UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Bryce Gadway, professor of physics at Penn State, was selected to the 2025 cohort of Experimental Physics Investigators by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. This cohort is a distinguished group of mid-career researchers pushing the boundaries of experimental physics.
The Experimental Physics Investigators Initiative provides each cohort member with $1.3 million over five years to give them the flexibility to accelerate breakthroughs and strengthen the experimental physics community.
“We once again received proposals from amazing mid-career investigators who are taking their research to new levels,” said Theodore Hodapp, program director for the initiative. “We are excited to see them join our existing cohorts of experimental physicists who are pushing the boundaries of our understanding of the universe.”
Gadway’s research is focused on developing new experimental methods for exploring emergent phenomena. According to Gadway, the discovery of new phases of matter has the potential to have a future technological impact on society, and even more in the near term, impact the approaches to quantum computing, quantum sensing and quantum simulation.
“This new funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation is a real game changer for our group, allowing us to pursue a set of high-risk, high-reward research ideas related to many-body quantum systems,” Gadway said.
Gadway’s additional honors and awards include a U.S. National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2020, a Young Investigator Program award from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research in 2018, an Arnold O. Beckman Research Award from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2018 and a President's Award to Distinguished Doctoral Students from Stony Brook University in 2013. His group’s research has been published in journals such as Science, Nature Physics and Science Advances.
Prior to joining the faculty at Penn State in 2023, Gadway was an assistant and associate professor of physics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign from 2014 to 2023 and a National Research Council postdoctoral research fellow at JILA — a joint institute of the University of Colorado Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology — from 2012 to 2014. He earned a doctoral degree in physics from Stony Brook University in 2012 and a bachelor’s degree in astronomy and physics from Colgate University in 2007.
Gadway’s research on quantum simulation contributes to the growing quantum science community at Penn State, and he serves on the advisory board of the newly announced Penn State Quantum Hub. They are now seeking proposals for the Quantum SuperSEED Grant.