Physics Program

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Bard Quantum Computation Researcher Included Among Winners of a $3 Million Grant

Abhinav Prem, assistant professor of theoretical physics at Bard College, is part of a research team that has received a $3 million grant from the Simons Foundation. The Non-Equilibrium Frontier (NEF) is one of 12 recipients of the Simons Foundation Targeted Grant, comprising an international team of ten scientists including Prem, working to comprehensively model the unusual behavior of matter at the quantum level. The grant is for a total of $3 million over three years starting in January of 2027, of which Bard receives $311,210 for supporting a postdoctoral fellow and facilitating research visits across participating institutions. The funding will support a postdoctoral fellow and facilitate research visits between collaborators at participating institutions, creating opportunities for Bard students and researchers to engage in broader international collaboration at the cutting edge of physics.

The NEF team studies the complex behavior and properties of quantum matter, which often defy standard models. According to the NEF, this requires “extending the language of symmetry, topology, and entanglement to systems whose defining feature is that they never settle into equilibrium.” NEF researchers say the goal is not just to describe behavior of quantum systems, but to organize and ultimately predict them, laying foundations for the next era of quantum science. “Quantum systems can now be driven, measured, and coupled to their environments in ways that take them far from equilibrium, producing new forms of behavior that have no equilibrium counterpart,” says Prem. “Our collaboration will work to develop the theoretical principles needed to understand and classify this physics.”

Prem is an assistant professor in the Bard Physics Program, which is dedicated to helping students at all levels gain a better understanding of the universe and how it works. He was previously awarded a grant through the Department of Energy to develop methods for making quantum computing more stable and reliable. 
 

Post Date: 09-09-2026

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Bard Alumna Jacinta Creel Vallejo ’24 to Receive Higgs Scholarship and Attend University of Edinburgh for MSc

Jacinta Creel Vallejo ’24, a Bard alumna who majored in physics and philosophy, has been accepted to the University of Edinburgh for an MSc in Astrobiology and Planetary Sciences. She has also received the Higgs Scholarship, awarded by the university’s School of Physics and Astronomy on the basis of academic merit. Creel Vallejo, who developed an interest in the field while working on her Bard SPROJ project with physicist Clara Sousa Silva, chose Edinburgh for its interdisciplinary approach. Creel Vallejo is particularly interested in how scientists can infer life on distant worlds from inherently incomplete data. “My ambition is to investigate the limits of biosignature detection by combining observational modelling with laboratory simulation of abiotic false positives, sharpening the criteria by which a detection claim can be trusted,” she said. 

The Bard Physics Program is dedicated to helping students at all levels gain a better understanding of the universe and how it works.

Post Date: 07-15-2026