Biographical Sketch:
Ian Moult, Assistant Professor in Physics, develops new theoretical frameworks and exploits theoretical advances to enable innovative new experimental strategies.
Moult obtained his undergraduate degree from the University of British Columbia in 2011, and his Ph.D in theoretical particle physics from MIT in 2016. He was then a Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Berkeley/ LBL (2016-2019) and SLAC/ Stanford (2019-2021) before joining the Yale Physics Department in 2021.
Research:
Ian Moult’s research is focused on developing new techniques in quantum field theory for describing high energy particle physics experiments, ranging from Dark Matter detection to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). A common theme in his work is the use of Effective Field Theories, which allow calculations relevant for complicated real world experiments to be reduced to simpler, universal problems in quantum field theory.
In addition to the development of new theoretical frameworks, Moult is also interested in exploiting theoretical advances to enable innovative new experimental strategies. Most recently, he has played a leading role in the development of Jet Substructure, which takes advantage of subtle patterns in the structure of energy flow in collisions at the LHC to maximize the discovery potential for new physics, and to better understand the theory of the strong interactions.
Education:
Ph.D., Theoretical Particle Physics, 2016, MIT
Honors & Awards:
Ian Moult was one of four Yale faculty members to win Sloan Research Fellowships in 2025. The fellowship recognizes early-career scientists and scholars whose research accomplishments make them stand out as future leaders in their field. He also received the 2024 Early Career Scientist Prize in Particle Physics from the IUPAP. Also in 2024, Moult was awarded the Wu-Ki Tung Award for Early-Career Research on Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) for his “pioneering work on QCD energy correlators, including their all-orders factorization, multi-loop structure, phenomenological applications, and connections to conformal field theory.” He was also awarded the 2017 J. J. and Noriko Sakurai Dissertation Award in Theoretical Particle Physics from the American Physical Society (APS).
Selected Publications:
