Two independent research teams, among them one co-led by Israeli physicist Dr. Shlomi Kotler, were awarded this week the 2021 Breakthrough of the Year prize by the magazine Physics World for advancing humanity's understanding of quantum systems.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
The research led by Kotler, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Department of Applied Physics, along with John Teufel from the US National Institute of Standards and Technology, was praised for their breakthrough of entangling two macroscopic vibrating drumheads.
Their efforts "could open the door for entangled resonators to be used as quantum sensors or as nodes in quantum networks. As a result, this work deserves its place as the first quantum-related Breakthrough of the Year since 2015," Physics World said.
The second research team was led by Mika Sillanpaa and colleagues at Aalto University, Finland, and the University of New South Wales, Australia.
"I'm very happy and excited about this award," Kotler said. "We've been at it a long time and took quite a few risks along the way. If it went right, we would have the rare chance to see macroscopic entanglement. If it didn't, four years of research would have gone down the drain.
"Fortunately, we saw entanglement, and the rest, as they say, is quantum history. I very much appreciate the fact that Hebrew University and the Department of Applied Physics and the Quantum Center believed in my research over the years."
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
