Quantum Physics, Quantum Simulation

Immanuel Bloch wins Wolf Foundation’s Wolf Prize for quantum simulation work

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October 2, 2026 by Ivy Delaney

Immanuel Bloch, Chair of Experimental Physics at LMU and Director at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, will share the Wolf Prize with Jun Ye for advances in controlling ultracold atomic systems. Bloch’s research establishes quantum simulation as a key approach to understanding complex quantum many-body systems, allowing researchers to investigate fundamental phenomena under precisely defined conditions.

Among his landmark achievements is the observation of the quantum phase transition from a superfluid to a Mott insulator, a shift in the fundamental behavior of matter. “This really came as a huge surprise yesterday!” said Professor Bloch, adding that the prize is “wonderful recognition for all the members of our teams and for Munich as a center of scientific research.”

Bloch’s Research Defines Quantum Simulation Paradigm

Bloch’s research has revealed a complex pathway of quantum material behavior, observing a fermionic Mott insulator evolving from a pseudogap metal to a Fermi liquid. This progression provides insights into the properties of solids and novel quantum materials.

Immanuel Bloch wins Wolf Foundation’s Wolf Prize for quantum simulation work
© Jan Greune / LMU · Source: lmu.de

This observation builds on the team’s success in arranging ultracold atoms within optical lattices constructed from laser light, allowing for controlled interactions and precise observation of individual particles. The team’s development of quantum gas microscopy is a technique enabling observation and control of individual atoms within these ultracold systems with extraordinary precision, and this level of control allows scientists to recreate and study complex quantum systems, providing deeper insights into the fundamental properties of quantum matter.

Bloch’s work has decisively shaped the paradigm of quantum simulation, establishing it as a vital experimental approach to studying complex quantum systems. The Wolf Foundation recognizes these transformative, widely applicable advances in the control of ultracold atomic systems, acknowledging the far-reaching implications for both modern physics and emerging quantum technologies.

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Avatar of Ivy Delaney

Ivy Delaney

Ivy Delaney has been working with neural networks and machine learning since the mid-nineties, back when a couple of hidden layers and a long afternoon of training counted as ambitious. She has watched the field go from academic curiosity to the thing quietly running underneath everything, and she brings that long view to quantum computing. For Quantum Zeitgeist she covers the ground where the two fields meet. That means quantum machine learning and the variational algorithms it leans on, and it also means the less glamorous but more interesting story of classical machine learning already doing real work inside quantum machines, decoding error-correcting codes, calibrating noisy hardware and learning the error models that simulators depend on. She writes about the hardware those algorithms have to run on too, and about the post-quantum cryptography scramble that the same hardware has set off. Her stories typically start with the paper, whether that is peer-reviewed work, conference proceedings or an arXiv preprint, with the source linked so you can hold a claim up against the research it came from. She is unimpressed by benchmarks that will not say what they beat, and by demonstrations that only work in the press release.

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