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Quantum physicist Nicole Yunger Halpern just published her first book, Quantum Steampunk: The physics of yesterday’s tomorrow. I have known Nicole since she was an undergraduate at Dartmouth, where she graduated as valedictorian in 2011. From there, her career has been nothing short of meteoric. She earned a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology and received several research appointments at Harvard and at the University of Maryland. She now works at the Laser Cooling and Trapping Group of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, also at Maryland. In this week’s column, she joins me for an interview.
What has always impressed me about Nicole, apart from her extraordinarily sharp mind, was her intellectual openness — in particular, her interest in the philosophy and history of physics. There was a time when I thought, as we discussed her future career path, that she would go into the humanities. Wisely, Nicole chose the path of research. She joined the emerging field of quantum information, and from there, she has charted her own, new direction.
Quantum steampunk is a blend of quantum information and thermodynamics. It promises to revolutionize our understanding of machines and the future of technology. As a bonus, it may provide new insights into some of the hardest questions in physics, such as the arrow of time, or why we can’t remember the future.
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