Gerd Leuchs at the closing ceremony of the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology
The United Nations declared 2025 the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ). The occasion was the 100th anniversary of quantum mechanics – which continues to shape research at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light (MPL) to this day. The closing ceremony took place in Ghana in February.
The proclamation of an international year by the United Nations is preceded by a multi-stage international process in which a national delegation puts the topic on the agenda. As part of the preliminary decision at UNESCO, the initiative was introduced by the Mexican delegation. The delegation from Ghana supported the further process and contributed to the proposal finally being submitted to the United Nations General Assembly.
At the same time, dozens of national scientific societies joined forces to raise public awareness of the importance of quantum physics and its practical implications for many areas of life. This was achieved through a variety of programs and activities as part of the IYQ. The year-long global initiative came to a festive conclusion in Ghana and sent a strong international signal. Representatives from science, politics, and organizations from numerous countries came together to take stock and look to the future. Among the invited guests was Prof. Gerd Leuchs, Emeritus Director of the MPL, who, as a representative and former president of Optica, had already contributed to the initiative in the run-up.
“The campaign for an International Year of Quantum Science began several years ago, particularly under the leadership of the American Physical Society (APS) and the German Physical Society (DPG),” explains Leuchs. Other physics societies quickly joined the initiative, he continues.
“The IYQ marked the 100th anniversary of the seminal work of Werner Heisenberg and Erwin Schrödinger, in which they developed a mathematical formulation of quantum mechanics. In retrospect, the revolution in physics at the beginning of the 20th century that led to this milestone is now referred to as the first quantum revolution. The second quantum revolution, which continues to this day, deals with the new possibilities arising from the control of individual quantum systems,” says Leuchs. It is precisely the elusive phenomena of quantum physics that only become apparent when it is possible to experiment with individual, easily controllable quantum systems, which then lead to entirely new applications. A hundred years ago, this was not possible.
