Dr. Prineha Narang is an Assistant Professor at the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University. She leads an interdisciplinary group at Harvard SEAS at the intersection of computational science, phenomena away from equilibrium, and quantum dynamics in matter. She has won numerous awards, fellowships, and grants including Forbes "30 Under 30". She has a PhD and Master's Degree in Applied Physics from California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and did her post-doctoral work at MIT.
Episode Notes
Dr. Pri Narang shares her experiences as an Assistant Professor at Harvard University, a researcher, and a CTO in the field of Quantum Physics and Quantum Theory. She also shares what that is...and how she got interested in it and her journey from having an interest in Physics - she says she's always been a physicist, even at a young age - to how she started the Narang Lab. She shares what a day in her life is like, how she manages to juggle the many demands of her professional career and run marathons and Ironman Triathlons - she's an absolute rockstar. She also talks about having imposter syndrome and how finding a place that was welcoming led her down her career path.
Dr. Narang will join UCLA's faculty in the College of Physical Sciences as the Howard Reiss Chair on July 1st. This information came out after our podcast recording. Information on her transition can be found here. https://www.chemistry.ucla.edu/news/faculty-news-4
Music used in the podcast: Higher Up, Silverman Sound Studio
Acronyms, Definitions, and Fact Check
Quantum theory describes the behavior of things — particles or energy — on the smallest scale. In addition to wavicles, it predicts that a particle may be found in many places at the same time. (https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/quantum-world-mind-bogglingly-weird)
Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, quantum field theory, quantum technology, and quantum information science. Classical physics, the collection of theories that existed before the advent of quantum mechanics, describes many aspects of nature at an ordinary (macroscopic) scale, but is not sufficient for describing them at small (atomic and subatomic) scales. (Wikipedia)
Quantum entanglement is the physical phenomenon that occurs when a group of particles are generated, interact, or share spatial proximity in a way such that the quantum state of each particle of the group cannot be described independently of the state of the others, including when the particles are separated by a large distance. The topic of quantum entanglement is at the heart of the disparity between classical and quantum physics: entanglement is a primary feature of quantum mechanics lacking in classical mechanics. (Wikipedia)
A dilution refrigerator is a cryogenic device first proposed by Heinz London. Its refrigeration process uses amixture of two isotopes of helium: helium-3 and helium-4. When cooled below approximately 870 millikelvin, themixture undergoes spontaneous phase separation to form a 3He-rich phase and a 3He-poor phase. As with evaporative cooling, energy is required to transport 3He atoms from the 3He-rich phase into the 3He-poorphase. If the atoms can be made to continuously cross this boundary, they effectively cool the mixture. Becausethe 3He-poor phase cannot have less than 6% helium-3 at equilibrium, even at absolute zero, dilution refrigerationcan be effective at very low temperatures. The volume in which this takes place is known as the mixing chamber. (https://en-academic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/249751)