Gershon Kurizki - Biography#

Prof. Gershon Kurizki, the G.Dunne Chair in Quantum Optics at WIS, is one of the theoretical pioneers of quantum open-system control and thermodynamics. His seminal, groundbreaking contibutions to these fields are expounded in his authoritative, unique book “Thermodynamics and Control of Open Quantum Systems” (Cambridge University Press, 2022). He discovered the Anti-Zeno Effect, which, contrary to the Zeno Effect, represents relaxation and decoherence speedup by measurements or coherent operations. He revealed the impact of the Zeno and anti-Zeno relaxation control on heating and cooling in quantum thermodynamics, challenged the unattainability of the absolute zero in quantum systems, showed the possibility to engineer ultra-long-range and giant photon-photon and atom-atom interactions in confined media, co-pioneered the concept of hybrid quantum systems (which is key to quantum technological applications), the use of quantum measurements for state and entanglement engineering. He invented phase-coherent current control in semiconductors, explained superluminal optical effects and predicted novel quantum optical solitons. He wrote the popular science and philosophy book “The Quantum Matrix” (Oxford University Press, 2020), poetry and philosophical essays.