Dr. Prineha Narang is an American scientist, engineer, and entrepreneur. Dr. Narang is a Professor in Physical Sciences, and in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Prior to moving, Dr. Narang was an Assistant Professor of Computational Materials Science in the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) at Harvard University. Before starting on the Harvard SEAS faculty in 2017, Dr. Narang was a Fellow at Harvard and worked as a research scholar in condensed matter theory in the Department of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She received an M.S. and Ph.D. in Applied Physics from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Her group, the NarangLab, works across areas of photonics, non-equilibrium phenomena, and quantum information science. 

In 2023 she was appointed a U.S. Science Envoy by the Secretary of State; she was reappointed to the role in 2024 to advocate for quantum science, technology, and innovation internationally and establish American leadership in the field. She has served in policy, technology, and national security facing roles. In 2023 she was elected to the Board of Trustees of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and appointed to the Science Advisory Council of arXiv. Her work goes from fundamental discoveries to translating technologies essential to American competitiveness including as the Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Aliro Quantum, senior engineering and advisory roles at Applied Materials, Northrop Grumman, SemiQon, BlueFors, Aspen Quantum, ScienceCast, and Activate Inc. 

Dr. Narang is an elected Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS). Her work has been recognized by many awards and special designations, including the 2023 Guggenheim Fellowship in Physics, a Maria Goeppert Mayer Award from the APS, 2022 Outstanding Early Career Investigator Award from the Materials Research Society, Mildred Dresselhaus Prize, Bessel Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, a Max Planck Award from the Max Planck Society, and the IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in Computational Physics all in 2021, an NSF CAREER Award in 2020, being named a Moore Inventor Fellow by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, and a Top Innovator by MIT Tech Review (MIT TR35).