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Nicole Yunger Halpern

National Institute of Standards and Technology & University of Maryland

RQS Senior Investigator
Profile photo of Nicole Yunger Halpern

Additional Information

Bio

Nicole Yunger Halpern is a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Maryland. She is also a Fellow of the Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science and an affiliate of the Joint Quantum Institute. Yunger Halpern re-envisions 19th-century thermodynamics for the 21st century, using the mathematical toolkit of quantum information theory. She received her doctorate in physics from Caltech in 2018.

Recent Publications

Research Group

Affiliated Research Centers

Recent News

  • A headshot of Nicole Yunger Halpern.

    Yunger Halpern Makes Science News’s 10 Scientists to Watch List

    September 25, 2024

    She has been named one of Science News’s 10 “Scientists to Watch” for her pioneering work in quantum thermodynamics. Yunger Halpern blends historical concepts with modern technology to advance the understanding of small-scale systems like qubits.

  • A colorful orange, red, magenta, and blue image with gold stars

    Partnering with Creative Scholars to Combine Quantum and the Arts

    July 31, 2024

    RQS researchers are active in several interdisciplinary projects that explore novel ways to engage people in thinking about the counterintuitive aspects of quantum physics.

  • A photo of Nicole Yunger Halpern at a whiteboard

    Yunger Halpern Ponders Quantum Mechanics, Thermodynamics, and Everything Else

    February 2, 2022

    There is a well-known saying, of disputed origin, that dissuades students and even working physicists from thinking too deeply about the meaning behind quantum physics. “Shut up and calculate,” it goes.