Three international scientists win 2025 Micius Quantum Prize

HEFEI, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Three scientists have won the 2025 Micius Quantum Prize for their breakthroughs in quantum simulations in optical lattices, the Micius Quantum Foundation announced on Friday.

The prize was awarded to Immanuel Bloch from the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics and the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Tilman Esslinger from ETH Zurich, and Markus Greiner from Harvard University for their "pioneering experimental realization of bosonic and fermionic Hubbard models in optical lattices as analog quantum simulators of strongly interacting many-body systems for comprehensive investigations of quantum phases, transport, and topological phenomena."

"With quantum simulations, we are entering a new era of quantum science, one that allows us to probe the emergent behavior of complex quantum matter with unprecedented clarity and tools that the founders of quantum mechanics could not have envisioned," Immanuel Bloch said during his speech.

Established by the Micius Quantum Foundation in 2018 through donations from private entrepreneurs, the prize honors scientists who have made outstanding contributions to the field of quantum communication, quantum simulation, quantum computation and quantum metrology.

The foundation was named after Micius, an ancient Chinese philosopher. Each honoree will receive a prize of 1 million yuan (about 139,867 U.S. dollars) and a gold medal. ■