The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation has named a third annual cohort of Experimental Physics Investigators to achieve remarkable physics insights and open new frontiers. This new cohort of 19 researchers will each receive a five-year, $1.25 million grant to enable them to pursue their research goals and try new ideas.

“This initiative is designed to support novel and potentially high-payoff projects that will advance the field of physics but might be hard to fund through traditional funding sources,” said Theodore Hodapp, program director for the initiative. “Via an open call for proposals, we have lowered the barriers for researchers from a wide range of institutions and experiences to apply. We are delighted with the variety of ideas and projects this year's cohort represents.”

Funding bold and innovative science

The initiative provides flexible funding to pursue imaginative research ideas, allowing the investigators to explore new and uncharted areas and advance the scientific understanding of the natural world. Alison Sweeney, from Yale University, for example, is studying proteins in squid eyes, a material suspected of having “stealthy hyperuniformity” properties.

Among other things, this research could reveal that non-uniform materials are perfectly transparent at almost all wavelengths. Expanded understanding of these natural biological materials could open the door to a new field of self-assembling optical systems made of inexpensive biocompatible photonic materials. Knowledge uncovered through this work could give rise to a new field of self-assembling photonics and waveguides made from polymeric or organic, inexpensive, biocompatible photonic materials.

Supporting advancements and breakthroughs in fundamental physics

Michael Chini, of The Ohio State University, will be developing attosecond (10-18 sec)-duration light sources that have the potential to push the boundaries of relativistic quantum electrodynamics. The research will be conducted using new laser platforms with high repetition rates and high wall-plug efficiency, and Chini's team is aiming to produce some of the most intense laser fields ever produced.

“Our research could lead to novel approaches to laser-based accelerators, to produce new sources of particle and photon beams,” said Chini. “This has the potential to positively impact not just fundamental research, but also cancer therapies, fusion energy, and nuclear waste remediation.”

2024 Experimental Physics Investigators

o Victor Acosta, University of New Mexico

o Michael Chini, The Ohio State University

o Liang Feng, University of Pennsylvania

o Shawna Hollen, University of New Hampshire

o Andrew Jayich, University of California, Santa Barbara

o Jeremy Johnson, Brigham Young University

o Adam Kaufman, University of Colorado, Boulder

o Douglas Kelley, University of Rochester

o Shimon Kolkowitz, University of California, Berkeley

o Stevan Nadj-Perge, California Institute of Technology

o Rui Ni, Johns Hopkins University

o Vlad Pribiag, University of Minnesota

o Philip Richerme, Indiana University Bloomington

o Monika Schleier-Smith, Stanford University

o Jon Schuller, The Regents of the University of California, Santa Barbara

o Alison Sweeney, Yale University

o Inna Vishik, University of California, Davis

o Dylan Yost, Colorado State University

o Ilija Zeljkovic, Boston College

The call for 2025 investigators will open on August 29, 2024. Please visit the Experimental Physics Investigator Initiative website or contact us at epi@moore.org for more information.

The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation advances scientific discovery, environmental conservation, and preservation of the special character of the San Francisco Bay Area. Visit Moore.org or follow @MooreFound.