News Release
Janez Potočnik
No. 170/04
December 6, 2004
EU-US JOINT RESEARCH PROJECT WINS 2004 DESCARTES PRIZE
The prestigious 2004
Descartes Prize has been awarded to a collaborative
research project between Los Alamos National Laboratory and six European research
laboratories for revolutionary breakthroughs in the field of quantum cryptography,
a crucial advance towards secure global communication networks.
Janez Potočnik, the EU Commissioner responsible for Science
and Research
policy, presented the award at a ceremony in Prague. Speaking at the December
2 ceremony, hosted by the Vaclav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic, in Prague
Castle, Commissioner Potočnik said: "Trans-national scientific cooperation
brings together creative minds, their know-how and means to give new impetus to
research. This leads to new applications that enhance our every day life."
In the joint EU and US project "From Quantum Teleportation to Secure Communication,"
the ultimate goal is to develop a new global network for secure communications
to fight off the challenge from “hackers” who wish to undermine public trust in
the internet. The EU-US team developed a global communication system using particles
of light. Technology called quantum cryptography forms the basis of the new system
and represents a revolutionary advance for global electronic networks, paving
the way for a more secure global infrastructure for e-business and e-government.
The transatlantic research consortium is made up of research partners from Sweden,
Germany, Austria, France, Switzerland, the UK and the Los Alamos National Laboratory
in the US. Team leader, Professor Anders Karlsson (Sweden), called quantum technologies,
such as quantum cryptography, "maybe one of the ten technologies that change
the world." He was joined by Professor Harald Weinfurter, Ludwig-Maximilians
Universitat Munchen (Germany), Professor Anton Zeilinger, Universitat Wien (Austria),
Professor Artur Ekert, University of Oxford and University of Cambridge (UK),
Professor Nicolas Gisin, University of Geneva (Switzerland), Dr. Richard Hughes,
Los Alamos National Laboratory (US), Dr. Thierry Debuisschert, Thales (France),
and Professor John G Rarity, QinetiQ and University of Bristol (UK).
Further details of the project can be found at: MEMO/04/281
and the Los Alamos partner is Dr. Richard Hughes (http://quantum.lanl.gov/hughes.shtml).
The Descartes Prize, named in honor of one of Europe's greatest figures of learning
René Descartes -- mathematician, natural scientist and philosopher -- is worth
€1 million per year and is presented to a project which has attained outstanding
scientific and technological achievements resulting from European collaborative
research. The transatlantic partnership shared the prize this year with a project
investigating the role of mitochondria in degenerative disease and ageing.
One of last year’s winning projects also had a transatlantic flavor, with Professor
Jean-Luc Bredas (Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Georgia Tech. and
at the University of Mons-Hainault in Belgium) participating in a project on polymeric
light-emitting diodes, which promise a cheap and flexible alternative to liquid-crystal
displays.
Further Contact Information
Sue Tucker
Press and Media Relations
Delegation of the European Commission
2300 M Street, NW
Washington, DC 20037
Tel: 202-862-9552
Fax: 202-429-1766
susan.tucker@cec.eu.int
