Roderich Moessner

Moessner studied physics at Oxford University, where he was a student of Neil Tanner's at Hertford College. At Oxford, he also received his doctorate in theoretical physics under the supervision of John Chalker. After three years as a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University between 1998 and 2001, he joined the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in France, where he did research at the Laboratoire de Physique Théorique at the École normale supérieure, Paris, until 2006. After a faculty appointment at Somerville College in Theoretical Physics at Oxford University, he joined the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Dresden as director of the condensed matter division{{Cite web|url=https://www.pks.mpg.de/condensed-matter|title=Condensed Matter|website=www.pks.mpg.de|accessdate=23 November 2021}} and Scientific Member of the Max Planck Society. Since 2008, he is also honorary professor at TU Dresden.

Moessner's research interests range widely in theoretical condensed matter physics. With Claudio Castelnovo and Shivaji L. Sondhi, Roderich Moessner is known for the theoretical proposition of realizing magnetic monopoles as emergent quasiparticles within a condensed matter system known as spin ice.{{cite journal |last1=Castelnovo |first1=C. |last2=Moessner |first2=R. |last3=Sondhi |first3=S. L. |title=Magnetic monopoles in spin ice |journal=Nature |date=January 2008 |volume=451 |issue=7174 |pages=42–45 |doi=10.1038/nature06433 |pmid=18172493 |arxiv=0710.5515 |bibcode=2008Natur.451...42C |s2cid=2399316 }} Other notable results include the theoretical prediction of charge-density wave phases in quantum Hall physics,{{cite journal |last1=Moessner |first1=R. |last2=Chalker |first2=J. T. |title=Exact results for interacting electrons in high Landau levels |journal=Physical Review B |date=15 August 1996 |volume=54 |issue=7 |pages=5006–5015 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevB.54.5006 |pmid=9986464 |arxiv=cond-mat/9606177 |bibcode=1996PhRvB..54.5006M |s2cid=33282365 }} the identification and theory of a classical spin liquid on the pyrochlore lattice{{cite journal |last1=Moessner |first1=R. |last2=Chalker |first2=J. T. |title=Properties of a Classical Spin Liquid: The Heisenberg Pyrochlore Antiferromagnet |journal=Physical Review Letters |date=30 March 1998 |volume=80 |issue=13 |pages=2929–2932 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.80.2929 |arxiv=cond-mat/9712063 |bibcode=1998PhRvL..80.2929M |s2cid=119441250 }} (both with J. T. Chalker); the theoretical discovery of the resonating valence bond liquid phase in the triangular lattice quantum dimer model (with S. L. Sondhi); and the proposal of a new type of spatiotemporal order, the πι-spin glass, now known as discrete time crystal{{cite journal |last1=Khemani |first1=Vedika |last2=Lazarides |first2=Achilleas |last3=Moessner |first3=Roderich |last4=Sondhi |first4=S. L. |title=Phase Structure of Driven Quantum Systems |journal=Physical Review Letters |date=21 June 2016 |volume=116 |issue=25 |pages=250401 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.250401 |pmid=27391704 |arxiv=1508.03344 |bibcode=2016PhRvL.116y0401K |s2cid=883197 }} (with V. Khemani, A. Lazarides and S. L. Sondhi), with experimental follow-up work on Google's Sycamore quantum computing platform. He has engaged extensively in experimental collaborations, e.g., on the dynamics of quantum spin liquids or the observation of magnetic monopoles in the material Dy₂Ti₂O₇.{{cite journal |last1=Morris |first1=D. J. P. |last2=Tennant |first2=D. A. |last3=Grigera |first3=S. A. |last4=Klemke |first4=B. |last5=Castelnovo |first5=C. |last6=Moessner |first6=R. |last7=Czternasty |first7=C. |last8=Meissner |first8=M. |last9=Rule |first9=K. C. |last10=Hoffmann |first10=J.-U. |last11=Kiefer |first11=K. |last12=Gerischer |first12=S. |last13=Slobinsky |first13=D. |last14=Perry |first14=R. S. |title=Dirac Strings and Magnetic Monopoles in the Spin Ice Dy 2 Ti 2 O 7 |journal=Science |date=16 October 2009 |volume=326 |issue=5951 |pages=411–414 |doi=10.1126/science.1178868 |pmid=19729617 |arxiv=1011.1174 |bibcode=2009Sci...326..411M |s2cid=206522398 }}

An overview of Roderich Moessner's research articles has been published on his webpage.[https://www.pks.mpg.de/fileadmin/user_upload/userpages/Moessner/A_Z.pdf R. Moessner: List of Publications] Most are freely available in preprint form on the arxiv.{{Cite web|url=https://arxiv.org/find/cond-mat/1/au:+moessner_r/0/1/0/all/0/1|title=arXiv.org Search|website=arxiv.org|accessdate=23 November 2021}}

Furthermore, together with Joel E. Moore of the University of California, Berkeley, Moessner has published a book on "Topological Phases of Matter",{{Cite web|url=https://www.pks.mpg.de/de/moessner/book-on-topological-phases|title = Roderich Moessner}} a textbook for use of advanced undergraduates, graduate students, or active researchers. He has also co-edited the lecture notes on topological condensed matter physics of a Les Houches summer school 2014.{{cite book |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198785781.001.0001 |title=Topological Aspects of Condensed Matter Physics |year=2017 |isbn=978-0-19-878578-1 |editor1-last=Chamon |editor1-first=Claudio |editor2-first=Mark O |editor2-last=Goerbig |editor3-first=Roderich |editor3-last=Moessner |editor4-first=Leticia F |editor4-last=Cugliandolo }}{{page needed|date=November 2021}}

• Honorary Fellow, Hertford College, Oxford, 2019
• Physical Review E [https://journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevE.90.012110 25th Anniversary Milestone article of 2014] (declared in 2018).
• Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize 2013 of the German Research Foundation (DFG), jointly with Achim Rosch, for their contributions to the physics of strongly interacting quantum systems{{cite web | title=Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz-Preis 2013 | website=www.dfg.de | url=https://www.dfg.de/gefoerderte_projekte/wissenschaftliche_preise/leibniz-preis/2013/index.jsp | language=de | access-date=16 November 2022}}
• European Physical Society Condensed Matter Division Europhysics Prize 2012 shared with his theory collaborators Shivaji L. Sondhi, Claudio Castelnovo, as well as experimentalists Steven T. Bramwell, Santiago Grigera and Alan Tennant for the prediction and experimental observation of magnetic monopoles in spin ice
• Fellow of the American Physical Society
• Domus Senior Scholar, Merton College, Oxford University
• Scott Prize of Oxford University, 1994, for the best final examination in physics at the University of Oxford.
• Scholar of the German National Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung)

• Member of editorial board, Physik Journal
• Member of the executive board of the German Physical Society (DPG)
• Member of the Board council of the German Physical Society
• Divisional Associate Editor of the Physical Review Letters
• Board member of cluster of excellence ct.qmat
• Co-spokesperson of Helmholtz Virtual Institute "New states of matter and their excitations"[https://www.pks.mpg.de/~hvinsm14/Poster_HVINSM14_e-distribute.pdf Poster: New States of Matter and Their Excitations]

Magnetic monopoles in spin ice featured in an episode of The Big Bang Theory not long after the theoretical proposal, while time crystals appeared in an episode of Star Trek: Discovery.

• [https://www.pks.mpg.de/moessner/cv CV of Roderich Moessner, MPI-PKS website]
• [https://www.houches-school-physics.com/ecole-de-physique-des-houches/home-672251.kjsp Les Houches School of Physics homepage]
• [https://www.ctqmat.de/ Home | ct.qmat]
• [https://www.pks.mpg.de/ Welcome to the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems]

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