Since 2016, Quantum Connections Workshops and Summer Schools have been organised on the initiative of Frank Wilczek in collaboration with Antti Niemi from Nordita. Both have made the Summer School what it is today - a well-organised activity for national and international students involved in quantum mechanics.

The Quantum Connections event is jointly organised by Fysikum and Nordita (with Stockholm University, KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Uppsala University as hosts), together with the TD Lee Institute and the Wilczek Quantum Center at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Professor Frank Wilczek's position at the Department of Physics extended until 2030

In 2004, Frank Wilczek, who since 2016 has also worked at Fysikum, received the highest honour in science - the Nobel Prize in Physics - for his discovery of asymptotic freedom and the development of the theory of quantum chromodynamics (QCD).
"Last year, we celebrated 50 years of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) at the Quantum Connections Summer School. It was also 50 years since we came up with the theory that gave us the Nobel Prize and my wife and I celebrated 50 years of marriage. 2023 Summer School therefore featured several Nobel Laureates giving lectures. We also organised a separate Nobel symposium on anyons. Unlike ordinary particles, which are categorised as fermions or bosons, anyons can exhibit statistical properties that lie between the two", says Frank Wilczek.

Every year, around 50 students participate in our Quantum Connections Summer School, selected from around 250 applications. During the lab day, the students get an opportunity to get to know research at the Physics Centre.  This year they have also been able to see each other's areas of activity through a poster exhibition.

"Three of my students from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) are attending this year's summer school. On the research side, there are new opportunities to observe the behaviour of quantum particles in space and time through quantum mechanics and quantum computing. My appointment as a professor at the Department of Physics has been extended until 2030, and I also plan to publish a new book in the spring of 2025," says Frank Wilczek.

Professor Antti Niemi, Nordita

Antti Niemi's and Frank Wilczek's collaboration led to the summer school

Antti Niemi is a professor at Uppsala University and works at Nordita, the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics. While a postdoc at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, he met Professor Frank Wilczek, who later joined Nordita and the Department of Physics at the Stockholm University.

"Initially, we saw Stockholm and Sweden as a scientific link between the US and China. The first events, which were research workshops at Nordita, had few but leading scientists from both the U.S. and China. In the first years we had these small-scale workshops, and in 2018 we added a summer school at Högberga Farm for PhD students and postdocs. Since then, we have had the summer school every year (except 2020 and 2021 when we cancelled due to covid) in addition to workshops. This year's Summer School is the thirteenth Quantum Connections event we are organising. In January, we will also organise a winter school on Hainan Island in China. It will be the same as in Stockholm, i.e. two weeks of winter school with an application period before it takes place," says Antti Niemi.

In parallel with the scientific work, Frank's wife, Betsy Devine, has carried out an artistic project in collaboration between the Physics Centre and the Nobel Museum.

This resulted in an exhibition commemorating Richard Feynman's 100th birthday at the turn of 2018-2019, entitled "All Possible Paths: Richard Feynman's Curious Life", held at the Marina Bay Artscience Museum in Singapore.

The Swedish Research Council's funding contributed to Quantum Connections Workshops and Summer School

In March 2013, the Swedish Research Council was commissioned by the government to announce funding for outstanding researchers in three different initiatives. The initiatives resulted, among other things, in grants for the international recruitment of outstanding researchers such as Katherine Freese, Anders Nilsson, John Wettlaufer and Frank Wilczek to Stockholm University. The Quantum Connections Workshops and Summer School is one of the results of this grant.
The Quantum Connections Summer School will run from 9-22 June 2024. Two participants involved in Frank Wilczek's project will be interviewed shortly and the article will be complemented with their papers.

More information

Quantum Connections Summer School 2024

Frank's curiosity has resulted in a Nobel Prize and several fruitful collaborations (Interview with Frank Wilczek from 2023)

Frank Wilczek's website

Shedding new light on the dark matter of the universe (Project grant for researcher Jòn Gudmundsson with Head of Department Jan Conrad and Professor Frank Wilczek as co-applicants)

Exhibition 2018-2019 at Marina Bay in Singapore