Prineha Narang, UCLA professor of physical sciences and computer engineering, has been honored as an American Physical Society Fellow. The APS Fellowship recognizes members for outstanding efforts to advance the field of physics.

Narang, who holds UCLA’s Howard Reiss Career Development Chair, was selected for her approaches to nonequilibrium dynamics and the control of condensed matter, and her public advocacy for quantum sciences. 

Advancing our understanding of the behavior of condensed matter away from equilibrium is essential to understand how materials, the universe and life work, as well as to build next-generation quantum technologies for an energy-efficient and interconnected society.

Despite their relevance, nonequilibrium quantum systems are complex and pose formidable theoretical and experimental challenges, thus representing a vast frontier in the panorama of modern physical sciences. The Narang Lab at UCLA has made significant advances in creating new states of quantum matter by driving the system with light.

Outside of UCLA, Narang was appointed by the U.S. Department of State in 2023 to serve as a United States Science Envoy. In this role she has used her expertise to forge connections and identify opportunities for sustained international cooperation in quantum science and technology. Narang’s many honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship in physics, the Maria Goeppert Mayer Award from the APS, and inclusion on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list.

She has recently worked as part of the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA to apply quantum sensing to interdisciplinary problems across engineering, fundamental physics and life sciences. Outside of academics, Narang is an avid runner and mountaineer.