Professor Nicolas Gisin was born in Geneva,
Switzerland, in 1952. After a master in physics and a degree in
mathematics, he received his Ph.D. degree in Physics from the University
of Geneva in 1981 for his dissertation in quantum and statistical
physics. The "Fondation Louis de Broglie" recognised this work
with an award.
After a post-doc at the University of Rochester, NY, he joint a start-up
company, Alphatronix, dedicated to fiber instrumentation for the
telecommunication industry. Initially head of the software, he quickly
became responsible for the hardware-software interface. Four years later
he joined a Swiss software company developing an image processing package
which received the attention of the American journal "PC
Magazine".
In 1988 an opportunity to join the Group of Applied Physics at the
University of Geneva as head of the optics section brought him back to
the academic life. At the time the optics section was entirely devoted to
support of the Swiss PTT (now Swisscom). In order to get a critical mass
and stability, the optics section under the impulse of Prof. N. Gisin
started two new research directions, one in optical sensors, one in
quantum optics. The telecom and the sensing activities led to many
patents and technological transfers to Swiss and international
industries. Several products had and still have a commercial success. The
quantum optics activities are more basic research oriented. The main
theme is to combine the large expertise of the group in optical fibers
with basic quantum effects. More recently, the demonstration of quantum
cryptography and of long distance quantum entanglement received quite a
lot of attention as well from the international scientific community as
from the press "grand public".
Hobby
I am especially fortunate, since my main hobby is physics, in
particular the foundation of quantum mechanics! Another hobby, very
important in my life, is field hockey. I played at the top
national level and I am since many years actively involved in our junior
section
www.Servettehc.ch.
Other hobbies concern space research and ecology.
http://www.gap-optique.unige.ch/Members/Nicolas/Resume.htm
