Anton Zeilinger to Speak on "Quantum Experiments and the Foundations of Physics" At Brookhaven Lab, February 28

UPTON, NY - Anton Zeilinger, a professor of experimental physics at the University of Vienna, will give a free public lecture at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory on Wednesday, February 28, at 4 p.m. in Berkner Hall. The title of his lecture is "Quantum Experiments and the Foundations of Physics."

In this talk, Prof. Zeilinger will focus on his experiments involving the quantum interference of hot fullerene molecules, comprised of 60 carbon atoms, which are the most massive objects showing quantum behavior so far. He will also discuss recent studies of quantum entanglement, and demonstrate esoteric phenomena known to science fiction buffs as quantum crytography and quantum teleportation.

After earning a Ph.D. in physics and mathematics from the Universität Wien in Austria in 1971, Zeilinger stayed on at the Technical University of Vienna as an assistant professor until 1981. He also became a research associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as a Fulbright Fellow in 1977, and, in 1981, Zeilinger became an associate professor of physics at MIT. In 1983, he returned to the Technical University of Vienna. In 1990, he joined the Universität Innsbruck in Austria as a full professor, and in 1999 he assumed his current position at the University of Vienna.

President of the Austrian Physical Society from 1996 to 1998, and a Fellow of the American Physical Society, Zeilinger has won numerous honors, including the 'Austrian Scientist of the Year' award in 1996, and the Senior Humboldt Fellow Prize and the Science Prize of the City of Vienna, both in 2000.

For more information about the lecture, call 631-344-2345. Brookhaven Lab is located on William Floyd Parkway (County Road 46), one-and-a-half miles north of Exit 68 of the Long Island Expressway.

The U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory creates and operates major facilities available to university, industrial and government personnel for basic and applied research in the physical, biomedical and environmental sciences, and in selected energy technologies. The Laboratory is operated by Brookhaven Science Associates, a not-for-profit research management company, under contract with the U.S. Department of Energy.