2025, the international year of quantum mechanics

Gerardo Herrera Corral

Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados (Cinvestav)

Instituto Politécnico Nacional

On February 4 and 5, the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (AIQ) was launched at unesco headquar-ters in Paris. The ceremony was streamed live and featured Anne L’Huillier, a French physicist who won the 2023 Nobel Prize for her work enabling ultrafast measurements of electron movement. She delivered a talk titled “The Quantum World with Ultras-hort Light Pulses.”

Ana María Cetto, a physicist specializing in quantum mechanics, represented Mexico. She has led two organizations that received Nobel Prizes and was honored in 2023 with unesco’s Kalinga Prize, often called the “Nobel” of science communication. Her experience in international scientific forums and her role in proposing this centennial celebration of the first mathematical theory of microscopic phenomena made her a key participant.

Another distinguished speaker was Alain Aspect, who received the 2022 Nobel Prize for his experimental demonstration of quantum entanglement. The event also welcomed Serge Haroche, awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize for developing technology that allows the measurement and manipulation of individual quantum systems, and William Phillips, an American physicist who won the 1997 Nobel Prize for pioneering laser-based methods to cool and trap atoms.

These and other leading scientists gathered to inaugurate a year of worldwide activities. Quantum science and its associated technologies continue to drive groundbreaking advances in science and technological innovation. They fuel discoveries in chemistry, biology, and physics while also shaping engineering applications in computing, environmental science, and public health, among many other fields.

In July 1925, Werner Heisenberg published a manuscript that presented a consistent mathematical framework describing previously observed quantum phenomena. The discussions within the scientific community, experimental results, and scattered ideas of the time coalesced into a theory that laid the foundation for understanding the microscopic world.

A century later, quantum mechanics still delivers surprises. Recent measurements not only confirm its original postulates but also offer new ways to solve technological challenges. It continues to open new paths for understanding the world and developing practical solutions.

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