Korea University Students Attend Lecture By Nobel Laureate
At 6 p.m. on June 27, Dr. John Francis Clauser, the Nobel laureate in physics for 2022, gave a special lecture on the topic of “Quantum Entanglement and the Quantum Era” at the 1st Next Intelligence Forum (NIF), which took place in Kim Yang Hyun Hall.
The special lecture by the Nobel laureate attracted a large crowd of students, and the main auditorium also had to be opened to accommodate the high turnout. The audience filled more than 300 seats in the auditorium, and many students stood in the corridors and at the back to listen.
NIF is part of the calendar of events that are being held in celebration of the 120th anniversary of the founding of Korea University in 2025, and through its auspices Nobel laureates and prominent public figures are invited to give special lectures. This event also commemorated the 70th anniversary of the founding of the College of Science at Korea University. Korea University’s NIF is sponsored by Centroid Investment Partners.
At the 1st NIF, about 500 people, including President Kim Dong-won and faculty members of Korea University, defense technology researchers, defense industry employees, and KU students, filled two auditoriums.
Before the lecture, President Kim Dong-won delivered a welcome address, saying, “Humanity has entered the era of quantum technology thanks to the work of many, including Dr. Clauser’s pioneering research in quantum mechanics, and I hope that his lecture today will initiate a new dimension in the history of Korea University. Today’s 1st NIF marks the auspicious start of the 120th anniversary celebrations of our university’s founding.”
During the lecture, Dr. Clauser presented his experiments and theories in chronological order and explained their scholarly significance. In particular, he described the challenging process of verifying the non-locality of quantum entanglement through experiments dealing with Bell’s inequality in the real world, despite the unfavorable research environment.
In the latter part of the lecture, Dr. Clauser categorized all textbooks related to quantum mechanics as representative of two distinct modes of thinking, and argued that those based on the hidden variable theory were incorrect.
Dr. Clauser’s lecture was conducted in English without interpretation, and prior to it, Professor Choi Mahn-Soo from the Department of Physics at Korea University gave an explanatory lecture on the understanding and applications of quantum entanglement, in order to provide background information.
After the lecture, Dr. Clauser earnestly answered students’ questions and happily posed for commemorative photos with them.
Dr. John Clauser shared the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics with Professors Alain Aspect from France and Anton Zeilinger from Austria. The three scientists are pioneers in the field of quantum information, and the form of quantum entanglement they verified is a crucial element in quantum science and technology, including quantum computing, quantum communication, and quantum sensing.