His project is at the interface of condensed matter physics and atomic physics and deals with ultracold dilute gases at temperatures of the order of nanokelvin (one billionth above the absolute zero temperature). The main objective is to reveal collective phases with unexplored properties and to develop a theoretical description. These ideas are also dedicated to collective states that can be used as quantum simulators and/or devices for quantum information processing.

Gora Shlyapnikov’s obtained his doctorate in theoretical physics in 1975 from the Kurchatov Institute, a national research center in Moscow, Russia. His research interests are low temperature physics, low-dimensional systems, and condensed matter. His work focuses primarily on spin-polarized hydrogen in a liquid helium environment, and then on various aspects of the theory of ultracold quantum gases. In 1989-2003, he worked as group leader at the FOM Institute AMOLF. In 2003, he picked up a position in France as CNRS director of research at the Laboratory of Theoretical Physics and Statistical Models (LPTMS) at the University Paris-Sud in Orsay, where he is head of a theoretical physics group. Since the same year, he has been a part-time professor at the University of Amsterdam, where he collaborated closely with the Quantum Gases group of prof. Jook Walraven. In his career, Shlyapnikov received several prestigious awards, such as the Humboldt Prize (1999) and the Senior Bose-Einstein Condensation Award (2011).

About the ERC Advanced Grants 

The ERC Advanced Research Grants are awarded to “exceptional leaders in terms of originality and significance of their research contributions”. Their aim is to support “highly ambitious, pioneering and unconventional” projects “that open new directions in their respective research fields or other domains”. In this same year, five other UvA professors received the award, among whom two professors at the Faculty of Science: Joost Reek and Lex Schrijver.