement. Prof. Horodecki is the author of more than 130 scientific papers, published and cited in renowned scientific journals. He has also won numerous scientific awards, including the prestigious “QUROPE Quantum Information Award”, which is given to young scientists for outstanding achievements in the field of quantum information.
The award-presentation gala was held on the 12th October 2015 in the Primate's Palace in Warsaw. The winners received statuettes from prof. Lena Kolarska-Bobińska, Minister of Science and Higher Education. Among them were the most outstanding researchers in their respective fields of science, discoverers of new technologies, as well as authors of important theories and scientific papers.
The Minister of Science and Higher Education Awards are given each year for outstanding scientific or scientific-technical achievements (in three categories: basic research, research for the development of society and research for the development of economy), for achievements in scientific and didactic tutoring, for lifetime achievement in science and for organisational achievements. The names of candidates for the Minister of Science and Higher Education Awards are put forward by scientific councils, faculty councils or authorities representing other academic institutions, by non-governmental organisations working for the benefit of science, as well as by the Chairman and individual committees of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
The entire list of award winners and further information by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education can be found on the website: www.nauka.gov.pl
It is worth remembering that, for a number of years, the University of Gdańsk has been one of the leading scientific centres in the field of quantum physics. It is here that the ideas and solutions applied worldwide have originated, while the results of scientific work have been cited in thousands of papers written by other authors and applied in dozens of laboratories. This resulted in the establishment, in the year 2007, of the National Quantum Information Science Centre, which plays the part of an important link in European research area concerning quantum information science. Scientists from the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics at the University of Gdańsk, working mainly in the teams led by prof. Horodecki and prof. Żukowski (both of them have received numerous academic awards, including the Foundation for Polish Science Award, the so-called Polish Nobel Prize, for research in the field of quantum physics) are conducting research on quantum cryptography, bound entangled states, quantum memory, cloning and deletion of quantum information and quantum interferometry. The world pioneers of quantum information science, professor Charles H. Bennett from the USA and Anton Zeilinger from Austria have been awarded honorary doctorate degrees by the University of Gdańsk.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Professor Michał Horodecki works at the Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics of the University of Gdańsk and at the National Quantum Information Science Centre in Gdańsk. He is a member of the Gdańsk quantum information science group which has contributed to the creation of the quantum entanglement theory basics and realises numerous national and international projects. Prof. Horodecki is the leader of the Gdańsk team in the RAQUEL project within the 7th Framework Programme of the European Union. Last year he received the National Science Centre Award and is also the winner of many other scientific awards, including the prestigious “QUROPE Quantum Information Award” given to young scientists for outstanding achievements in the field of quantum information.
Prof. Horodecki's academic attainments include more than 130 publications which have been cited over 9,000 times. He is currently working, inter alia, on strengthening the quantum-mechanical randomness, which can be used in the future to ensure security in cryptographic protocols such as, for example, bank transfers. Prof. Horodecki is also interested in the area at the interface of quantum information and the basics of thermodynamics, as well as the theory of solids.
Prof. Horodecki received the Minister of Science and Higher Education Award for, inter alia, demonstrating the dependencies between the so-called surface law for entropy and rapid disappearance of correlation, as well as for applying quantum information methods to thermodynamics in the microscopic regime.
Dr Beata Czechowska-Derkacz - spokesperson of the University of Gdańsk