We thought it would be nice to have atoms interact in such a gentle way with the photons that they would just take an imprint of the photons, so that many atoms could 'see' the same photon and it would give rise to a lot of interesting effects. Myself and my colleagues had this project for a very long time and we were finally able to observe it.

His mother a teacher was born in Odessa (then in the Soviet Ukraine) to a Jewish family from Kishinev and Minsk who relocated to Paris in the early 1920s. Since 2001 Haroche is a Professor at the Collège de France and holds the Chair of Quantum Physics. He is a member of the Société Française de Physique (French Physical Society) the European Physical society and a fellow and member of the American Physical Society.

Wineland for "ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems" a study of the particle of light the photon. Since 2001 Haroche is a Professor at the Collège de France and holds the Chair of Quantum Physics.