Spinoza prize for Leo Kouwenhoven

04 June 2007 by TNWToday | M&C

Professor Kouwenhoven has been awarded the NWO Spinoza prize 2007 for his breakthroughs in the area of quantum transport in semi-conducting materials. His pioneering work on so-called spin qubits has had a huge impact on the use of quantum information in, for example, a fundamentally new type of computer. Leo Kouwenhoven is Professor of Quantum Transport at the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience Delft of Delft University of Technology.

Leo Kouwenhoven (10 December 1963) studied applied sciences at Delft University of Technology, graduating cum laude in 1992. He was attached to this university as a KNAW (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences) fellow from 1993 to 1998 and spent part of this period in Berkeley. In 1999, he was offered a professorship at Harvard, but turned it down in favour of an appointment as professor in Delft. He has been attached to the Faculty of Physics at Harvard since 2001. In 2002, he was awarded a Vici grant by NOW (Netherlands Organisation of Scientific Research), and in 2003 he was given nine million Euros by the Stichting FOM (Foundation for Fundamental research on Matter) to fund a joint ten-year research project into quantum information with Leiden University. He has been a member of the KNAW since 2006.

Leo Kouwenhoven is a world authority in the field of electronic properties of nanostructures. His exceptional scientific talent manifested itself during his university days when, as a student, he was involved in discovering that the electrical conductance of point contacts is quantified. This means that the level of conductance can only adopt whole multiples of fundamental units. His thesis contained a staggering six top publications. Kouwenhoven’s impact on the research field of mesoscopic phenomena was enormous even before he attained the title of Doctor.

The Delft physicist is responsible for a large number of breakthroughs in his field. As a pioneer, he has made his mark on research into so-called quantum dots. These are minute structures in semi-conducting materials, which display unique quantum properties thanks to their tiny dimensions. Together with his Japanese colleague Tarucha, he discovered that circular quantum dots have an electronic structure very similar to the electron shells in atoms. Their ‘periodic system of two-dimensional elements'' attained great renown and is partly why the structures were given the name ''artificial atoms''.

Kouwenhoven is currently using the spin of electrons in quantum dots as qubits: the arithmetic unit of a quantum computer. His group was the first to be able to read out the spin state of a single electron, and in 2006, they were able to manipulate this property. This represented an enormous step towards developing a quantum computer that can calculate using the so-called super positions of spin states.

Kouwenhoven is a highly productive scientist. In his short career, he has already published more than 180 articles, 17 of which have appeared in Science and Nature. Seven of his articles reached the cover of a journal. The first three years of the large-scale FOM programme with Leiden University has already generated more than twenty publications in Nature, Science and Physical Review Letters.

Kouwenhoven’s work is enormously significant in both scientific and practical terms. He works very closely with the industry. More than a quarter of his articles have been written jointly with industrial partners. He is a hugely motivating force, never failing to inspire budding young talent. The Spinoza committee therefore has every confidence that Kouwenhoven will put the Spinoza prize to good use, and that it will make a significant contribution to new breakthroughs in the area of nanophysics.

 

Also look at Delta 19 14-06-2007 (only Dutch)

 

More information

Video footage (Dutch)

Quantum Transport in the news (Dutch)

Press releases

© 2013 TU Delft

Metamenu