Letter from the Director
José Ignacio Latorre
José Ignacio Latorre is Director of the Centre for Quantum Technologies in Singapore and Professor in the Department of Physics at the National University of Singapore. He is also programme lead for the National Quantum Computing Hub and National Quantum Processor Initiative under Singapore’s National Quantum Strategy.
A leading figure in particle physics and quantum information, José Ignacio joined CQT, NUS from the University of Barcelona in 2020. He previously led a research group at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center to build the first quantum processor in Spain. José Ignacio is also the founder of the Centro de Ciencias de Benasque Pedro Pascual, a Spanish scientific facility that is well known in the quantum information community for hosting workshops and conferences.
A message from the Director
The Centre for Quantum Technologies is one of the leading centres for quantum technologies in the world. Our duty here is to define the future.
To understand better where is the frontier of science in quantum technologies, one has to go back a little bit back in time to when quantum mechanics was created. During the 20th Century, we learned how to use quantum mechanics in a course-grained way. We discovered lasers, magnetic resonance, and all the physics of atoms.
Now, in the turn of the millennium, we have gained control of the individual elements of matter. Now we can control one single electron, we can manipulate a single photon, we work with single atoms and ions. This is a new world. This is why industry, little by little, in communications, in computing, in sensing, they are coming to quantum mechanics to define the new wave of technology.
Be sure, the instrument for transforming our society is science. It is not politics. It is not economics. It is science.
This is an extremely international centre. We have over 40 nationalities. We are really a huge family. Because this is what we are: we are a family that is trying to make the science of the future.