Principal Investigators of the Simons Collaboration on Localization of Waves win Fields Medal and Nobel Prize in 2022
12/6/2022
Hugo Duminil-Copin, Professor at the Université de Genève and IHÉS, and Alain Aspect, Professor at Institut d'Optique Graduate School, were awarded the Fields Medal and Nobel Prize in Physics, respectively, in 2022. Both scientists are principal investigators for Simons Collaboration on Localization of Waves.
Hugo Duminil-Copin, Professor at the Université de Genève and IHÉS and Principal Investigator of the Wave Collaboration, was awarded the Fields Medal 2022 for solving long standing problems in the probabilistic theory of phase transitions in statistical physics. The Fields Medal is awarded every four years to recognize outstanding mathematical achievement for existing work and for the promise of future achievement.
Hugo Duminil-Copin’s most striking results concern variants of the Ising model, in dimensions three and four. With his collaborators M. Aizenman, V. Tassion, and many others, he established the continuity and sharpness of the phase transition in 3D, the mean field critical behavior in 4D, the triviality of the four-dimensional Euclidean scalar quantum field theory in 4D, and similar results for the Fortuin–Kasteleyn percolation.
Alain Aspect, Professor at Institut d'Optique Graduate School (École Polytechnique) and Principal Investigator of the Wave Collaboration, was awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics "for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science", shared with John F. Clauser and Anton Zeilinger. Their trail-blazing research established the reality of quantum entanglement, paving the way for a new era of quantum technologies and, in particular, the burgeoning field of quantum information science. Aspect's work also provided an experimental answer to the famous EPR paradox proposed half a century earlier by Einstein, Poldosky, and Rosen.
The Nobel Prize is the latest recognition of Aspect for a lifetime of revolutionary research on fundamental quantum phenomena. His many prior recognitions include the Max Born Award, the Wolf Prize, the Albert Einstein Medal, the Balzan Prize in Quantum Information, and the Niels Bohr Medal. As a Principal Investigator for the Simons Collaboration on the Localization of Waves since its inception in 2018, Aspect is presently exploring some of the most compelling puzzles in cold atom physics.
Sponsored by the Simons Foundation, the goal of the Collaboration on Localization of Waves is a unified understanding of wave localization, enabling the solution of some of the most compelling puzzles in modern condensed matter physics and gaining control over the behavior of waves in disordered media.
Read More:
Fields Medals 2022 Press Release
Nobel Prize in Physics 2022 Press Release
Official Illustration for the Nobel Prize in Physics 2022
© Johan Jarnestad/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences