UC Berkeley welcomes rising stars in math and physics

September 14, 2026

by Alexander Rony

UC Berkeley is welcoming a powerhouse lineup of trailblazing scientists to advance its research enterprise.

The Division of Mathematical & Physical Sciences has completed six searches for new faculty members. All six will join UC Berkeley as assistant professors: Aaron Calderon, Srivatsav Kunnawalkam Elayavalli, and Kevin Yang in the Department of Mathematics and Ethan Lake, Carolina Figueiredo, and Patrick Ledwith in the Department of Physics.

“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 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 and then begin 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.

Vera Rubin New Frontiers Prize: Carolina Figueiredo Named Inaugural Winner

The announcement video for Carolina Figueiredo's Vera Rubin New Frontiers Prize

Ethan Lake will take up his position as assistant professor after serving for several years as a Miller Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Berkeley.

Ethan Lake (left) and Patrick Ledwith (right)

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.

Figueiredo, Lake, and Ledwith will all become members of the Leinweber Institute for Theoretical Physics.

“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.”

The following trio of stellar mathematicians will continue the long tradition of exceptional research and teaching in Berkeley’s math department.

$Three smiling men in side-by-side profile photos$

From left to right: Aaron Calderon, Srivatsav Kunnawalkam Elayavalli, and Kevin Yang

Aaron Calderon is joining the Department of Mathematics after serving simultaneously as an L. E. Dickson Instructor and a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chicago for the past several years.

Calderon’s research concerns the interplay between geometry, dynamics, and topology. He is particularly interested in hyperbolic geometry, Riemann surfaces, Teichmüller theory, and mapping class groups.

Calderon has also mentored undergraduate students through Research Experiences for Undergraduates and directed reading programs at both Yale and the University of Chicago.

Srivatsav Kunnawalkam Elayavalli will return to UC Berkeley — where he earned his bachelor’s degree in pure mathematics — to become an assistant professor. He will teach advanced mathematics, including the upcoming fall course, “Free C*-Algebras.”

Kunnawalkam Elayavalli studies operator algebras and related areas like ergodic theory, geometric group theory, random matrix theory, and descriptive set theory. He currently serves as an editor for the New York Journal of Mathematics and will organize the operator algebras research seminar at UC Berkeley.

Kunnawalkam Elayavalli was the 2022 Founder’s Medalist at Vanderbilt University, where he earned his doctorate. He then served as a Simons Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics at UCLA, where he received the Chancellor's Award for Postdoctoral Research, and as the Stefan E. Warschawski Visiting Assistant Professor at UC San Diego. He was then an assistant professor at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Kunnawalkam Elayavalli enjoys paragliding and performs on the veena, a traditional south Indian string instrument central to Carnatic classical music.

Kevin Yang is joining the departments of Mathematics and Statistics as an assistant professor. He was previously a Benjamin Peirce Fellow at Harvard University, following National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard and UC Berkeley.

Yang’s research resides at the intersection of probability and partial differential equations. He is particularly interested in analyzing the large-scale properties of microscopic many-body systems in statistical mechanics. He has taught beginning and advanced math courses at Harvard and Stanford. Yang also organized probability seminars at Harvard and Stanford and participated as a mentor in Stanford’s directed reading program.

In his free time, Kevin enjoys trail running, ultramarathons, and biking.

“This exceptional group of new faculty invigorates current research in the department, brings world-leading expertise in new areas, and provides outstanding new teachers and mentors for our students,” said Martin Olsson, the chair of the Department of Mathematics.

Kahn expects the division to announce additional recruitments in mathematics and earth and planetary sciences in the next year.

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