Austrian Science Fund (FWF) congratulates Anton Zeilinger on the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics

The Nobel Prize Committee has awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics to Alain Aspect (France), John F. Clauser (USA), and Austrian physicist Anton Zeilinger for their research in the field of quantum physics. The Nobel Prize is the world’s most prestigious scientific distinction and is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Wolfgang Pauli was the last Austrian researcher to win the Nobel Prize in Physics, in 1945.

October 4, 2022

“On behalf of the FWF, I would like to extend my warmest congratulations to Anton Zeilinger on winning the Nobel Prize in Physics,” said FWF President Christof Gattringer in an initial reaction. “This award is the crowning achievement in an outstanding scientific career and also clearly demonstrates the success of Austrian basic research at the highest international level,” Gattringer concludes.

The Austrian Science Fund (FWF) has been supporting Anton Zeilinger's research projects for decades. This also shows just how important it is to fund basic research, which allows our scientists to keep up with the world’s best researchers. With his ground-breaking basic research in the field of quantum physics and, in particular, quantum cryptography, quantum teleportation, and quantum information, Anton Zeilinger has been a major influence in developing and shaping the entire discipline from its very beginning.

In the grounds for its decision, the Nobel Prize Committee explained that the three physicists have conducted ground-breaking experiments with entangled quantum states, in which two particles behave like a single entity even when they are separated. These results have paved the way for all technologies based on quantum information.