SAS Awards Honorary Scientific Degree of Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences to Prof. Anton Zeilinger
On Friday, 31 October 2025, in the Mirror Hall of the Primate’s Palace in Bratislava, Martin Venhart, President of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAS), conferred an honorary scientific degree of Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (DrSc. h. c.) on Prof. Anton Zeilinger, a long-standing collaborator of the Institute of Physics SAS. The Slovak Academy of Sciences awarded this honorary degree to Prof. Zeilinger in recognition of his contributions to particle physics and quantum technologies.
“Today we gather not only to celebrate an individual achievement, but to honor a scientist whose work has fundamentally transformed our understanding of reality itself. Professor Zeilinger’s pioneering experiments in quantum mechanics have taken us beyond theoretical speculation and into empirical demonstration of phenomena that challenge our everyday intuitions about the nature of the universe,” said SAS President Martin Venhart during the ceremony.
Prof. Anton Zeilinger has been a long-time collaborator of the Institute of Physics SAS, particularly with the research group of Prof. Vladimír Bužek. The honorary degree was conferred on the occasion of his 80th birthday, the 20th anniversary of the world’s first cross-border QKD (quantum key distribution) communication between Slovakia and Austria, and the UNESCO International Year of Quantum Science and Technology — a field that emerged in part thanks to Prof. Zeilinger’s groundbreaking experiments. The honorary doctorate also recognizes the global impact of his scientific work on human knowledge and society.
In 2022, Anton Zeilinger was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics (shared with Alain Aspect and John F. Clauser) for experiments with entangled photons, providing evidence for the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering contributions to quantum computing.
“We are deeply honored by your acceptance of the honorary doctorate of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. Your work illuminates the path forward for physics and for science as a whole. We are proud of the results you have achieved in collaboration with Professor Bužek, and we look forward to continued cooperation built on the foundations you have laid,” added President Venhart.
The full text of President Venhart’s address is attached.
Prepared by: Monika Tináková
Photo: Martin Bystriansky
Video: Matej Pok