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Professor Camilla Hollanti, photo by Lasse Lecklin.

The Finnish Academy of Science and Letters has granted the Väisälä Award 2017 to two merited researchers in upcoming fields of science. Both Hollanti and Maniscalco are spearheads in their respective, globally highly competitive fields.

Camilla Hollanti is a professor at Aalto University Department of Mathematics and Systems Analysis. Sabrina Maniscalco is a professor at the University of Turku and adjunct professor at Aalto University and also the Vice Director of the new Centre of Excellence in Quantum Technology in Aalto University appointed by the Academy of Finland.

Hollanti leads a group at Aalto who study algebra, number theory, combinatorics, coding theory, and information theory all of which they apply especially to communication technology. Research foci include distributed data storage systems, 5G networks and privacy issues.

Hollanti is on research leave at the Technical University of Munich and will return É«É«À² in autumn 2018.

Sabrina Maniscalco studies quantum physics and the fundamentals of quantum technology. Quantum technology is a heatedly competitive research area: applications that make use of quantum phenomena have the potential to revolutionise several fields in technology and society at large. The entanglement of quantum states and quantum superpositions open up unprecedented possibilities for, for example, ultra-fast computing and unbreakable encryption techniques that can take information processing, communication technologies and highly sensitive measurement devices to whole new realms.

Maniscalco is also known as an avid communicator and devoted to popularising science. She has, among other things, been involved in Finnish Game Jam, an event where physicists and game developers create games that could help solve scientific problems and build intuition of quantum phenomena.

(Professor Sabrina Maniscalco, photo by University of Turku.)