Nicholas Read is a theoretical condensed matter physicist. He has worked on the theory of materials in which repulsion between electrons is very strong, giving rise to predictions of quantum liquid states with highly unusual properties.

Highlights of the work include predictions of particle excitations with unconventional statistics; such particles would have potential uses in quantum computation. They can occur in two-dimensional electron liquids in a strong magnetic field, and in certain types of superconductor; some are described as carrying Majorana zero modes. These fluids are also expected to possess an unusual form of viscosity, known as Hall viscosity. Other work includes results on phase transitions in quantum antiferromagnets.

Read has been on the Faculty of Yale University since 1988.  He is a Member of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a recipient of both the Oliver E. Buckley Prize of the American Physical Society and the Dirac Medal of the Abdus Salaam International Center for Theoretical Physics.