Centre for Quantum Technologies to Welcome New Director José Ignacio Latorre On July 27

(QuantumLab.org) The Centre for Quantum Technologies (CQT) at the National University of Singapore has announced the appointment of José Ignacio Latorre as its new Director. José Ignacio will assume the position on 27 July 2020, taking over from the Centre’s founding Director Artur Ekert.
CQT was established as Singapore’s first research centre of excellence in 2007 by the National Research Foundation (NRF) and Ministry of Education. Nurtured by Artur to grow from a few research groups in theoretical physics and quantum optics into a Centre of some 180 staff and students, CQT today enjoys an international reputation for its interdisciplinary research in quantum technologies.
Since the Centre’s inception, its researchers have published over 2000 scientific papers, and celebrated achievements from the creation of ultracold quantum matter to the launch of quantum satellites. They are working with partners including Singtel, the Infocomm Media Development Authority and SGInnovate towards commercial deployment of quantum technologies, and some alumni have moved on to found local startups.
José Ignacio is poised to lead the Centre into its next phase of development, through a time of fast growth in the field. As well as taking up the position of CQT Director, he is appointed Provost’s Chair Professor in the NUS Department of Physics.
José Ignacio is a familiar member of Singapore’s quantum community, having been a visiting professor at CQT since 2013. He joins NUS from the University of Barcelona, where he is a full professor of theoretical physics. He has been heading a research group at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center to build the first quantum processor in Spain. He is also the founder and director coordinator of the Centro de Ciencias de Benasque Pedro Pascual, a Spanish scientific facility in the Pyrenees mountains well known for its conferences.