Dr. Philip Kurian is a theoretical physicist, researching scientist, and essayist, serving as principal investigator and founding director of the Quantum Biology Laboratory at Howard University.
Beginning his career as a math teacher in North Philadelphia, he completed his doctorate in physics after a stint at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Dr. Kurian is now the recipient of fellowships, grants, and awards from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, U.S.-Italy Fulbright Commission, Guy Foundation Family Trust (UK), National Science Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health. The Quantum Biology Laboratory studies how collective and cooperative quantum behaviors can explain biological phenomena at the mesoscopic, organismal, and clinical scales, including in neurodegeneration, cancer, and human consciousness. His group’s pioneering work on single-photon superradiance in eukaryotic protein filaments and neuron fibers has been featured by Science, The Quantum Insider, Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, SPIE Photonics Focus, Optica, Laser Focus World, BioPhotonics, Howard Magazine, TEDx, and by prominent science channels including Science News with Sabine and PBS Space Time.
Dr. Kurian is a Fellow of the UCSB Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, and a Simons Scholar and Senior Fellow at the UCLA Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics. He was appointed to the chairing committee for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine workshop on quantum-enabled sensing and imaging for biology. Dr. Kurian also serves as a scientific advisor to the “Science for Seminaries” program of the AAAS Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion, which seeks to integrate frontier science questions into conversations among future theologians and clergy. His essays on science, human knowledge systems, and empire have appeared in various media outlets, including the Los Angeles Review of Books, Granta, and Plough.
