Lecture 2022
Building the second quantum revolution

Wednesday, 23 November 2022
17:00 h
DESY Auditorium

Prof. Dr. Tommaso Calarco
Director, Institute for Quantum Control PGI-8, Forschungszentrum Jülich

In 1952, Erwin Schrödinger wrote in The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science:
“One never realizes experiments with a single electron or an atom or a small molecule. In thought experiments, one assumes that sometimes this is possible; invariably, this leads to ridiculous consequences... One may say that one does not realize experiments with single particles, more than one raises ichthyosaurs in the zoo.”
Among the “ridiculous consequences” of today’s ability to experiment with single particles there are many potential and a few already available applications of quantum physics to various fields of technology, including computation, simulation, communication, sensing and metrology.

This year’s Nobel Prize was awarded for pioneering research in this field; several public and private research organisations worldwide are increasing their investment to improve existing applications and explore new ones. The talk will focus on the recently started European Flagship initiative on quantum technologies, outline its structure as well as its current and upcoming phases.
I will conclude by reporting on recent results obtained in my group via optimal control of quantum systems, with the creation the world's fattest as well as the fastest Schödinger cat.

Lecture 2021
“Gefühlte Wahrheiten – Orientierung in postfaktischen Zeiten”
(engl.: Post-Truth: Implications for science, policy makers and society)

Wednesday, 10 November 2021
17:00 h
DESY Auditorium

Prof. Ortwin Renn
Scientific Director at Institut für Transformative Nachhaltigkeitsforschung (IASS) in Potsdam

In an era of post-truth claims and fake news scientific input to public discourse and collective decision-making seems to be more required than ever. However, the nature of what science can and should offer to the decision makers has been under severe scrutiny by science philosophers and sociologists of knowledge. Is scientific knowledge neutral and impartial to the various interests that like to use scientific insights for legitimizing their positions?

How universal is scientific knowledge and how much is it dependent on context and situational conditions and constraints? These questions are particularly pertinent for complex challenges such as climate change and loss of biodiversity. The lecture will provide an analysis of how science, policymaking and society deal with these issues in the presence of fake news and post-truth claims.

Lecture 2019
“Climate at the Crossroads: Choosing our Planet's Future”

Wednesday, 16 October 2019
17:00 h
DESY Auditorium

William Drew Collins
Director Environmental Resilience Accelerator, Climate & Ecosystem Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Climate change has become a very hot topic, both literally and figuratively, for our generation and for many generations to come. Climate scientists are increasingly confident of its causes, and we are increasingly concerned regarding the dire implications of `business as usual' for the future of society and our natural surroundings.

Fortunately the scientific community is also confident that a united global community can solve this problem using existing technologies and, in so doing, improve the quality, equity, and environmental harmony of people's lives worldwide. Possible paths forward could help attain many of the UN's Sustainability Goals.

Lecture 2018
“The Quantum of Mechanics – exploring mechanical motion in the quantum regime”

Monday, 19 November 2018
18:00 h
DESY Auditorium

Prof. Dr Markus Aspelmeyer
Professor of Physics at the University of Vienna, Austria

The quantum optical control of solid-state mechanical devices, quantum optomechanics, has emerged as a new frontier of light-matter interactions. Devices currently being studied cover a mass range of more than 17 orders of magnitude - from nanomechanical waveguides of some picograms to macroscopic, kilogram-weight mirrors of gravitational wave detectors.

The fast progress in controlling ever increasing masses in the quantum regime creates new and unexpected opportunities to address one of the outstanding questions at the interface between quantum physics and gravity, namely “how does a quantum system gravitate?”.

Lecture 2017
“Gravitational Wave Astronomy: Listening to the sounds of the dark universe!”

15 November 2017
15:30 h
DESY Auditorium

Prof. Dr Karsten Danzmann
Director at Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics, Leibniz University Hannover

For thousands of years we have been looking at the universe with our eyes. But most of the universe is dark and will never be observable with electromagnetic waves. Since September 14th, 2015, everything is different: Gravitational waves were discovered!

We have obtained a new sense and finally we can listen to the dark side of the universe. The first sounds that we heard were from unexpectedly heavy Black Holes. And nobody knows what other dark secrets are waiting for us out there.

Lecture 2016
“From Quantum Puzzles to Quantum Information Technology”

2 December 2016
17:45 h
DESY Auditorium

Prof. Dr. Anton Zeilinger
University Vienna
President of the Austrian Academy of Sciences

Quantum physics provides interesting conceptual puzzles. The basic fundamental ideas in the puzzles include quantum superposition (like in Schrödinger‘s cat), quantum entanglement (called by Einstein spooky action at a distance) and quantum randomness (viz. Einstein‘s comment that God does not play dice). To date, the same fundamental concepts just mentioned led to novel information science concepts and thus

became the basis for the emerging quantum information technology which includes such concepts as quantum teleportation, and quantum computation. The future quantum internet will combine these ideas. It will consist of quantum computers connected by quantum links carrying photons. From a fundamental point of view, fundamental experiments have sharpened our basic questions about the nature of quantum systems.

Lecture 2015
"Illuminating the dark side: New approaches to search for the dominating matter in our universe"

14 December 2015
17:00 h
DESY Auditorium

Dr. Axel Lindner
Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY
Hamburg

Lecture 2014
"DESY and Life's Vital Bonding Machinery"

30 October 2014
17:00 h
DESY Auditorium

Prof. Dr. Ada Yonath
Department of Structural Biology
Weizmann Institute
Rehovot, Israel

Lecture 2013
"How to simulate without a Computer - A Physics Approach to the Brain"

30 October 2013
17:00 h
DESY Auditorium

Prof. Dr. Karlheinz Meier
Kirchhoff Institute for Physics
University of Heidelberg
Germany

Lecture 2012
"From the Ionisation of Air to beyond the LHC - 100 years of Cosmic Rays"

31 October 2012
17:00 h
DESY Auditorium

Prof. Dr. Alan Watson
School of Physics and Astronomy
University of Leeds
Great Britain

Lecture 2011
"Making light of mathematics"

02 November 2011
17:00 h
DESY Auditorium

Prof. Dr. Sir Michael Berry
Department of Physics
University of Bristol, Great Britain

Lecture 2010:

"Accelerator Physics Challenges of Free-Electron Lasers"

17 November 2010
17:00 h
DESY Auditorium

Professor Dr. Paul Emma
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Menlo Park, California

Lecture 2009:

"Black Holes and the Fate of the Universe"

11 November 2009
17:00 h
DESY Auditorium

Prof. Dr. Günther Hasinger
Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics
Garching, Germany

Lecture 2008:

"Grand Challenges for Megafacilities"

December 4, 2008
17:00 h
DESY Auditorium

Professor Dr. Helmut Dosch
Max Planck Institute for Metals Research
Stuttgart, Germany

Lecture 2007:

"Atomics and Molecular Physics with FEL:
A New Opportunity for Laboratory Astrophysics."

June 22, 2007
15:00 h
DESY Auditorium

Professor Daniel Zajfman
The Weizmann Institute, Rehovot, Israel

Lecture 2006:

"High-Energy Neutrino Astronomy: Towards Kilometer-Scale Neutrino Observatories"

April 20, 2006
17.00 h
DESY Auditorium

Professor Francis Halzen
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Lecture 2005:

"Future of Physics"

January 18, 2005
DESY Auditorium


Professor D. Gross
University of California, Santa Barbara

Lecture 2003:

"The Impact of Synchrotron Radiation
on Molecular Biology"

December 4, 2003
DESY Auditorium

Professor K.C. Holmes
Heidelberg University

Lecture 2002:

"The Danger Posed by Nuclear Weapons"

December 5, 2002
DESY Auditorium

Professor W.K.H. Panofsky
Stanford University