Kumar, Wang Named 2025 Researchers to Know
Annual list compiled by the Illinois Science & Technology Coalition spotlights state leaders in innovation
Northwestern Engineering’s Prem Kumar and Dashun Wang have been named on the Researchers to Know 2025 list by the Illinois Science & Technology Coalition (ISTC).
Kumar, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the McCormick School of Engineering, seeks to make quantum computing scalable through robust, photonic-based communication between quantum devices. Last year, Kumar successfully demonstrated quantum teleportation over a fiberoptic cable already carrying internet traffic, introducing the new possibility of combining quantum communication with existing internet cables — greatly simplifying the infrastructure required for advanced sensing technologies or quantum computing applications.
Wang, professor of industrial engineering and management sciences, focuses on the science of science, a field that seeks to improve the quantitative understanding of the inner workings of science using the recent explosion of data. Wang and his group of interdisciplinary researchers take a multidisciplinary approach, combining statistical physics, computer science, and computational social science with tools from complexity sciences and AI to broadly explore new, large-scale datasets. The work is helping improve the way people understand the interconnectedness of the social, technical, and business world.
Previously cited Northwestern Engineering researchers include Jonathan Rivnay and Mercouri Kanatzidis (2024), Guillermo Ameer and Jian Cao (2022), Sossina Haile (2021), Vinayak Dravid (2020), Michael Jewett (2019), Jennie Rogers (2019), Joshua Leonard (2019), and Ed Colgate (2018).
The ISTC is a member-driven non-profit, nonpartisan organization that cultivates technology-based economic development throughout Illinois. Its annual Researchers to Know list provides a look at some of the researchers that are driving innovation in the state — from those advancing new treatments in medicine, to those revolutionizing sustainability practices and shaping new technologies in the 21st century.