The UConn Physics Department is delighted to welcome Professor Dmitri Kharzeev in Fall 2026. Dmitri will be the Director of UConn’s new Quantum Institute, and a Professor in UConn Physics. He is a well known nuclear theorist who has also made significant contributions to condensed matter physics and AMO physics. He is moving to UConn from Stony Brook, where he was a Distinguished Professor of Physics, and Director of the Center for Nuclear Theory. Prof. Kharzeev is also a Distinguished Scientist in the Directorate of Energy and Photon Sciences at Brookhaven National Laboratory. He has served as the Stony Brook Principal Investigator of the U.S. Department of Energy National Quantum Information Science Research Center, Co-design Center for Quantum Advantage, and has extensive interaction and collaboration in Quantum Science and Technology with national laboratories, leading universities and leading quantum computing companies (IBM, Quantinuum, Quera, Nvidia). Dmitri has also served on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Simons Foundation, and was previously the Director of the Center for Quantum Materials at Stony Brook, and Head of the Theory Group in the RIKEN-BNL Research Center at Brookhaven.
Beyond his academic and laboratory roles, Prof. Kharzeev is also a co-founder of Plasmonic Reactor Systems (PRS), Inc., a technology company pioneering compact, laser-driven modular and micro nuclear reactors spanning both fission and fusion. Alongside co-founder Professor Carlos Trallero, Dmitri has helped build PRS into a fast-moving success story. The company has the support of UConn leadership and state legislature with Rep. Gregg Haddad publicly praising the company’s role in Connecticut’s energy future. With Prof. Kharzeev now joining UConn full-time, PRS’s two founders are united within the same department, further strengthening the connection between UConn Physics and this pioneering venture in nuclear energy.
We extend a very warm welcome to Dmitri and his wife Irina as they join the UConn Physics family.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitri_Kharzeev