Frank Verstraete
Frank Verstraete is a Belgian quantum physicist who is working on the interface between quantum information theory and quantum many-body physics. He pioneered the use of tensor networks and entanglement theory in quantum many body systems. He is full professor at the Faculty of Physics of the University of Vienna and the University of Ghent. He was awarded the Lieben Prize in 2009 and the Francqui Prize in 2018.
Frank Verstraete obtained a degree of civil engineering in Louvain and of Master in Physics in Ghent, and obtained his PhD on the topic of quantum entanglement in 2002 under supervision of Prof. B. De Moor and Prof. H. Verschelde. He pioneered the use of quantum entanglement as a unifying theme for describing strongly interacting quantum many body systems, which are the most challenging systems to describe but also the most promising for future quantum technologies such as quantum computers. After postdocs at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics and at the California Institute of Technology, he became the chair of theoretical quantum nanophysics and full professor at the University of Vienna in 2006. He came back to the University of Ghent with an Odysseus grant from the FWO in 2012, and has since built a world leading research group on applications of entanglement in quantum many body systems. He has received numerous awards, and is also distinguished visiting research chair at the Perimeter Institute for theoretical physics in Waterloo, Canada.
