ºÚÁÏÍø

News

The Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters has awarded Mika A. Sillanpää for his outstanding contributions to promote quantum research

The physics award of the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters and Professor Theodor Homén has been granted to Professor Mika A. Sillanpää for his significant contributions in the research of quantum optomechanics, superconductive qubits and magnetoacoustics
Mika Sillanpää, Aalto University. Photo: Mikko Raskinen.
Photo: Mikko Raskinen

The physics award of the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters and Professor Theodor Homén has been granted to Professor Mika A. Sillanpää for his significant contributions in the research of quantum optomechanics, superconductive qubits and magnetoacoustics.

The research team led by Sillanpää was able to establish quantum entanglement between a pair of macroscopic drumheads. Sillanpää, Assistant Professor Laure Mercier de Lépinay and the rest of the team were able to simultaneously measure the position and the momentum of the two drumheads. This should not be possible according to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. The achievement was awarded the Physics World Breakthrough of the Year 2021.

Sillanpää has been thrice awarded the grant from the European Research Council. In 2021, he received EUR 2.5 million of ERC Advanced Grant funding from the European Research Council for the GUANTUM project. The goal of the project is to determine the effect of gravity on the quantum-mechanical states and vibrations of two gold spheres on a very small scale, and at extremely low temperatures.

‘With this research, we are trying to solve a hundred-year-old mystery of physics: The incompatibility of the general relativity and quantum mechanics,’ says Sillanpää.

Read more about Sillanpää's research:

The drumheads exhibit a collective quantum motion. Picture: Juha Juvonen.

Aalto researchers awarded Physics World Breakthrough of the Year for macroscopic quantum entanglement

Aalto University Professor Mika A. Sillanpää, his team and collaborators at the University of New South Wales in Canberra, Australia, have won the Physics World 2021 Breakthrough of the Year. The prize was awarded for establishing quantum entanglement between a pair of macroscopic drumheads – two mechanical resonators that were tiny but still much larger than the subatomic particles that are usually entangled. The award has previously been given for the first direct observation of a black hole and for the detection of gravitational waves, which also received a Nobel Prize.

News
The drumheads exhibit a collective quantum motion. Picture: Juha Juvonen.

Evading the uncertainty principle in quantum physics

New technique gets around 100-year-old rule of quantum physics for the first time

News
The highly competed ERC Advanced Grant, awarded to leading top researchers, is the third ERC grant won by Professor Mika A. Sillanpää. In 2009, he received the ERC Starting Grant targeted at talented young researchers and, in 2013, he was awarded the ERC Consolidator Grant intended for top researchers establishing their careers. Picture: Aalto University.

Physicist Mika A. Sillanpää wins a multi-million euro research grant to support work reconciling quantum mechanics and general relativity

The team is trying to solve a hundred-year-old mystery of physics with the help of small gold spheres and extremely low temperatures. The observation of tiny gravitational forces between vibrating spheres may solve the mystery.

News
  • Updated:
  • Published:
Share
URL copied!

Read more news

An open book standing on a tall stack of colourful closed books on a white background
Awards and Recognition Published:

R2B funding

ne win for ajnksdlm jncwd
Asst. Prof. Magda Posani presenting the TFK Bio-LCArch project at NSB 2026 in Tampere (Photo taken by A!BP)
Awards and Recognition, Cooperation, Research & Art Published:

International educational project at Aalto University funded by the TFK Programme

The Bio-Design for Low Carbon Architecture (Bio-LCArch) project is a collaborative initiative between Aalto University in Finland and Beijing Jiaotong University in China, geared toward demonstrating how bio-based materials can facilitate the construction industry's transition to net-zero emissions.
Glowing neon sphere with geometric core and light trails floating above a tablet in the dark
Press releases, Research & Art Published:

World’s first superconducting quantum heat engine opens the path to larger quantum computers

A newly-developed superconducting quantum heat engine not only advances our understanding of thermodynamics but also enables technologies needed for high-qubit quantum computers.
Smiling young man speaking into a microphone, holding blue papers, standing by brick wall indoors
Studies Published:

From Quantum to Entrepreneurship: Sreekrishna Praveen on Expanding His Perspective

How do you turn breakthrough technologies into real-world impact?