Prof. José Ignacio Latorre
José Ignacio Latorre is Director of Singapore’s Centre for Quantum Technologies (CQT) and Provost’s Chair Professor in the Department of Physics at the National University of Singapore (NUS). CQT brings together over 300 physicists, computer scientists and engineers – across three universities and other research institutes – to do basic research on quantum physics and to build devices based on quantum phenomena. The Centre trains PhD students awarded Singapore’s National Quantum Scholarships.
Prof Latorre also plays a leading role in other national-level programmes under Singapore’s National Quantum Strategy. He is the lead PI for the National Quantum Processor Initiative, which is developing Singapore’s native capabilities in quantum processor technology in neutral atoms, trapped ion and photonics platforms. He is a co-PI for the National Quantum Computing Hub, established as a collaboration between CQT, A*STAR’s Institute of Advanced Intelligence and Computing and the National Supercomputing Centre Singapore. His focus there is talent development, open-source quantum software and research on quantum algorithms and solutions.
A leading figure in particle physics and quantum information, José Ignacio joined CQT, NUS in July 2020 from the University of Barcelona, where he had been heading a research group at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center to build the first quantum processor in Spain. José Ignacio is also a co-founder of Qilimanjaro, a startup in quantum computing. Earlier in his career, he was a Fullbright Fellow at MIT in the United States and a postdoc at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen. He also founded the Centro de Ciencias de Benasque Pedro Pascual, a Spanish scientific facility in the Pyrenees mountains well known for its conferences.
Prof Latorre is the author of books including The Last Voice: Roy J. Glauber and the Dawn of the Atomic Age and A New Social Contract: Governing a world with non-human intelligences. In his leisure time, he paints, co-owns a vineyard and enjoys Latin dance.
