Jigang Wang can break his research goals into just a few words: “To discover and control quantum states of matter.” But, it takes paragraphs, analogies, and a willingness to decipher talk about “non-equilibrium quantum phase discovery via non-thermal ultrafast quench near quantum critical points” to get a handle on those eight words. Even though it’s a head-scratcher, Wang’s work could be a big deal to all of us.