In 1981, Peter Zoller handed in his book "Über die lichtstatistische Abhängigkeit resonanter Multiphoton-Prozesse"[3] at the University of Innsbruck to qualify as a professor by receiving the "venia docendi".

He spent 1981/82 and 1988 as visiting fellow at the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA) of the University of Colorado, Boulder,[4] and 1986 as guest professor at the Université de Paris-Sud 11, Orsay.

The model of a quantum computer,[15] suggested by him and Ignacio Cirac in 1995, is based on the interaction of lasers with cold ions confined in an electromagnetic trap.

The principles of this idea have been implemented in experiments over recent years and it is considered one of the most promising concepts for the development of a scalable quantum computer.

One of his suggestions has been to build a quantum simulator with cold atoms[17] and use it to research hitherto unexplained phenomena in high temperature superconductors.

[18] Zoller's ideas and concepts attract widespread interest within the scientific community and his works are highly cited.