On 22 June 2023, Jian-Wei Pan received an IQOQI Fellowship for his pioneering contributions to experimental quantum foundations based on multi-photon interferometry, long-distance quantum communication as well as optical quantum computation, which have played a pivotal role in the rapidly evolving field of secure and large-scale quantum information processing.
Jian-Wei Pan has devoted his research to fundamental aspects of quantum physics as well as their technological applications, in particular the objective of a world-wide quantum communication network.
Jian-Wei Pan's research is focused on the overall objective of a world-wide quantum communication network. Together with the group of Anton Zeilinger in Vienna, Jian-Wei Pan and his group developed a first segment for a global network for secure quantum communication which combines fiber-based long-distance secure quantum communications and satellite-based quantum communication. On the ground, Jian-Wei Pan’s team established a glass fiber connection between Beijing and Shanghai with links every 100 km or so. And in space, the launch of the quantum satellite Micius/Mozi was a major step towards such a global network, which was the basis for numerous technological developments.
In 1996, Jian-Wei Pan came from China to pursue his PhD with Anton Zeilinger, who was at that time based in Innsbruck, and arrived with the highest recommendations. He started out as a theorist, but soon developed his talent for experiment. "Magic hands", he would declare to his colleagues after sucessfuly adjusting the experimental set-up, comically waving said hands in playful arabesques.
Already during his PhD work, Jian-Wei Pan contributed to the world-wide first quantum teleportation experiment, and soon after to the first experimental realization of three- and four-photon GHZ entanglement. He then turned to entanglement purification and to new experiments on long-distance quantum communication. Since his time in Zeilinger's group, Jian-Wei Pan has maintained close scientific collaborations with IQOQI-Vienna, for example on the above-mentioned Micius satellite.
