The Nobel Prize in Physics 2012

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2012 was awarded jointly to Frenchman Serge Haroche and American David J. Wineland "for ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems". These two work in the field of quantum optics, which deals with the interaction between light and matter.

Serge Haroche

David J. Wineland

Haroche and Wineland, both 68, are awarded for inventing and developing methods for observing tiny quantum particles without destroying them. The discovery may pave way to building a new type of super fast computer based on quantum physics.

Serge Haroche was born on11 September 1944 in Casablanca, Morocco. Since 2001, Haroche has been a Professor at the College de France and holds the Chair of Quantum Physics. Haroche is member of the French Physical Society, the European Physical society and a fellow and member of the American Physical Society. He is the uncle of French singer–songwriter and actor Raphael Haroche.

David Jeffrey Wineland was born on February 24, 1944. He is a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) physics laboratory in Boulder. Wineland is a fellow of the American Physical society, the American Optical society, and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1992.