The 71st Scottish Universities Summer School in Physics will be held at the University of Strathclyde 21st July to 2nd August 2015. The official website is sussp71.phys.strath.ac.uk

The last 25 years have seen a shift in the emphasis of fundamental quantum physics theory and experiments, from simply generating and measuring quantum systems towards the purposeful control and manipulation of their dynamics. The main drivers for this are the rapidly-developing fields related to quantum technologies. These include metrology and sensing, as well as quantum simulation and computation.

An example is quantum key distribution, which during this period has moved from a proof-of-principle laboratory-based science into a set of security products for the information market. The use of quantum systems for information processing is a greater challenge at an earlier stage. It is likely that quantum information processing, due to the multi-parallel nature of information in entangled quantum systems, can be much more efficient than classical computation for certain problems.

Most of the fundamental physical ideas required for the above grew from quantum optical considerations. This was the first field in which it became possible to control the evolution of single quantum entities, atoms or photons.

These two topics, quantum optics and control of quantum dynamics, make up the themes of the 71st Scottish Summer School in Physics, which has three main objectives:

1.To broaden and deepen the background knowledge of young researchers in the general areas of quantum optics and quantum dynamics through the simple medium of a series of advanced lectures given by acknowledged experts in the field.

2.To provide a perspective of the latest research and future trends in this area via a set of hot topics shorter sessions.

3.To stimulate new research collaborations and ideas amongst peers.