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.

Ph.D. Numerical Optimization, RWTH Aachen University, Germany

Diploma (equivalent. M.Sc.) Applied Mathematics with minor in Computer Sciences, University of Trier, Germany

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cyr, Eric C; Günther, Stefanie; Schroder, Jacob B; Multilevel initialization for layer-parallel deep neural network training; arXiv preprint arXiv:1912.08974; 2019

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

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

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

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

• 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

Member, Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM)