Visi­ting Joen­suu revo­lu­tio­nized the Nobel lau­rea­te’s career

Austrian pro­fes­sor eme­ri­tus Anton Zei­lin­ger, who recei­ved the Nobel Prize in Phy­sics in 2022, was inau­gu­ra­ted as an hono­ra­ry doc­to­ra­te of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Eas­tern Fin­land at the begin­ning of June. During the trip, he had time to remi­nisce about his for­mer visits to Joen­suu, which tur­ned out to be a tur­ning point not only in his career, but also in a broa­der sen­se.

– I remem­ber how one mor­ning in 1984 I ente­red a room whe­re my friend and research col­lea­gue Mic­hael A. Hor­ne was sit­ting casual­ly in a chair with a blue piece of paper in his hand. That paper was an invi­ta­tion to the modern phy­sics con­fe­rence in Joen­suu. Mic­hael asked if I wan­ted to go to Fin­land. I answe­red that of cour­se I want to, says Zei­lin­ger.

At that time, Zei­lin­ger and his research col­lea­gues focused on neut­ron dif­frac­tion, which was in no way rela­ted to the topic of the con­fe­rence orga­nized in Joen­suu.

– For the con­fe­rence, we had to imple­ment a research article that dif­fe­red in the­me from tho­se we had pre­vious­ly done, Zei­lin­ger desc­ri­bes.

In the end, Zei­lin­ger pre­sen­ted a stu­dy in Joen­suu in 1985, the results of which can be con­si­de­red the first steps of modern quan­tum tech­no­lo­gy based on pho­tons, i.e. light par­ticles. Since then, Zei­lin­ger’s long-term research work led him to beco­me a Nobel lau­rea­te.

Quan­tum tech­no­lo­gy is alrea­dy in your poc­ket

Zei­lin­ger reminds that, for example, the latest smartp­ho­nes use quan­tum tech­no­lo­gy.

– Wit­hout light-based quan­tum mec­ha­nics, cur­rent pho­nes would lack many fea­tu­res. We use devices based on dif­fe­rent pro­per­ties of light in our eve­ry­day lives all the time, and they are of great impor­tance in com­mu­nica­tion, among many other things, he says.

The most advanced prac­tical applica­tions enable secu­re coding, for example.

– It is pos­sible to break the mat­he­ma­tical code, but in the quan­tum code, infor­ma­tion tra­vels through par­ticles and is the­re­fo­re safer, Zei­lin­ger desc­ri­bes.

Alt­hough many prac­tical applica­tions alrea­dy reach our eve­ry­day life, quan­tum tech­no­lo­gy still has many unexplo­red pos­si­bi­li­ties. The jour­ney of research results to people’s eve­ry­day life can take a long time, but accor­ding to Zei­lin­ger, the focus should be especial­ly on curious expe­ri­ments and long-term expec­ta­tions.

– My phi­lo­sop­hy in my own research is that you should always aim ambi­tious­ly for somet­hing more.

– In the tests I’ve done, I haven’t always had advance infor­ma­tion about how I would reach my goal. I just star­ted making and wor­king. It doesn’t always work, but at that time it just star­ted wor­king, he desc­ri­bes.

We use devices based on dif­fe­rent pro­per­ties of light in our eve­ry­day lives all the time, and they are of great impor­tance in com­mu­nica­tion.

Accor­ding to Zei­lin­ger, curio­si­ty and bold expe­ri­ments are behind many other scien­ti­fic breakth­roughs.

– I’m sure I’m not the only Nobel lau­rea­te who ini­tial­ly didn’t have accu­ra­te infor­ma­tion about what the obtai­ned research results could be used for. In the long term, the results may turn out to be world-chan­ging, he says.

–For example, lasers have long been con­si­de­red a solu­tion to problems that we don’t even have yet, Zei­lin­ger con­ti­nues.

Joen­suu is a major cen­ter of pho­to­nics

Zei­lin­ger says that the last time he visi­ted Joen­suu was more than 30 years ago.

– The­re are so many new buil­dings in the city that I wouldn’t have recog­nized this as the same one. I stayed in the same hotel last time, but this one is comple­te­ly dif­fe­rent now as well, he laughs.

Over the years, Joen­suu has deve­lo­ped also in other ways than in terms of buil­dings. The deve­lop­ment of the region into a ver­sa­ti­le cen­ter of pho­to­nics, i.e. light science and tech­no­lo­gy, has not gone unno­ticed by the Nobel lau­rea­te.

Joen­suu is the lea­ding cen­ter of pho­to­nics at the level of the enti­re Nor­dic count­ries.

– Joen­suu is the lea­ding cen­ter of pho­to­nics at the level of the enti­re Nor­dic count­ries. Hope­ful­ly the locals also know this and can apprecia­te it, says Zei­lin­ger.

– If I were a young stu­dent now, I would go and ask local influencers how pho­to­nics is recog­nized and inves­ted in here.

Accor­ding to Zei­lin­ger, special atten­tion should be paid to know-how, coo­pe­ra­tion and basic research. He reminds that the Nor­dic count­ries att­ract a lot of inter­na­tio­nal experts in the field of pho­to­nics.

–Inter­na­tio­nal talents are defi­ni­te­ly also Joen­suu’s strength. It’s worth inves­ting in att­rac­ting talen­ted people and the level of exper­ti­se, he sta­tes.

As anot­her the­me, Zei­lin­ger rai­ses the coo­pe­ra­tion between busi­ness, research and many other part­ners.

If someo­ne claims that we are begin­ning to unders­tand eve­ryt­hing about this world, he is only revea­ling the limits of his own ima­gi­na­tion.

– Research has its own place in pho­to­nics exper­ti­se and coo­pe­ra­tion networks. A direct link to busi­ness life and other part­ners is also good for aca­de­mic discus­sion and research deve­lop­ment. This should also be furt­her deve­lo­ped in Joen­suu.

The res­pec­ted scien­tist’s heart also beats for basic research, which he hopes will con­ti­nue to be fun­ded.

– Basic research pro­duces infor­ma­tion that is real­ly impor­tant for busi­ness. The­re are many phe­no­me­na who­se exis­tence we don’t know about wit­hout basic research.

– People have been doing science for 300–400 years. If someo­ne claims that we are begin­ning to unders­tand eve­ryt­hing about this world, he is only revea­ling the limits of his own ima­gi­na­tion, Zei­lin­ger conclu­des with a smi­le.