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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Richard Allen
Graduate Student
Elba Alonso-Monsalve
Graduate Student
Nina "Galit" Anikeeva
Graduate Student
Philipp Benjamin Aretz
Graduate Student
Josu Aurrekoetxea
Postdoc
Lucas Martins Barreto Alves
Graduate Student
Verena Bellscheidt
Graduate Student
Maor Ben-Shahar
Postdoc
Julian Bender
Postdoc
Sean Benevedes
Graduate Student
Miguel Benitez
Graduate Student
En-Hung Chao
Postdoc
Anthony Chen
Postdoc
Hao Chen
Postdoc
So Chigusa
Postdoc
Soonwon Choi
Victor F. Weisskopf 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
Wentao Cui
Graduate Student
Bryce Cyr
Postdoc
Daine Danielson
Postdoc
Daine is a Black Hole Initiative Fellow whose interests include quantum gravity, decoherence, field theory, information theory, and black holes.
Roger de Belsunce
Postdoc
Cosmologist studying large-scale structure using effective field theories, data and machine learning to probe fundamental physics and cosmic evolution
Gregorio de la Fuente Simarro
Grad Student
Ross Dempsey
Pappalardo Fellow
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
Elliott Gesteau
Postdoc
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
Jakob Gunther
Postdoc
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
Associate Professor of Physics
Works on combining quantum mechanics and gravity, focusing on the quantum-mechanical aspects of black holes and cosmology.
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.
Byungmin Kang
Postdoc
Arjun Kudinoor
Graduate Student
Kevin Langhoff
Postdoc
Benjamin Lehmann
Postdoc
Adam Levine
Postdoc
Shing Yan Li
Graduate Student
Yao Li
Postdoc
Florian Lindenbauer
Postdoc
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.
Yunchao Liu
Postdoc
Benjamin Lou
Graduate Student
Angus Lowe
Graduate Student
Zhiyao Lu
Graduate Student
Raji Mamade
Graduate Student
Daniel Mark
Graduate Student
Nishad Maskara
Postdoc
Xoan Mayo
Postdoc
Perturbative QCD and jet theory across collision systems, with applications to high-energy nuclear collisions.
Joseph Minahan
Research Visitor
Marianne Moore
Graduate student
Scott Morley
CTP Assistant Director
Mark Mueller
Research Visitor
Ivri Nagar
Graduate Student
Richard Nally
Pappalardo Fellow
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.
Joshua Ott
Graduate Student
Robert Perry
Postdoc
Saul Pilatowsky Cameo
Graduate Student
Krishna Rajagopal
William A. M. Burden Professor of Astrophysics
Probing the properties, microstructure and phase diagram of hot QCD matter, the primordial liquid.
Alexander Schmidhuber
Graduate Student
Phiala Shanahan
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
Director, MIT Center for Theoretical Physics -- a Leinweber Institute (CTP-LI)
Director, MIT Center for Theoretical Physics -- a Leinweber Institute (CTP-LI)
Research focuses on dark matter - novel theoretical models, predicting observable signals, and analysis of astrophysical and cosmological datasets.
Ananda Smith
Graduate Student
Manu Srivastava
Graduate Student
Rachel Steinhorst
Graduate Student
Iain Stewart
Otto (1939) and Jane Morningstar Professor of Science
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
Brinson Prize Fellow
Cosmologist studying astrophysical tracers of large-scale structure to learn about primordial physics!
Washington Taylor
Professor of Physics
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
Nicolas Valdes
Graduate Student
Pieter van Steenweghen
Graduate Student
Marco Venere
Graduate Student
Aditi Venkatesh
Graduate Student
Matteo Votto
Postdoc
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
Rui Zhang
Postdoc
Xiaoyuan Zhang
Pappalardo Fellow
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.
