The Weird World of Quantum Matter

JOINT SPECIAL COLLOQUIUM BY COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
The Weird World of Quantum Matter
Professor Prineha Narang, Harvard University

Quantum materials host many spectacular functionalities enabled by their unusual excited-state and nonequilibrium quantum effects. Understanding these phenomena that involve a variety of time and length scales has remained elusive. My research focuses on addressing this grand challenge by developing next-generation, predictive theoretical and computational approaches at the frontiers of quantum science and engineering [1-3] and paves the way for technologies ranging from scalable quantum information processing and networks, to ultra-high efficiency optoelectronic and energy conversion systems. I will discuss how this research is helping unravel the microscopic dynamics, decoherence and optically excited collective phenomena in quantum matter. I will also present selected examples of our ab initio design and control of active defects in quantum materials and our predictions of linear and nonlinear dynamics and transport in topological semimetals. Finally, I will comment on driving quantum matter far out-of-equilibrium to control complex coupled degrees-of-freedom.

Website: narang.seas.harvard.edu

Dr. Narang received her MS and PhD in Applied Physics from Caltech. She has received many awards including an NSF CAREER award. She has been named a Moore Inventor Fellow by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, a Top Innovator by MIT Tech Review (MIT TR35), and a Young Scientist by the World Economic Forum.

Zoom meeting link:
https://northeastern.zoom.us/j/97384220271