Professor Paternostro is Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics in the School of Mathematics and Physics. His research focuses on quantum information and quantum technology. He has worked on the foundations of quantum mechanics and the design of quantum technologies for all of his academic career and his work has pioneered the fields of cavity optomechanics, quantum communication, quantum thermodynamics, and the foundations of quantum mechanics.

The announcement by the Royal Society and the Wolfson Foundation brings an end to the first year of the new £8 million scheme, which supports UK universities and research institutions to recruit and retain outstanding senior research scientists, particularly researchers from outside the UK.

This scheme provides long-term support to UK universities and research institutions in making strategic research appointments through the recruitment and retention of outstanding senior researchers. The scheme covers all areas of the life and physical sciences, including engineering, but excluding clinical medicine.

Professor Mauro Paternostro said: "I am delighted, and, indeed, very humbled to receive this Fellowship, one of the most prestigious awarded by the Royal Society. This is a wonderful recognition of the pioneering contribution that my research group and I are making to the development of the field of thermodynamics of quantum processes – a field in which Queen's University Belfast is perceived as a world leader."