Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the Ernst Abbe Foundation invite you to the 80th Ernst Abbe Colloquium on Monday, 4 May 2026. At 17:00, the internationally renowned physicist Prof Dr Jens Eisert will speak in the Physics Lecture Hall at Max-Wien-Platz 1 in Jena about current developments in quantum physics and their significance for future technologies. Under the title ?From cats, quanta and computers?, he will cover everything from fundamental concepts of quantum mechanics to new approaches in quantum computing. Admission is free.

The fascination of quantum physics

Under the title ?From cats, quanta and computers?, Jens Eisert spans the arc from fundamental concepts of quantum mechanics—such as the famous thought experiment of the ?Schr?dinger cat?—to current developments in the field of quantum computing. The focus is on questions such as how quantum physical effects can be used for new types of information processing and what prospects this opens up for science and technology.

Quantum physics explained in an understandable way

Quantum mechanics is the fundamental physical theory of nature. It describes how small particles such as atoms, ions and light particles behave. Some of its predictions are unintuitive and puzzling: things can be in many places at the same time, a measurement changes the object and there is absolute randomness.

The world of the smallest particles seems to care little about the rules of the macroscopic world: Even Erwin Schr?dinger devised the well-known thought model according to which quantum mechanics predicts that cats can be both alive and dead at the same time—a somewhat curious notion from everyday experience, however. And yet the phenomena of quantum mechanics underlie the functioning of almost every high-tech product, from semiconductors to lasers.

What prospects do quantum computers open up?

The latest approaches to manipulating individual quantum systems open up prospects for new types of computers that could be significantly more powerful than classic supercomputers for certain problems. Jens Eisert takes the audience on a journey from the beginnings of computer development in Berlin to current developments in quantum computing, in which high technology and fundamental questions about nature come together.

About the person

Jens Eisert is Professor of Theoretical Physics at Freie Universit?t Berlin. He heads the Dahlem Centre for Complex Quantum Systems. He also conducts research at the Helmholtz Centre Berlin and the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute. His work is one of the most internationally recognised contributions to quantum information theory. He focuses on quantum computing and fundamental questions of Physics. He investigates the possibilities and limits of quantum physical information processing. Eisert has been honoured with several prestigious awards. These include ERC Grants, the EURYI Award and the Google NISQ Award.