Prof. Dr. Tilman Esslinger

Research interests

• Quantum gases and optical lattices
• Quantum many-body physics
• Cavity QED
• Atom lasers

Short CV

• Since October 2001: Full professor at ETH Zurich, Department of Physics
  
  • Research area: Quantum gases, quantum many-body physics, quantum optics
  • Major scientific accomplishments: first experimental realization of a Fermi-Hubbard model and the Mott insulator using a fermionic quantum gas trapped in an optical lattice, measurement of the critical exponent of the correlation length in a Bose gas, pioneering work on strongly interacting quantum gases, first realization of a one-dimensional atomic quantum gas, merger of quantum gas experiments with cavity quantum electrodynamics, observation of the Dicke quantum phase transition

• 1995-2001: Group leader in T.W. Hänsch’s laboratory at the University of Munich
  
  • Field of research: Bose-Einstein condensation, optical lattices
  • Major scientific accomplishments: demonstration of the quantum phase transition between a superfluid and a Mott-insulating state, measurement of the long-range order in a Bose-Einstein condensate, pioneering work on atom lasers

• 1991-1995: Research assistant, Max-Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, Garching
  
  • Field of research: Laser cooling of neutral atoms
  • Major scientific accomplishments: first demonstration of subrecoil laser cooling of rubidium atoms, pioneering work on laser cooling and atom optics in near-resonant optical lattices, demonstration of a mirror for neutral atoms exploiting a surface plasmon resonance

Other Professional Activities

• Since 2009: Vice-chair of Department of Physics at ETH Zurich
• Since 2008: heading search committees as a delegate of the President of ETH Zurich
• 2004 - 2008: Member of the strategic planning commission of ETH Zurich
• 2005 - 2007: Head of Institute of Quantum Electronics, ETH Zurich

Prizes, Honours, Patents

• ERC advanced grant, 2010
• Phillip Morris Research Prize (shared with T.W. Hänsch and I. Bloch), 2000
• Guest professorship at University of Innsbruck, 2001
• US patent on „Device and method for generating and manipulating coherent matter waves“
• Prizes for PhD students in my group:
  
  • Henning Moritz: Prize for General Physics of the Swiss Physical Society 2005
  • Thilo Stöferle: ETH medal and Chorafas Prize 2006
  • Ferdinand Brennecke: ETH medal

Organization of Conferences

• 2011: Chair for the 5^th biannual conference on Bose-Einstein Condensation, Sant Feliu
• 2009: Co-organizer, workshop on “Ab-initio modeling of cold gases”, Zurich, Switzerland
• 2009: Co-organizer, workshop on “Quantum Engineering”, Monte Verita, Switzerland
• 2009: Vice-Chair “Bose-Einstein Condensation 2009”, Sant Feliu, Spain (chair: Peter Zoller)
• 2005: Workshop chair “Control and Manipulation of Quantum Systems”, Monte Verita, CH
• 2002: Chair of the European Research Conference on Quantum Optics
• 2001: Vice-Chair of the European Research Conference on Quantum Optics
• 1999: Symposium „Laser cooling and Bose-Einstein condensation“, DPG-meeting, Heidelberg

Publications