The Committee of Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) awarded the 2019 prize to prof dr hab. Ryszard Horodecki for his outstanding contribution to quantum information science and the development of this field.

Short bio of the winner:

Prof. dr hab. Ryszard Horodecki is a correspondent member of the Polish Academy of Sciences from the International Center for Theory of Quantum Technologies at the University of Gdańsk. He co-created a cutting-edge field of science, quantum information science. Together with his sons (Paweł, Michał, Karol) and professors Robert Alicki and Marek Żukowski, he established  the center for quantum information science that became an international research hub in its field. 

Prof. dr hab. Ryszard Horodecki has been the lead organizer and  the first director (2007-2019) of The National Center of Quantum Information Technology in Gdańsk, the institution which joins seven Polish Universities, PAN Center for Theoretical Physics and PAN Physics Institute. He has been a beneficiary of multiple EU grants (among them, as the third person in Poland, the distinguished ERC Advanced Grant) and multiple other prestigious awards, like the Prize of the Foundation for Polish Science, Hevelius Prize,  W.Rubinowicz Team Award.

Under the supervision of Professor Horodecki, the team of scientists have developed an efficient, cost-effective detection method for the new resource called entanglement. Professor Horodecki discovered so-called bound entanglement states, black holes of quantum information, and has greatly contributed  to the fields of theory of quantum channels and quantum information processing.

Beyond his scientific work, Professor Horodecki is very passionate about poetry, which he also writes. His volumes “Sum ergo cogito” and “The Andromeda Arras” have been published by Marpress publishing house and even translated into English.

Translation: Adam Myzyk