Distinction for Women in Physics, to a researcher at Insubria University

The award for physics, which given every six months by the European Physical Society, and which is named after the greatest woman mathematician of all times, Emmy Noether, has gone to the Italian Alessandra Gatti.

Alessandra Gatti, from Milan, who was born in 1964, is a researcher at the Institute for Photonics and Nanotechnologies of the National Research Council (NRC). A former student and collaborator of Professor Luigi Lugiato, she currently coordinates the Theoretical Quantum Optics Group of Insubria University, in the Department of Science and High Technology, in Como.

The “Emmy Noether Distinction for Women in Physics” has been conferred to Alessandra Gatti for her contribution to Physics, especially for her theoretical studies in the field of quantum optics and, as we can read in the reasons for the award, for “the introduction of the concepts of quantum images, spatial entanglement and quantum entangled images”. The award ceremony will be on 14 May 2013, in Munich.

Highly regarded internationally in the field of quantum optics, Alessandra Gatti introduced the concepts of “quantum images” and “space entanglement”, contributing significantly to the creation of a new field, “quantum imaging”, which sets out to use the intrinsically quantum nature of light in the traditionally classical field of image acquisition and analysis. Analysing the quantum noise intrinsic to the quantum-mechanical nature of light allows extremely weak images to be seen, images to be amplified without introducing noise, and a more precise positioning of a laser to be achieved. Gatti is the author of more than 100 publications, and her works have been quoted about two thousand times. Recently, she coordinated the international project “Hideas”, which was funded by the European Commission.