Alain Aspect holds the Augustin Fresnel Chair at the Institut d'Optique and is also a Professor at the École Polytechnique, both in Paris. He is also a member of the French Academy of Sciences and the French Academy of Technologies. A graduate of the École Normale Supérieure de Cachan (ENS Cachan), Aspect passed the agrégation in physics in 1969 and received his master's degree from Université d'Orsay.
In 2013, on the 100th anniversary of Niels Bohr's pioneering atomic model, the Danish Society of Engineers, in collaboration with the Niels Bohr Institute and the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, awarded the Niels Bohr Medal to Aspect.
Aspect made his most crucial breakthroughs in quantum theory. In 2005, he was awarded the CSNR Gold Medal by settling a 70-year-old dispute between Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein over the basic understanding of quantum physics by demonstrating the fascinating phenomenon of entanglement (non-local instantaneous interactions between particles, which Einstein rejected for propagating physical influences faster than the speed of light). Aspect's work is foundational to the field of quantum computing.
Some of his best-known experiments confirmed that “quantum entanglement” for twinned photon pairs is irreconcilable with Einstein's worldview. These experiments measured two particles that were released at the same time and from the same source in opposite directions. The results were conclusive proof of entanglement.
Aspect continues his experiments, which are fundamental to our understanding of how everything in the world is interconnected. He is currently studying the localization of waves in solids using ultra-cold atoms.