Abstract

NULLThe 13th ECAMP Conference (European Conference on Atoms, Molecules and Photons) will take place at Palacongressi and Palaffari from 8th to 12th April 2019, bringing over 700 delegates from all over Europe. “We managed to win our nomination against other prestigious European venues”, said Prof. Guglielmo Tino from the University of Florence and the National Institute of Nuclear Physics. “Choosing one of the most beautiful art cities– the so-called cradle of arts and Renaissance – was surely a winning decision, but the presence of the Florence university was also crucial, with key strong points such as the LENS (the European Laboratory for Non-linear Spectroscopy), comparable with those of the most advanced countries in the world in this research sector.” This is the result of a partnership between the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University, the OIC and Firenze Fiera, which supported the key winning points of this venue in the nomination stage last September, in Frankfurt. It is no coincidence that the congress is going to take place in Florence, right where – in 1775 – La Specola Museum was opened in via Romana by will of Peter Leopold of Habsburg-Lorraine, Grand Duke of Tuscany. La Specola was the first scientific museum open to the public in history. There, physician Felice Fontana chose to gather not only naturalistic artifacts but also scientific instruments coming from various scientific collections, some of which belonged to Galileo. “Despite the poor state research funding, we managed to attract funding from the European Commission – explained Prof. Tino, chairman of the congress board – therefore, we will be among the protagonists of the European Flagship Project “Quantum Technologies”, beginning in 2018/2019 with an investment of 1 billion Euros.” Our goal is to develop watches and atomic sensors much more accurate than the current ones within 5 years; create a quantum web connecting the main European cities within 10 years; and produce ultra-safe credit cards based on quantum cryptography. But perhaps, the most ambitious project is to build a quantum computer able to rapidly perform calculations – that would require the universe age to a supercomputer – within 10 years. All this will feature quantum systems, whose essential elements are atoms, molecules and photons.