Norbert Linke

Norbert Linke is the director of the National Quantum Laboratory at Maryland and Associate Professor of Physics at UMD. His research group conducts experiments with trapped atomic ions for different applications in quantum physics. These include quantum information processing, the simulation of quantum phenomena, and quantum networking with entangled near-telecom ion-photons.

Born in Munich, Germany, he graduated from the University of Ulm, and received his doctorate at the University of Oxford, UK, working on micro-fabricated ion-traps and microwave-addressing of ions under David Lucas. After post-doctoral work at Oxford, he spent four years as a post-doc and research scientist in the group of Chris Monroe at the University of Maryland's Joint Quantum Institute, where he led a project that turned a physics experiment into a programmable quantum computer. He became an assistant professor at UMD in 2019, transferred to the Duke University in 2022, and returned to UMD in 2025.