DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY

Archana Kamal directs the QUantum Engineering Science and Technology (QUEST) Group, with a focus on both fundamental and applied aspects of quantum information processing. She completed her pre-doctorate education in India -- B.Sc. (Honors) in Physics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi and Master’s in Physics from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi – before moving to Yale University where she received her M.Phil. and Ph.D. degrees in Physics in 2010 and 2013 respectively, followed by a postdoctoral stint at MIT. Her research led to new designs of noise-resilient artificial atoms (or qubits) and new protocols for high-efficiency information routing and nonreciprocal amplification, which are now routinely employed in many laboratories around the world. Some of the current themes pursued by her group include scalable entanglement stabilization and autonomous error correction, quantum-limited amplification and readout, and applications of quantum information concepts to tackle questions in early Universe cosmology, condensed matter and thermodynamics. Her contributions to nonreciprocal quantum signal processing were recognized by MIT Technology Review with a TR35: Global Innovator Award in 2018. She is also the recipient of the 2021 AFOSR Young Investigator Award and 2021 NSF CAREER Award.Professor Kamal joins Northwestern from UMass-Lowell where she was an Associate Professor of Quantum Physics and Quantum Information.

Research Interests

• Engineered open quantum systems
• Superconducting quantum circuits
• Nonlinear quantum optics and parametric cQED
• Non-equilibrium dynamics in many-body systems

Awards and Honors

• 2021 NSF CAREER Award
• 2021 AFOSR Young Investigator Award
• 2020 Teaching Excellence in Physics Award (UMass Lowell)
• 2018 MIT Technology Review 35 Under 35 Award (Global Innovators)
• 2007-09 Sterling Prize Fellowship, Yale University (Top 30 PhD students at Yale)
• 2006 Neeraj Srivastava Prize (First rank in M.Sc. Physics at IIT Delhi, India)
• 2004 University Gold Medal (First rank in B.Sc. Physics  at Delhi University, India)