From left to right: Carolina Figueiredo, Ethan Lake, and Patrick Ledwith
UC Berkeley’s Department of Physics is welcoming a powerhouse lineup of trailblazing scientists to advance its research enterprise.
The department has completed searches for three new faculty members, all joining UC Berkeley as assistant professors: Ethan Lake, Carolina Figueiredo, and Patrick Ledwith.
“These early-career researchers represent the new scientific vanguard; I am so pleased to welcome them as colleagues,” said Steven Kahn, an astrophysicist and the dean of mathematical and physical sciences. “They could go anywhere to perform their work, and they chose Berkeley. Their presence will further cement our university’s reputation as the gold standard in high-level research and instruction.”
Each of the three physicists has gained notoriety for their boundary-pushing research and will enhance Berkeley’s global standing.
Carolina Figueiredo is a theoretical physicist specializing in high-energy particle physics and quantum field theory. She will complete a prestigious junior fellowship at Harvard University before beginning her faculty role at UC Berkeley.
Figueiredo is known for simplifying extremely complicated physics principles. She has identified new mathematical properties of the S-matrix, which is key to calculating probabilities of what happens when subatomic particles collide at near-light speeds.
Figueiredo earned her Ph.D. from Princeton University this year, and she has already made major waves in her field. The Breakthrough Prize Foundation awarded Figueiredo its inaugural Vera Rubin New Frontiers Prize in April. Her work proved that three particle physics theories believed to be disparate were, in fact, linked through an underlying geometric structure. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang and tech investor Yuri Milner presented the award to Figueiredo. Portuguese President António José Seguro even congratulated her, calling Figueiredo “an inspiration to Portugal.”
“It was a whole semester of surprises,” Figueiredo told The Daily Princetonian.
Ethan Lake will take up his position as assistant professor after serving for several years as a Miller Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Berkeley.
A theoretical physicist, Lake’s work spans many fields, from statistical physics to quantum information science and condensed matter theory. Lately, his research has focused on problems tied to non-equilibrium phases of matter, cellular automata, and quantum error correction.
Outside of academia, Lake enjoys learning foreign languages, playing music, and rock climbing.
Patrick Ledwith is a theoretical physicist who studies quantum many-body problems and condensed matter theory. Most recently a Pappalardo Fellow in Physics at MIT, Ledwith will join UC Berkeley’s faculty.
Ledwith is particularly interested in predicting collective properties that emerge from strongly interacting electrons. For example, he has recently focused on moiré materials (especially magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene) where strong correlations and band topology cause electrons to exhibit exotic phenomena.
While earning his Ph.D. at Harvard University, Ledwith won the 2022 Gertrude and Maurice Goldhaber Prize and a 2024 Merit Scholarship.
“I am profoundly delighted to welcome Carolina, Ethan, and Patrick to our physics faculty,” said Dan McKinsey, the vice chair of the Department of Physics. “On a personal level, it is immensely gratifying that these three exceptional scholars have chosen Berkeley as the epicenter for their academic pursuits. Each brings a formidable intellectual curiosity and a portfolio of groundbreaking research that beautifully comports with our institution’s pioneering ethos. Their deep expertise in theoretical physics will undoubtedly elevate our research enterprise while simultaneously illuminating the minds of the next generation of physicists in our lecture halls.”