Light People: Professor Guangcan Guo

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2022 was awarded to French physicist Alain Aspect, American physicist John F. Clauser, and Austrian physicist Anton Zeilinger, in recognition of their contributions to the research of quantum information, a clear indication that we are entering the era of quantum information. In China, a scientist has played herald in quantum research since as early as the 1980s. He introduced quantum optics and quantum informatics to China, a virgin land in terms of quantum research back then. That scientist is Academician Guangcan Guo. Out of personal interests and his good sense as a scientist, Prof. Guo took it upon himself to take on quantum optics when little was known about it in China. He trained many students and launched China’s first academic conference on quantum optics, which helped to accelerate the development of quantum optics in China. In the early 1990s, he took on another challenge, shifting his research focus to the emerging subject of quantum informatics. His work helped to establish China’s current leading position in this interdisciplinary field. Today, China leads the world in quantum USB drives and quantum chips. Now in his 1980s, Prof. Guo is still working tirelessly at the front line of scientific research, doing science popularization, and teaching students. He is ready for the third big challenge of his life—to reveal the mysteries of the classical world and the quantum world. Next, please follow “Light People” into the mysterious “quantum world”, and feel the beauty of science.