Serge Haroche

Physics

Serge Haroche does experiments in the field of quantum optics and won the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics with David Wineland "for ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems.” Haroche’s work has to do with trapping a single photon (a single packet of light energy) between mirrors and probing it with single atoms in various atomic states (quantum states) to investigate the quantum mechanical nature of the interactions.

Wikimedia Commons, by Bengt Nyman