The Rochester Lecture 2026 was delivered by Prof. Antoine Browaeys

The talk was entitled “Assembling quantum matter one atom at a time”, and was well received by the large audience in Ph8. Over the last decade, physicists have learned to assemble "atom by atom" a synthetic quantum matter. Prof. Browaeys present an example based on laser-cooled ensembles of individual atoms trapped in microscopic optical tweezer arrays. By exciting them to Rydberg states, their interactions are controlled, enabling the study of many-body properties of more than a hundred interacting spins, in a regime where simulations by usual numerical methods are very challenging. The speaker explained how beyond the study of many-body problems, the control gained over the atoms finds applications in metrology and could lead to the development of a quantum computer. Some aspects of this research led to the creation of a company, Pasqal.

Professor Paula Chadwick, Head of Durham Physics, commented: “We were delighted that such a prominent international researcher as Prof. Browaeys came to Durham to deliver the Rochester lecture.”

Professor Ifan Hughes, Head of QLM, added: “It was a pleasure to attend Antoine’s talk, and to hear about recent breakthroughs in the burgeoning field of quantum simulation and computing. Many of the undergraduate students present will have been inspired to study these topics further”

Pictured in the photo above: Prof. Antoine Browaeys (centre), Prof Paula Chadwick (Head of Department) and other current and former members of the department.

Watch the 2026 Rochester Lecture online HERE