UC Berkeley’s Leinweber Institute for Theoretical Physics(link is external) entered a new chapter last Thursday. Professor Hitoshi Murayama succeeded his colleague, Yasunori Nomura, whose ten-year tenure profoundly shaped the institute’s trajectory.
“I’m honored to be named the director of the Leinweber Institute for Theoretical Physics at UC Berkeley,” said Murayama. “My predecessor left big shoes to fill, and I express my biggest thanks to him for guiding us so far as the founding director of LITP.”
Theoretical physicists develop mathematical models that explain the interactive properties of matter, advancing our understanding of nature and the universe and guiding future experiments. Murayama is a well-known theoretical particle physicist who studies the mystifying phenomena surrounding elementary particles and fundamental forces, with strong connections to astrophysics, cosmology, and condensed matter physics. As Leinweber Institute director, he’ll be able to rely on his previous experience as the founding director of the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe at the University of Tokyo.
Murayama said that he is most excited for his new role to foster more interaction between particle and condensed matter physicists. The two fields used to be very close but went in separate directions for many decades. Murayama observed that they are coming closer once again. He proudly noted that researchers have already started to attend a semi-weekly tea time.
“I hope the LITP can bring us all together to bring new breakthroughs in physics all the way from microscopic quantum physics to the universe at large,” said Murayama. “Watch out for Berkeley to become a hotbed for major discoveries!”
For decades, UC Berkeley has been at the forefront of theoretical physics. Many of the field’s most trailblazing thinkers, including J. Robert Oppenheimer and multiple Nobel laureates, performed their seminal work at UC Berkeley. Today’s leading quantum scientists, string theorists, and particle physicists can trace their work back to these pioneers.
The Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics was founded at the turn of the millennium with the goal of bringing together the greatest minds in theoretical physics to answer the most pressing scientific questions about the universe. In 2025, a $14.4 million gift(link is external) from the Leinweber Foundation — combined with $3.6 million from UC Berkeley — transformed the Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics into the Leinweber Institute for Theoretical Physics.
That catalytic gift created an endowment that supports postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, visiting scholars, workshops, conferences, and collaborations with other Leinweber institutes. The Leinweber network now includes top theoretical physicists at UC Berkeley, Stanford, CalTech, Princeton, Harvard, MIT, University of Chicago, University of Michigan, and the Institute for Advanced Study.
“It has been an exciting time leading the transition from the Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics to the new Leinweber Institute for Theoretical Physics and serving as its inaugural director,” said Nomura. “The creation of LITP gave us the opportunity to broaden the institute by welcoming new members working in areas that had not previously been represented. I am very proud of what we have built, and I look forward to seeing the institute continue to grow and prosper under the leadership of Hitoshi Murayama, who is an ideal person to lead LITP into its next chapter.”
by Alexander Rony