Previous Fora / 2013
DAVIDOVICH, Luiz
Director, Brazilian Academy of Sciences
Luiz Davidovich is Professor of Physics at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, member of the Executive Board of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, and member of the Board of the InterAcademy Council (IAC). He got his Ph. D. at the University of Rochester in 1975, and has worked since then in quantum optics and quantum information.
His major contributions are in the topics of decoherence, entanglement, laser theory, and quantum metrology. He has analyzed in detail the role of the environment in the dynamics of quantum coherence and quantum entanglement, and also in quantum metrology, contributing with theoretical developments and proposals for experiments, which have been performed in Europe and by his own group in Brazil. He has collaborated on these themes with many scientists in Latin America, Europe, and the United States, as visiting researcher in several institutions. He was the Head of the Brazilian Institute for Quantum Information from 2002 to 2006, and served on the Editorial Board of several scientific journals.
Besides these activities, Prof. Davidovich is involved in Science and Education Policies, and has been member of Advisory Committees of the Ministries of Science and Technology and of Education and their agencies. He was Secretary-General of the 4th. Brazilian National Conference on Science, Technology, and Innovation for a Sustainable Development, held in Brasilia, Brazil, in May 2010. He is also interested in international cooperation and in the role of academies in advising national governments and international organizations. He has played an active role in the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS), as chair of the Physics Prize Committee and of the Membership Physics Committee. He has also been member and chair of Optical Society of America Prize Committees.
He was elected as foreign associate to the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America in 2006. In 2000, he was awarded the Brazilian Grand-Cross of the National Order of Scientific Merit. He won the 2001 Physics Prize of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS). He also won, in 2010, the most important prize for science in Brazil, the Admiral Alvaro Alberto prize, awarded by the Brazilian National Research Council. He is a fellow of the Optical Society of America.