The Carlsberg Foundation Research Prizes 2025

Published:

03.09.2025

The Carlsberg Foundation’s Research Prizes 2025 have been awarded to professor of quantum mechanics Klaus Mølmer from the University of Copenhagen and AI-professor at the University of Southern Denmark, Claes Holger de Vreese.

Klaus Mølmer is awarded the prize for his groundbreaking research into theoretical quantum optics and quantum mechanics.

Klaus Mølmer has provided the first complete description of laser cooling, which supported the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1997. This established Mølmer as a world leading expert on the theory of open and monitored quantum systems, by now textbook material, providing new insight into the measurement problem, with recent applications in quantum computing and sensing. Other fundamental achievements include the proposal of a quantum gate for ion-trap quantum computing – known as the Mølmer-Sørensen gate - the basis of the two-qubit gate, the equivalent of the transistor in classical computers, pursued by leading quantum computing companies.

Read the full reasoning of the prize committee for the nomination of Klaus Mølmer

View text and video profiles of Klaus Mølmer

Claes Holger de Vreese is awarded the prize for his extensive and internationally acclaimed research into the role played by algorithms and artificial intelligence in democratic processes.

He provides exact and interdisciplinary scientific bases for insights into political behaviours that are influenced by digital media. While dedicated to vigorous basic research into media, AI, and democracy, Claes de Vreese’s research informs public policy work, and it has had impact at EU level.

Read the full reasoning of the prize committee for the nomination of Claes Holger de Vreese

View text and video profiles of Claes Holger de Vreese

Download press photos of the prize recipients

Klaus Mølmer. Foto: Malthe Ivarsson

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Claes Holger de Vreese. Photo: Malthe Ivarsson

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Prize ceremoni 2025. Photo: Malthe Ivarsson

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Klaus Mølmer. Photo: Olala

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Claes Holger de Vreese. Photo: Olala

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About the Carlsberg Foundation Research Prize

The objective of the Carlsberg Foundation Research Prizes is to acknowledge two active researchers in Denmark or abroad who have made crucial contributions to Danish basic research at a high international level. The prizes are intended to encourage further research and may be used for stays abroad, fieldwork, purchases of equipment or wages for scientific work.

The Carlsberg Foundation Research Prizes were instituted in 2011 to mark the bicentenary of the birth of the Foundation’s founder, J.C. Jacobsen.

See previous winners of the Carlsberg Foundation Research Prizes