Pan Jianwei (; born 11 March 1970) is a Chinese academic administrator and quantum physicist. He is a university administrator and professor of physics at the

University of Science and Technology of China The University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) is a public university in Hefei, China. It is affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and co-funded by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Ministry of Education of the People' ...

. Pan is known for his work in the field of

quantum entanglement Quantum entanglement is the phenomenon where the quantum state of each Subatomic particle, particle in a group cannot be described independently of the state of the others, even when the particles are separated by a large distance. The topic o ...

quantum information Quantum information is the information of the state of a quantum system. It is the basic entity of study in quantum information theory, and can be manipulated using quantum information processing techniques. Quantum information refers to both t ...

and quantum computers. In 2017, he was named one of

Nature's 10 ''Nature'' 10 is an annual listicle of ten "people who mattered" in science, produced by the scientific journal ''Nature (journal), Nature''. Nominees have made a significant impact in science either for good or for bad. Reporters and editorial s ...

, which labelled him "Father of Quantum". He is an academician of the

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS; ) is the national academy for natural sciences and the highest consultancy for science and technology of the People's Republic of China. It is the world's largest research organization, with 106 research i ...

and the World Academy of Sciences and Executive Vice President of the

. He also serves as one of the Vice Chairman of

Jiusan Society The Jiusan Society () is one of the eight minor so-called "Democratic parties (China), democratic parties" in the China, People's Republic of China under the direction of the Chinese Communist Party. The party's original name was "Democracy a ...

Early life and education

Pan was born in Dongyang,

Jinhua Jinhua is a prefecture-level city in central Zhejiang province in eastern China. It borders the provincial capital of Hangzhou to the northwest, Quzhou to the southwest, Lishui to the south, Taizhou, Zhejiang, Taizhou to the east, and Shaoxin ...

Zhejiang ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = ( Hangzhounese) ( Ningbonese) (Wenzhounese) , image_skyline = 玉甑峰全貌 - panoramio.jpg , image_caption = View of the Yandang Mountains , image_map = Zhejiang i ...

province in 1970. In 1987, he entered the

(USTC), from which he received his bachelor's and master's degrees. He received his PhD from the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

in Austria, where he studied and worked in the group led by Nobel prize winning physicist Anton Zeilinger.

Contributions

Pan's team demonstrated five-photon entanglement in 2004. Under his leadership, the world's first quantum satellite launched successfully in August 2016 as part of the Quantum Experiments at Space Scale, a Chinese research project. In June 2017, Pan's team used their quantum satellite to demonstrate entanglement with satellite-to-ground total summed lengths between 1600km and 2400km and entanglement distribution over 1200km between receiver stations. In 2021, Pan led a team which built quantum computers. One of the devices, named "''Zuchongzhi 2.1''", was claimed to be one million times faster than its nearest competitor, Google's ''Sycamore''.

Awards and recognition

Pan was elected to the

in 2011 at the age of 41, making him one of the youngest CAS academicians. He was then elected to the World Academy of Sciences in 2012 and won the International Quantum Communication Award in the same year. In April 2014, he was appointed Vice President of the University of Science and Technology of China. His team's work on double quantum-teleportation was selected as the ''Physics World'' "Top Breakthrough of the Year" in 2015. His team, whose members include Peng Chengzhi, Chen Yu'ao, Lu Chaoyang, and Chen Zengbing, won the State Natural Science Award (First Class) in 2015. In 2017, the journal ''

Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

'' named Pan, along with such figures as Ann Olivarius and

Scott Pruitt Edward Scott Pruitt (born May 9, 1968) is an American attorney, lobbyist and Republican Party (United States), Republican politician from the state of Oklahoma. He served as the 14th Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) f ...

, one of the top 10 people who made "a significant impact in science either for good or for bad", with the label "Father of Quantum" given to Pan. The same year he won the Future Science Prize. Pan was included in ''Time'' magazine's ''100 Most Influential People of 2018.'' The same year, he became a laureate of the

Asian Scientist 100 The Asian Scientist 100 is an annually published list of 100 prize-winning Asian researchers, academicians, innovators and business leaders from across the Asia-Pacific region and a range of scientific disciplines. Recipients "must have received ...

by the ''

Asian Scientist ''Asian Scientist'' is an English language science and technology magazine published in Singapore. History and profile ''Asian Scientist'' was launched as a blog in March 2011 by Juliana Chan. The blog's popularity eventually led to a partnersh ...

''. In 2019, Pan was appointed as lead editor of '' Physical Review Research''. He also received The Optical Society's R. W. Wood Prize. In 2020, Pan received the ZEISS Research Award.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pan, Jianwei 1970 births Living people 21st-century Chinese physicists Academic staff of the University of Science and Technology of China Chinese academic administrators Educators from Jinhua Members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Members of the Jiusan Society Quantum physicists People from Dongyang Physicists from Zhejiang Scientists from Jinhua TWAS fellows University of Science and Technology of China alumni University of Vienna alumni Fellows of the American Physical Society Westlake University Fellows of Optica (society)