Joel Moore

Professor of Physics

Joel Moore joined the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley Department of Physics as an assistant professor in 2002. He earned his A.B. summa cum laude in Physics from Princeton University in 1995 before spending a Fulbright year abroad and continuing his graduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also spent a year conducting research at Bell Labs early in his career. In addition to his role at UC Berkeley, Moore serves as a Senior Faculty Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Over the course of his career, Moore has become internationally recognized for his contributions to condensed matter theory and quantum materials research. He was named a Simons Investigator from 2013 to 2023, elected Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2013, and elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2022. He also holds the title of Chern-Simons Professor at UC Berkeley.

Moore’s research focuses on theoretical condensed matter physics, particularly the study of quantum materials whose unusual properties emerge from electron interactions and wave function topology. His work investigates how these interactions give rise to new states of matter, as well as the quantum phase transitions that occur between correlated states at extremely low temperatures.

A major theme of his research is understanding how quantum systems transport charge, spin, and heat. His group frequently applies ideas from quantum information theory, including concepts such as entanglement entropy, to analyze complex condensed matter systems and uncover universal physical behavior.

Moore’s work is closely connected to experimental advances in the field, and his research group actively engages with experimental collaborations at Berkeley and beyond. By combining theoretical insight with rapidly advancing experimental data, his research continues to deepen understanding of quantum materials and strongly correlated systems.