Nikolay V. Vitanov

Prof. Nikolay V. Vitanov is the scientific director of the Center for Quantum Technologies at the Faculty of Physics in Sofia University and professor of Quantum Information and Quantum Optics at the Faculty of Physics, Sofia University. 

Prof. Vitanov obtained his PhD in physics in 1994 from Sofia University (Bulgaria). From 1992 to 2003 he specialized in a number of European universities: Aarhus, Denmark (1992-1993), Imperial College, UK (1994-1995), Helsinki Institute of Physics (1995-2001), University of Kaiserslautern, Germany (2002-2003). He has also been a guest professor in a number of universities: Toulouse, FR (2000), Dijon, FR (2001/04/06), Kaiserslautern, DE (2005/06), Imperial College, GB (2007), Oxford, GB (2007), Turku, FI (2008), Orsay, FR (2012), Palermo, IT (2012/14), Darmstadt, DE (2012-19, 2022).

In 2001 he returned to Sofia University, where he focussed his research on the investigation of quantum control techniques, quantum computing, quantum information and quantum optics. Since then Prof. Vitanov mentored 20 PhD students, 17 of whom successfully graduated their studies, while the other 3 are current PhD students. Since 2010 he is a professor in the Theoretical Physics Group at the Faculty of Physics, Sofia University, while in 2021 he has become an academic member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, the highest scientific title of the institution. 

Prof. Nikolay V. Vitanov received a number of prizes and grants for his work, among them the 2009 Pythagoras prize of the Bulgarian Ministry of Education for exceptional PhD supervisory, 2012 Pythagoras prize of the Bulgarian Ministry of Education for Natural Sciences, 2005 Institute of Solid State Physics (BAS) Prize for Scientific Accomplishment, 2001, 2003 and 2007 Institute of Solid State Physics (BAS) Prize for Scientific Accomplishment with International Collaboration. He has been labelled an Outstanding Referee by the American Physical Society ever since 2014. Recently he was placed 193th (out of 73580) General Physics scientist by Stanford University (among top 0.3% of world's physicists). Also, he has received grants by the Royal Society (UK, 1994), the Alexander Fon Humboldt foundation (DE, 2002), Alexander Fon Humboldt alumni (DE, 2012).