Zeilinger: ‘You have to trust your spinning mills’

Zeilinger expressed his gratitude to his family members: “That would not have been possible without the support of my family,” he began his short speech. He couldn’t always be available simply because physics has “always inspired him that way”. He also wanted to “thank the Austrian taxpayer. Without this support – and that of Europe – this would not have been possible”.

Zeilinger alluded to the many possibilities, opportunities and experiments that were made possible to him in the course of his research. This support was not self-evident. “From an early age I had the opportunity to do things in physics that interested me. Regardless of whether it can be of use somewhere,” said the Nobel laureate.

“I can tell you, this is good for nothing”
During experiments, he was often asked “why that should be good,” says Zeilinger. To which he replied, “I can tell you, that’s not right.” He said he did a lot of things purely out of curiosity and because he was “completely excited” about his field of research. He was often “totally amazed” by the predictions and experiments. He was “lucky” because “this was not possible” elsewhere.

“You have to trust your intuition”
Zeilinger also gave roses to his teachers and his promoter Helmut Rauch. Nuclear physicist Rauch had “created a climate in college where you could do these things.” Where you “should have just pursued your curiosity”. Zeilinger also learned from him to trust his intuition – even when “sometimes things go crazy”. “The idea can be right. You have to trust your intuition and your crazy ideas.”

Zeilinger also thanked his collaborators and PhD students, most of whom worked in the lab and on whose work he commented — sometimes “not always welcome.” “Working even more precisely, even more precisely and even more precisely” pays off, according to Zeilinger. He himself had to “learn hard”.

Didn’t attend any lecture in quantum physics
As a child he was interested in science. He even took apart his sister’s dolls. He always wanted to know how something works. He wasn’t a “tinkerer”, though, he didn’t put things back together: “Too bad about the time.” After all, he “already knew how something worked”. His father taught at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, dealing with natural sciences was a matter of course. But it was his high school teacher who said he was “absolutely excited” about physics. During his studies, he didn’t take any quantum physics lectures – the studies were so free back then.

“This is not a fake call”
At the end, he told the journalists present how he learned of his honor: “I found out at 11 o’clock in the morning. My assistant called me, I had told her beforehand that I wanted to be alone today.” But the woman on the phone “will not be turned down”, since it was a Swedish number, Zeilinger finally had her put through to him. first of all told it was not a fake call (“this is not a fake call”) and explained to him why he had received the award.

Prize money stays “in the family”
A journalist wanted to know what he would do with the prize money. The exact amount (about 917,000 euros per category, please note) is unknown to him, says Zeilinger. However, he has “a family with children and grandchildren” – there “there will be opportunities”.

Zeilinger, who led another research group in Vienna, is looking forward to meeting his two colleagues Alain Aspect (France) and John Clauser (USA) on December 10 in Stockholm. After all, he had already received the Wolf Prize for Physics with them in 2010.