People
This directory contains the current membership of the MIT Center for Theoretical Physics — a Leinweber Institute (CTP-LI).
The CTP-LI contains the Gravity, Nuclear, Particle, and Quantum Information Theory (GNUPAQT) division of the MIT Physics Department. Theoretical research in the Center complements and connects to experimental work by the Nuclear and Particle Experiment division in the Laboratory for Nuclear Science, theoretical work in other divisions—including condensed matter theory, astrophysics theory, and theoretical work in the physics of living systems group—and quantum information science across MIT.
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Ryan Abbott
Graduate Student
Samuel Alipour-fard
Graduate Student
Richard Allen
Graduate Student
Elba Alonso-Monsalve
Graduate Student
Lucas Barreto Alves
Graduate Student
Carlota Andres
Postdoc
Nina "Galit" Anikeeva
Graduate Student
Philipp Benjamin Aretz
Graduate Student
Josu Aurrekoetxea
Postdoc
Artur Avkhadiev
Graduate Student
Shankar Balasubramanian
Graduate Student
Maor Ben-Shahar
postdoc
Julian Bender
Postdoc
Sean Benevedes
Graduate Student
Cari Cesarotti
Postdoc
Anthony Chen
Postdoc
Hao Chen
Postdoc
So Chigusa
Postdoc
Soonwon Choi
Victor F. Weisskopf Career Development Assistant Professor of Physics
Research interests are focused on the intersection of quantum information science and out-of-equilibrium dynamics of quantum many-body systems.
Barry Cimring
Graduate Student
Scott Collier
Postdoc
Wentao Cui
Graduate Student
Bryce Cyr
Postdoc
Jaco de Swart
Postdoc
William Detmold
Professor of Physics
Graduate Program Faculty Coordinator
Graduate Program Faculty Coordinator
Interests are in strong interaction dynamics in theoretical particle and nuclear physics.
Jean Du Plessis
Graduate Student
Netta Engelhardt
Biedenharn Career Development Associate Professor of Physics
Research focuses on understanding the predictions and fundamental structure of quantum gravity via holography and the black hole information paradox.
Edward Farhi
Cecil & Ida Green Professor of Physics, Emeritus (1982-2018)
Present interest is the theory of quantum computation.
Anna Ferdinand
Graduate student
Daniel Freedman
Professor of Applied Mathematics and Physics, Emeritus
Discovered supergravity at StonyBrook University with Sergio Ferrrara and Peter van Nieuwenhuizen in 1976.
Yang Fu
Postdoc
Rikab Gambhir
Graduate Student
Anjie Gao
Graduate Student
Jeffrey Goldstone
Professor of Physics, Emeritus
Famous for the discovery of the Nambu–Goldstone boson. He is currently working on quantum computation.
Wenjie Gong
Graduate Student
Alan Guth
Victor F. Weisskopf Professor of Physics
In 1981, he proposed that many features of our universe can be explained by a new cosmological model which he called inflation.
Matias Gutierrez Escobari
Graduate Student
Daniel Harlow
Jerrold R. Zacharias Career Development Associate Professor of Physics
Works on combining quantum mechanics and gravity, focusing on the quantum-mechanical aspects of black holes and cosmology.
Sergio Hernandez-Cuenca
Postdoc
Ellie Hughes
Graduate Student
Mikhail Ivanov
Assistant Professor of Physics
Research focuses on large-scale structure, effective field theories, black holes, and astrophysical and cosmological data analysis.
Robert Jaffe
Otto (1939) and Jane Morningstar Professor of Science, Post-Tenure (1974–2021)
Best known for his research on the quark substructure of matter.
Brian Jiang
Graduate Student
David Kaiser
Professor of Physics
Germeshausen Professor of the History of Science (STS)
Germeshausen Professor of the History of Science (STS)
Research focuses on early-universe cosmology, foundations of quantum theory, and history of modern physics.
Jamie Karthein
Postdoc
David Kolchmeyer
Postdoc
Morgane Konig
Postdoc
Arjun Kudinoor
Graduate Student
Ho Tat Lam
Postdoc
Kyle Lee
Postdoc
Benjamin Lehmann
Postdoc
Adam Levine
Postdoc
Shing Yan Li
Graduate Student
Joshua Lin
Graduate Student
Yu-Jie (Leo) Liu
Postdoc
Hong Liu
Professor of Physics
Interested in issues in quantum gravity, such as the quantum nature of black holes and the Big Bang singularity, using the framework of string theory.
Earle Lomon
Professor of Physics, Emeritus
In Memoriam: 1930-2025
In Memoriam: 1930-2025
Research interest is quantum chromodynamics (QCD), the dynamics of quarks and gluons.
Angus Lowe
Graduate Student
Raji Mamade
Graduate Student
Daniel Mark
Graduate Student
John Martyn
Graduate Student
Joseph Minahan
Research Visitor
Marianne Moore
Graduate student
Scott Morley
CTP Assistant Director
Mark Mueller
Research Visitor
Richard Nally
Postdoc
John Negele
Professor of Physics, Emeritus (1971–2014)
Interested in lattice field theory to solve QCD and thereby understand the structure of nucleons in terms of their quark and gluon constituents.
Robert Perry
Postdoc
Saul Pilatowsky Cameo
Graduate Student
Krishna Rajagopal
William A. M. Burden Professor of Physics
Probing the properties, microstructure and phase diagram of hot QCD matter, the primordial liquid.
Dan Roberts
Research Visitor
Alexander Schmidhuber
Graduate Student
Phiala Shanahan
Class of 1957 Career Development Associate Professor of Physics
Research focuses on particle and nuclear theory and applying machine learning to understand the fundamental interactions of nature.
Shu-Heng Shao
Assistant Professor of Physics
Focuses on generalizing the symmetry principle in quantum field theories and lattice models, with applications in HEP, CMT, and quantum gravity.
Ruohan Shen
Graduate Student
Tracy Slatyer
Professor of Physics
Research focuses on dark matter - novel theoretical models, predicting observable signals, and analysis of astrophysical and cosmological datasets.
Jonathan Sorce
Postdoc
Manu Srivastava
Graduate Student
Thomas Steingasser
Postdoc
Rachel Steinhorst
Graduate Student
Iain Stewart
Otto (1939) and Jane Morningstar Professorship in Science
Professor of Physics
Professor of Physics
Designs and applies Effective Field Theories to describe physics at collider experiments and to explore the structure of quantum field theory.
Aneca Su
Graduate Student
Charles Suggs
Senior Editorial Assistant
Jamie Sullivan
Postdoc
Zhiquan Sun
Graduate Student
Washington Taylor
Professor of Physics
Director, MIT Center for Theoretical Physics -- a Leinweber Institute (CTP-LI)
Director, MIT Center for Theoretical Physics -- a Leinweber Institute (CTP-LI)
Research is centered on basic theoretical questions related to quantum physics and gravity.
Max Tegmark
Professor of Physics
Research focuses on linking physics and machine learning: using AI for physics and physics for AI.
Jesse Thaler
Professor of Physics
Theoretical particle physicist who fuses techniques from QFT and machine learning to address outstanding questions in fundamental physics.
Michael Toomey
Postdoc
Sokratis Trifinopoulos
Postdoc
Julian Urban
Postdoc
Nicolas Valdes
Graduate Student
Aditi Venkatesh
Graduate Student
Neill Warrington
Postdoc
Frank Wilczek
Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics, Post-Tenure (2000-2024)
2004 Nobel Laureate
2004 Nobel Laureate
Known for the discovery of asymptotic freedom, the development of quantum chromodynamics, the invention of axions, and more...
Adam Wills
Graduate Student
Bingtian Ye
Postdoc
Ruoyi Yin
Graduate Student
James Edward Young
Professor of Physics, Emeritus
Researched and taught theoretical particle physics, critical phenomena and nuclear physics in the MIT Center for Theoretical Physics.
Daiming Zhang
Graduate Student
Ying Zhao
Postdoc
Rosemary Zielinski
Graduate Student
Alexander Zlokapa
Graduate Student
Barton Zwiebach
Professor of Physics
Contributed to the early work on the construction of open string field theory and then developed the field theory of closed strings.
