Luiz Davidovich
About Optica
Luiz Davidovich
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Luiz Davidovich is Emeritus Professor of Physics at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He got his PhD at the University of Rochester, and has since worked on quantum optics and quantum information. He was awarded the Brazilian Grand-Cross of the National Order of Scientific Merit in 2000, and he was recipient, in 2010, of the most important prize for science in Brazil, the Admiral Alvaro Alberto prize, awarded by the Brazilian National Research Council. In 2001, he got the Physics Prize of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), and he was awarded the Willis Lamb Award in 2025. He is Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (since 1995), and International Member of the USA National Academy of Sciences (since 2006), of the European Academy of Sciences (since 2021), and of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (since 2021). He is Fellow of the Optical Society of America (since 2010) and of the American Physical Society (since 2014). He became Fellow of the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study of Texas A&M in 2019, and was Part-time Research Professor of the Institute for Quantum Science and Engineering of Texas A&M from 2021 to 2024. He was member of the Executive Board of the International Council of Science (ICSU) in the period 2011-2014, President of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences from 2016 to 2022, and Secretary-General of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) from 2019 to 2022.
He was the Coordinator of the first National Millenium Institute for Quantum Information in Brazil, established in 2001, which allowed the creation of new laboratories in several parts of Brazil, involving more than 40 principal investigators and strong international collaborations. It led to the National Institute of Science and Technology for Quantum Information, which started in 2009, with Davidovich as Vice-Coordinator, and involving today about 120 principal investigators.
The main thrust of Davidovich’s work has been on the dynamics of open systems, involving theoretical and experimental developments, with applications to cavity QED, entangled photon pairs, and quantum metrology. He worked on the theory of cavity QED experiments carried out in Serge Haroche’s group at Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, and on the resilience of entangled photon states, with experiments carried out at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He has also worked on quantum walks, teleportation, and laser theory. Lately, he has worked on quantum metrology of open systems. His research has attracted more than 14.000 citations. Davidovich has mentored about 30 researchers (PhD students and post-docs), and has presented many plenary talks at international conferences. He has lectured on quantum optics and quantum metrology in international schools and institutions, like the Les Houches school and the College de France in Paris. He was in the Editorial Board of New Journal of Physics and Physical Review A, and is now in the Editorial Board of Physical Review Letters.
