Javier Aizpurua, Scientific Director of Basque Quantum

Scientist Javier Aizpurua has been appointed Scientific Director of the BasQ - Basque Quantum strategy. As of now, he undertakes the challenge of promoting and leading the development and deployment of the Basque Quantum Strategy, led by the Department of Education of the Basque Government and with the involvement of the three Provincial Councils.

Javier Aizpurua, who received the Euskadi Research Award from the Lehendakari last June, is the Ikerbasque Research Professor at the Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC). He now takes on the role of overseeing the development and implementation of the Basque Quantum Strategy. Aizpurua is the principal investigator of the "Nanophotonics Theory Group," an activity he has carried out until now at the CSIC-UPV/EHU Joint Center for Physics of Materials in San Sebastián. There, he theoretically studied the interaction between light and matter on a nanoscale, an activity he will continue to balance alongside his responsibilities at the DIPC.

Aizpurua has built his career in various research centers, including the University of the Basque Country/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the United States. He has authored over 200 publications on the topic of nanoplasmonics, particularly in the areas of microscopy and spectroscopy enhanced with nanoantennas, as well as quantum effects in plasmonics. Professor Aizpurua has been recognized multiple times in the annual list of the world's most cited scientists issued by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI)™ of Clarivate.