Alejandro Gaita-Ariño, researcher of the Institute for Molecular Science of the Universitat de València located in the Science Park, has been awarded the prize for the Best Outreach Article in Publications of the Real Sociedad Española de Física (Spanish Society of Physics). The award is given by the institution itself jointly with the Fundación BBVA. The awarded work is signed by three scientists which collaborate in the molecular magnetism field.
The awarded article ‘Quantum Computer with magnetic molecules’, published in the journal Revista Española de Física (July-September 2016), is an outreach text about the magnetic molecules as components of the quantum devices. It has been written jointly by three researchers from different investigation centres: Guillem Aromí, from the Department of Inorganic Chemistry of the University of Barcelona; Fernando Luis, of the Aragon Material Science Institute (ICMA/CSIC-University of Zaragoza) and Gaita- Ariño himself.
The jury has highlighted the effort of the authors addressing with a clear and accessible language the quantum computer. This area sets up important scientific and technological challenges. ‘The society has trained us, feed us, and thus our work is for the society’ states the researcher. ‘We do lay the foundations of the future technologies, but we also try to improve the social comprehension of the natural events. I am interested in disseminating science because it helps people making more accurate decisions; that means, to be freer. In general, I feel proud about my dissemination job, but I must admit that the main credits of this project must be given to Fernando Luis, who involved us in this work’.
Alejandro Gaita Ariño is doctor in Chemistry and Researcher of the ‘Ramón y Cajal’ programme at the Universitat de València. He has participated in more than twenty scientific projects and he codirects three doctoral thesis. His curiosity towards the Quantum Computer and his stay abroad (Basel, Vancouver, Toulouse...) have allowed him to open a new line of research and to start a separate career along with the ICMol.
He counts on the help of the Consolidator Grant of the European Research Council (ERC) to consolidate his research about Quantum decoherence. This is a physical phenomenon related to the loss of quantum effects which is useful not only to answer some basic scientific questions but also to improve the most ambitious technological applications of the present and future: the quantum technologies.
There are eight categories in which the Real Sociedad Española de Física gives the awards: Medal of the Real Sociedad Española de Física, endowed with 15,000 euros; Novel Investigator in the modalities of Theoretical Physics and Experimental Physics, each one with 4,000 euros; Teaching and Dissemination of Physics in the modalities of Higher Education and University Teaching, each one with 8,000 euros; Physics, Innovation and Technology, endowed with 8,000 euros; Best Articles in the Publications of the Real Sociedad Española de Física with two awards assigned respectively to the topics of Teaching and Dissemination, each one endowed with 1,500 euros.