Juan Ignacio Cirac Sasturain (Manresa, 1965) is graduated and doctor in Physics by the Complutense University of Madrid. Currently, and since 2001, he is the Director of the Theoretical Division Max-Planck Institut für Quantenoptik (Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, in Germany).

Dr Cirac has been a tenured professor of the University of Castilla-La Mancha, a researcher of the University of Colorado and a full university professor of the Institut für Theoretische Physik (Institute for Physic Theory) of the University of Innsbruck-Leopold Franzens.

He is internationally recognised for his works in Quantum Optics, the quantum theory of information and quantum physics. Among its more relevant contributions the first proposal of quantum computation based on a physical system practicable in laboratory and the idea that cold atoms trapped on optical networks can be used as condensed matter system stimulators. He is author of more than three hundred articles in the most prestigious journals in Physics, is one of the most cited authors in this field of study.

He has been awarded with several honours and awards, we should highlight: the medal of Royal Spanish Physics Society, the Quantum Electronics Prize of the European Physical Society, the Prince of Asturias Award in Scientific and Theoretical Research, the Wolf Prize, the National Research Award “Blas Cabrera”, the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award and the honour medals of the Niels Bohr Institute and the ‘Benjamin Franklin’ award of the Franklin Institute.