Prof. Franco Nori

Abstract: Atomic physics, quantum optics, nanoscience, condensed matter physics, and quantum information are partly merging as new interdisciplinary areas form to involve all these traditionally separate subfields. For instance, superconducting circuits can exhibit quantum phenomena that are normally associated with atomic systems, providing a platform for testing various ideas in atomic physics and quantum optics. These quantum circuits can also be used to perform quantum metrology, quantum analog simulations, quantum computing calculations, and other tasks on quantum information processing.

This pedagogical talk will explain in simple terms the basic physics underlying superconducting qubits, in a way to make it understandable for non-experts in other fields.  As emphasized in the December 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics (I will briefly show some photos of this recent event), superconducting circuits based on Josephson junctions exhibit macroscopic quantum coherence and can behave like artificial atoms. Technological advances have made it possible to implement atomic-physics and quantum-optics experiments on a chip using these artificial atoms, as well as performing some quantum computing tasks. I will summarize phenomena analogous to those in atomic physics and quantum optics with natural atoms, and also highlight those not occurring in natural atoms. At the end, I will briefly summarize a few current directions in this growing interdisciplinary field.

Bio: Franco Nori is a Team Director at the Quantum Computing Center, RIKEN, Japan. Until 2025, he was a Chief Scientist at RIKEN. He also holds a concurrent position at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His research group has done pioneering interdisciplinary studies at the interface between quantum optics, quantum information processing, superconducting quantum circuitry for quantum computing, photonics, atomic physics, open quantum systems, opto-mechanics, nanoscience, and condensed matter physics.

Nori completed his MS and PhD at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After a postdoctoral position at the Institute for Theoretical Physics at UCSB, he joined the faculty of the University of Michigan, and then in 2002, a concurrent position at RIKEN.

He has been listed by the Web of Science as a “Highly Cited Researcher” (less than 0.1% of scientists are selected) in Physics for the past nine consecutive years.  More than 153 publications in Physical Review Letters, ~86 in Science and Nature journals, as well as numerous ones in other top journals. According to the Web of Science: over 84K citations and h-index ~ 131 (Google Scholar: >118K citations and h-index ~153).

He is an Elected Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), Institute of Physics (IoP), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and Optica (formerly, the Optical Society of America). He received the 2014 Prize for Research in Physics, from the Matsuo Foundation, Japan; and the 2013 Prize for Science, by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan. Also, an “Excellence in Research Award” and an “Excellence in Education Award” from the University of Michigan. He is an Elected Member of the Academia Europea, the Latin American Academy of Sciences, and a Foreign Member of the Swedish Royal Society of Arts and Sciences, in Gothenburg, Sweden. He won the 2023 W.E. Lamb Medal, and the 2024 Charles H. Townes Medal; both for fundamental contributions to research on Quantum Optics, Quantum Electronics, and Quantum Information. In 2024, he received a Research Honorary Doctorate in Physics, from the University of Messina, Italy.

PDF files of pedagogical reviews on quantum information are available online here.