Quantum systems cannot never be perfectly isolated so that the influence of the environment always becomes relevant at some stage. Therefore, it is of fundamental importance for any quantum experiment but also for quantum technology in general to assess the influence from the environment. However, this happens to be formidably challenging. The theory of open quantum systems aims to tackle this fundamental problem, offering a myriad of techniques and concepts, and thus plays a central role in any branch of quantum theory and experiment.

At the quantum research group of UKZN we are actively participating in the development of several branches and open problems of the theory of open quantum systems like the characterisation and understanding of non-Markovian processes, techniques to deal with strong coupling (the so-called embedding  methods), open quantum walk, quantum thermodynamics, and quantum biology, only to mention few.