Newsroom

At the 2026 Girls’ Day at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ), 16 female students gained first-hand insights into research and everyday scientific work. Together with its student laboratory PhotonLab, the institute has been participating in the nationwide initiative for around 15 years, introducing girls and young women to fields in which they remain underrepresented.The participants took part in a diverse program, with hands-on activities at the heart of it. more

The International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) and IBM have awarded the newly established Richard Feynman Prize for Quantum Computing to MPQ Director Ignacio Cirac. The prize committee acknowledges his central role in establishing the theoretical foundations of quantum information processing, including the theory of entanglement, quantum simulation, and tensor-network methods. The award ceremony took place on 21 April at ICTP in Trieste.  more

A research team at MPQ has realised quantum gates using fermionic atoms with 99.75% accuracy and entangled states lasting over ten seconds – a record. The platform relies on atoms that obey the same quantum-mechanical rules as electrons in materials, enabling the direct study of fermionic systems. Published today in Nature, the results open up a new hybrid approach to materials research, quantum chemistry, and the study of complex quantum systems. more

Ferenc Krausz, Director at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics and Professor at the Ludwig Maximilian University Munich, has been awarded the Széchenyi Prize, the highest state distinction for scientific achievement in Hungary, and the Jedlik Ányos Prize, recognising his pioneering contributions to ultrafast and attosecond science. more

Team IXI, coached by PhotonLab at MPQ, took second place at the German Young Physicists’ Tournament (GYPT). Team member Nikita Petrov also won the first-ever Otmar Winkler Prize for the best discussion. The three students from Dachau, assigned to the MPQ regional round, may now be selected for the five-member national team to represent Germany at the International Young Physicists’ Tournament (IYPT) or the European AYPT. more

The postdoctoral researcher in the Theory division at MPQ has been awarded the American Physical Society’s (APS) 2026 Irwin Oppenheim Award, which recognises exceptional early-career research published in the APS journal Physical Review E. He receives the distinction “for showing that the second law of thermodynamics limits the ability to distinguish between quantum states.” more

MPQ Director Ignacio Cirac has been awarded the IMPRS-MCQST Supervision Award 2025. The IMPRS-MCQST community honours him for his outstanding dedication to mentoring PhD students and postdocs. Johannes Knolle, Professor at TU Munich, is recognised alongside Cirac. The award underlines the importance of excellent supervision for successful research careers and an inclusive academic environment. more

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics have carried out one of the most precise tests of the Standard Model of particle physics to date. Using high-resolution hydrogen spectroscopy, they confirmed its theoretical predictions to more than twelve decimal places. The measurement provides a precise value for the proton radius, resolving the long-debated 'proton radius puzzle'. The results were recently published in Nature.
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Karl-Ludwig Kompa, one of the founding directors of the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics and an internationally recognised pioneer in laser chemistry, passed away on 23 November 2025. His work helped establish the institute’s global reputation and forged a bridge between chemistry and quantum physics. Director Theodor Hänsch, who worked closely with Kompa for two decades, remembers him as a valued colleague and trusted companion – a tribute. more

A research team led by Monika Aidelsburger at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ) and the Ludwig-Maximilian University Munich (LMU) has identified a colour of light at which atoms become selectively “colourblind”: At this wavelength, the light has no effect on excited-state atoms, but strongly confines atoms in the ground state. The results, published in PRX Quantum, provide a powerful new tool for analogue quantum simulation and novel computing architectures. more

Physicists have uncovered a link between magnetism and the pseudogap, a mysterious phase of matter that appears in certain materials just above the temperature at which they become superconducting. The researchers discovered a universal pattern in how magnetic correlations evolve as the system cools. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), are the result of a collaboration between the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics and the Simons Foundations’ Flatiron Institute. more

The Spanish National Research Council – Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) – presented the Medal for Scientific Excellence on the first day of its management meeting in Madrid. Ignacio Cirac, Director at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, is widely recognised as a leading figure in theoretical quantum optics, quantum information and degenerate quantum gases. He receives the honour in recognition of the “exceptional significance and international impact of his contributions”. more