Stefanie Barz is a German physicist and Professor of Quantum Information and Technology at the

University of Stuttgart The University of Stuttgart () is a research university located in Stuttgart, Germany. It was founded in 1829 and is organized into 10 faculties. It is one of the oldest technical universities in Germany with programs in civil, mechanical, ind ...

working in the field of photonic

quantum technology Quantum engineering is the development of technology that capitalizes on the laws of quantum mechanics. This type of engineering uses quantum mechanics to develop technologies such as quantum sensors and quantum computers. Devices that rely on ...

Early life and education

Barz studied at the

Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz The Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz () is a public research university in Mainz, Rhineland Palatinate, Germany. It has been named after the printer Johannes Gutenberg since 1946. it had approximately 32,000 students enrolled in around 100 a ...

, with a stay at the

KTH Royal Institute of Technology KTH Royal Institute of Technology (), abbreviated KTH, is a Public university, public research university in Stockholm, Sweden. KTH conducts research and education in Institute of technology, engineering and technology and is Sweden's largest te ...

within the Erasmus Programme. She earned her PhD from the University of Vienna under the supervision of

Anton Zeilinger Anton Zeilinger (; born 20 May 1945) is an Austrian quantum physicist and Nobel laureate in physics of 2022. Zeilinger is professor of physics emeritus at the University of Vienna and senior scientist at the Institute for Quantum Optics and Qu ...

, working on various aspects of photonic

quantum computing A quantum computer is a computer that exploits quantum mechanical phenomena. On small scales, physical matter exhibits properties of wave-particle duality, both particles and waves, and quantum computing takes advantage of this behavior using s ...

, including 'blind' quantum computing using entangled photons, where the sender knows the initial state of entanglement while companies in control of data processing do not, making it impossible for them to decode the information without destroying it. For her dissertation she was awarded the Laudimaxima Prize of the University of Vienna, and her work has been featured in ''

New Scientist ''New Scientist'' is a popular science magazine covering all aspects of science and technology. Based in London, it publishes weekly English-language editions in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. An editorially separate organ ...

'' and covered by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

and

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

. In 2013 Barz was awarded the Maria Schaumayer Prize and the Loschmidt Prize. From 2014 to 2017, Barz was a

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Maria Salomea Skłodowska-Curie (; ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934), known simply as Marie Curie ( ; ), was a Polish and naturalised-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first wo ...

Fellow as well as a Millard and Lee Alexander Fellow in the Christ Church College at the University of Oxford. She worked with Ian Walmsley on three-photon interference, during which project she created integrated photon sources, fibre components and waveguide circuits.

Research and career

Barz was appointed full professor at the University of Stuttgart in 2017. The research focus of her group is on the study of single

photons A photon () is an elementary particle that is a quantum of the electromagnetic field, including electromagnetic radiation such as light and radio waves, and the force carrier for the electromagnetic force. Photons are massless particles that ...

and

quantum states In quantum physics, a quantum state is a mathematical entity that embodies the knowledge of a quantum system. Quantum mechanics specifies the construction, evolution, and measurement of a quantum state. The result is a prediction for the system re ...

of light, covering both fundamental quantum physics and aspects of integrated photonic technology, with the ultimate goal of applying fundamental advances in quantum computing, quantum communication, and quantum networking. In 2018 she was awarded a multi-million-Euro grant to work on quantum technologies using silicon-based photonics and since 2022 she leads the PhotonQ project, which aims to realize a photonic quantum processor. Since 2022, Barz is Director of the Center for Integrated Quantum Science and Technology (IQST), the joint quantum centre of the Universities of Stuttgart,

Ulm Ulm () is the sixth-largest city of the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with around 129,000 inhabitants, it is Germany's 60th-largest city. Ulm is located on the eastern edges of the Swabian Jura mountain range, on the up ...

, and the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research. She also serves on the Strategic Advisory Board of QuantERA, a network of quantum technology researchers, on the executive board of the CZS Center QPhoton, and the advisory board of QuantumBW, an innovation initiative bundling quantum technology expertise in

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

Awards and honours

* 2024: Honorary Professorship, Vienna University of Technology * 2022: Award for best elective physics lecture, University of Stuttgart * 2015:

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

Millard and Lee Alexander Fellowship * 2015:

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

Individual Fellowship * 2014: University of Vienna & City of Vienna Doc.Award 2013 * 2014: Austrian Chemical-Physical Society Loschmidt Prize * 2013: Maria Schaumayer Prize * 2012:

Falling Walls The Falling Walls Science Summit (previously Falling Walls Conference) is an annual science event in Berlin, Germany, which takes place from 7th to 9th of November and coincides with the anniversary of the Berlin Wall#Demolition, Fall of the Berli ...

Scholarship * 2011: University of Vienna Laudimaxima Award

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barz, Stefanie German women physicists German women scientists Academic staff of the University of Stuttgart University of Vienna alumni Quantum computing Living people Year of birth missing (living people)