Biography
Stefanie Günther is a computational scientist in the Center for Applied Scientific Computing @LLNL, where she leads research in quantum optimal control, quantum learning, and high-performance scientific computing and optimization. Her work focuses on advancing pulse-level optimization strategies for multi-qubit quantum systems, bridging quantum hardware constraints with scalable, HPC-enabled algorithms. Stefanie’s research spans time-parallel PDE-constrained optimization, manifold-based control methods, and machine learning techniques, developed in close collaboration with experimental quantum physicists. She is the primary developer of the open-source quantum simulation and control framework Quandary. Prior, Stefanie received her PhD from RWTH Aachen, Germany, and was a Sidney Fernbach Fellow @LLNL, where she worked on optimal control in computational fluid dynamics and scientific machine learning applications.
Education
- Ph.D. Numerical Optimization, RWTH Aachen University, Germany
- Diploma (equivalent. M.Sc.) Applied Mathematics with minor in Computer Sciences, University of Trier, Germany
Publications
2025 2 publications
Sentz, Peter; Nicholson, Stanley; Cho, Yujin; Reddy, Sohail; Keith, Brendan; Günther, Stefanie; Learning thermodynamic master equations for open quantum systems; Quantum (submitted), arXiv:2506.01882; 2025
Petersson, N Anders; Günther, Stefanie; Chung, Seung Whan; A time-parallel multiple-shooting method for large-scale quantum optimal control; Journal of Computational Physics 524 113712; 2025
2024 2 publications
Reddy, Sohail; Günther, Stefanie; Cho, Yujin; Data-driven characterization of latent dynamics on quantum testbeds; AVS Quantum Science 6 3; 2024
Meena, Muralikrishnan Gopalakrishnan; Zhang, Yu; Jiang, Weiwen; Lin, Youzuo; Günther, Stefanie; Gao, Xinfeng; Towards a Quantum Algorithm for the Incompressible Nonlinear Navier-Stokes Equations; IEEE International Conference on Quantum Computing and Engineering (QCE) 1 662-668; 2024
2023 2 publications
Vargas, David A; Falgout, Robert D; Günther, Stefanie; Schroder, Jacob B; Multigrid reduction in time for chaotic dynamical systems; SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing 45 4 A2019-A2042; 2023
Günther, Stefanie; Petersson, N Anders; A practical approach to determine minimal quantum gate durations using amplitude-bounded quantum controls; AVS Quantum Science 5(4); 2023
2022 1 publication
Vargas, David A; Falgout, Robert D; Günther, Stefanie; Schroder, Jacob B; Toward Parallel in Time for Chaotic Dynamical Systems; arXiv preprint arXiv:2201.10441; 2022
2021 3 publications
Günther, Stefanie; Pazner, Will; Qi, Dongping; Spline parameterization of neural network controls for deep learnin;g arXiv preprint arXiv:2103.00301; 2021
- Günther, Stefanie; Petersson, N Anders; DuBois, Jonathan L; Quantum Optimal Control for Pure-State Preparation Using One Initial State; AVS Quantum Science, 3(4); 2021
Günther, Stefanie; Petersson, N Anders; DuBois, Jonathan L; Quandary: An open-source C++ package for high-performance optimal control of open quantum systems; IEEE/ACM 2nd International Workshop on Quantum Computing Software (QCS) 88-98; 2021
2020 2 publications
Günther, Stefanie; Ruthotto, Lars; Schroder, Jacob B; Cyr, Eric C; Gauger, Nicolas R; Layer-parallel training of deep residual neural networks; SIAM Journal on Mathematics of Data Science 2(1) 1-23; 2020
Günther, Stefanie; Falgout, Robert D; Top, Philip; Woodward, Carol S; Schroder, Jacob B; Parallel-in-time solution of power systems with unscheduled events; IEEE Power & Energy Society General Meeting (PESGM) 1-5; 2020
2019 1 publication
Günther, Stefanie; Gauger, Nicolas R; Schroder, Jacob B; A non-intrusive parallel-in-time approach for simultaneous optimization with unsteady PDEs; Optimization Methods and Software 34(6) 1306-1321; 2019
2018 1 publication
Günther, Stefanie; Gauger, Nicolas R; Schroder, Jacob B; A non-intrusive parallel-in-time adjoint solver with the XBraid library; Computing and Visualization in Science 19 85-95; 2018
2017 1 publication
Günther, Stefanie; Gauger, Nicolas R; Wang, Qiqi; A framework for simultaneous aerodynamic design optimization in the presence of chaos; Journal of Computational Physics 328 387-398, 2017
2016 1 publication
Günther, Stefanie; Gauger, Nicolas R; Wang, Qiqi; Simultaneous single-step one-shot optimization with unsteady PDEs; Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics 294 12-22; 2016
2014 3 publications
Günther, Stefanie; Gauger, Nicolas R; Wang, Qiqi; Extension of the One-shot method for optimal control with unsteady PDEs; Advances in Evolutionary and Deterministic Methods for Design, Optimization and Control in Engineering and Sciences 127-142; 2014
Bosse, Torsten; Gauger, Nicolas R; Griewank, Andreas; Günther, Stefanie; Schulz, Volker; One-shot approaches to design optimization; Trends in PDE constrained optimization 43-66; 2014
Bosse, Torsten; Gauger, Nicolas R; Griewank, Andreas; Günther, Stefanie; Kaland, Lena; Kratzenstein, Claudia; Lehmann, Lutz; Nemili, Anil; Özkaya, Emre; Slawig, Thomas; Optimal design with bounded retardation for problems with non-separable adjoints; Trends in PDE Constrained Optimization 67-84; 2014
2012 1 publication
Petersson, N Anders; Garcia, Fortino; Appelo, Daniel EA; Günther, Stefanie; Choi, Younsoo; Vogt, Ryan; Quantum Physics without the Physics; arXiv preprint arXiv:2012.03865; 2020
1912 1 publication
Cyr, Eric C; Günther, Stefanie; Schroder, Jacob B; Multilevel initialization for layer-parallel deep neural network training; arXiv preprint arXiv:1912.08974; 2019
Awards
AVS Quantum Science Journal awarded “Editor’s Pick” for journal publication, 20211
Sidney Fernbach Fellowship, LLNL, 2020
Rising Star in Computational and Data Sciences, UT Austin, 2019
Best young researcher oral conference presentation, ETH Zurich, Switzerland, 2017
Academic distinction for outstanding diploma, University of Trier, Germany, 2012
Additional info
Member, Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM)