Professor Prem Kumar, an Indian American expert in quantum communication, is set to lead McCormick School of Engineering’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Northwestern University as interim chair from Sept. 1.
A Northwestern faculty member since 1986, Kumar will succeed Professor Randall Berry as interim chair and provide leadership during a global search for the next John A. Dever Chair of the department, Evanston, Illinois based university announced.
“I am grateful to Prem for his willingness to provide leadership during this critical transition and his commitment to maintaining momentum for the department,” said Christopher Schuh, dean of Northwestern Engineering.
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An alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, Kumar is a professor of electrical and computer engineering and the director of the Center for Photonic Communication and Computing.
In his research, Kumar seeks to make quantum computing scalable through robust, photonic-based communication between quantum devices.
He is developing the next generation of fiber-based quantum networks, integrating quantum information into the existing classical fiber infrastructure to reap the exponential computational power and security of quantum communications.
He is also developing tools for generating, distributing, and ultrafast processing of quantum entanglement and using quantum light for precision measurements, sensing, and imaging.
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Kumar is a member of the Institute for Quantum Information Research and Engineering (INQUIRE) executive committee and a faculty member of the Applied Physics Graduate Program, a joint PhD program by the McCormick School of Engineering and the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, where he also holds a courtesy appointment in physics and astronomy. Kumar was named a Life Fellow Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 2022.
He is also a fellow of the Institute of Physics (2002), the American Physical Society (2000), Optica (formerly OSA) (1996), American Association for the Advancement of Science (2009), and the SPIE (2010).
From 2013-2017, Kumar served as a program manager for the Defense Science Office at DARPA.
Kumar earned a PhD in Physics from State University of New York at Buffalo, New York after graduating from IIT Kanpur with an MSc and BSc Physics from University of Delhi, India.