Daqing Wang joins the University of Bonn as ML4Q Professor for Experimental Quantum Physics

Daqing Wang was appointed by the University of Bonn to start his ML4Q professorship as of October 1st, 2023. He is now establishing his group at the Institute of Applied Physics (Institut für Angewandte Physik, IAP) where he will conduct his research in the field of experimental quantum optics, with the focus on light-matter interfaces based on single molecules.

Wang is taking up the new position in Bonn after being a junior group leader and tenure-track professor at the University of Kassel. In 2022, he received the prestigious Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC).

After completing his Bachelor’s degree at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China in 2006, Wang moved halfway around the world to Jena, Germany, where he completed his Master’s degree at Friedrich Schiller University. He has always been interested in quantum optics and the study of physics using light, which led him to Vienna and the group of Anton Zeilinger, one of the three scientists who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2022. In 2012, he joined Zeilinger and his team to work on a quantum teleportation study. The team managed to achieve quantum teleportation over a record distance of 143 km (the previous record, set just a few months earlier, was 97 km). After this experience, Wang was looking for an experiment small enough to fit on an optical table. So he joined the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light (MPL) where he finished his PhD studies in 2018/19.

In his research, Wang explores the potential of long-lived quantum states as a storage unit for information in quantum communication. He wants to find and control singular nuclear spins in organic molecules and provide proof of principle that these spins can be used as a storage unit and interface to photons. He believes that molecular spins have great potential for quantum information technology. Find out more on the Nanophysics and Quantum Photonics group website: https://www.nano.uni-bonn.de/

As to his start in Bonn and ML4Q, Wang says: “I am very excited about the start of my team in Bonn. We look forward to working with an excellent group of researchers in ML4Q. Interfacing light and matter at the quantum level is a fascinating topic. I am glad that we can now join forces with other teams in the cluster to push this frontier.”

A very warm welcome to Daqing who by the way is looking for motivated persons to start as PhD and Postdoc in his group. Have a look at current opening: https://www.nano.uni-bonn.de/join-us