SERGE HAROCHE
Collège de France, Paris.  Premio Nobel 2012

This year marks the 100th anniversary of quantum mechanics. Among all the inventions born of this physics, the laser occupies an important place, both for the lineage of discoveries that led to its birth, and for the role it plays today in fundamental and applied science. It has opened up fields in research that could not have been imagined at the time it was invented. We owe to it the cooling and trapping of atoms, the study of quantum gases of bosons and fermions, the discovery of gravitational waves and the manipulation of individual quantum particles which has led to current research into quantum simulation and quantum computing. The laser may also provide answers to fundamental questions about the physics beyond the Standard Model or about the nature of the hypothetical dark matter. The history of the laser in blue sky science illustrates the passion for precision and the essential link between basic research and technological advances that have driven modern science since its advent in the Age of Enlightenment.