“Dr. Merritt Moore has achieved what some would call ‘the impossible’: a career as a professional ballet dancer and as an academic quantum physicist.” -University of Oxford
Dr. Moore graduated with Magna Cum Laude Honors in Physics from Harvard and graduated with a PhD in Atomic and Laser Physics from the University of Oxford. She also pursues a professional ballet career, previously with the Zurich Ballet, English National Ballet, and Norwegian National Ballet, and currently with Boston Ballet. She is also an Adjunct Professor at NYU Abu Dhabi teaching “Creative Robotics” that fuses arts and science.
Her advocacy for this interdisciplinary approach has earned her a spot on Forbes 30 under 30, and she was even one of the 12 selected candidates to undergo rigorous astronaut selection on BBC Two "Astronauts: Do you have what it takes?". Her story has been honored in the bestselling book "Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls".
During the pandemic, Dr. Moore programmed and danced with robots and subsequently was invited to perform at Boston Ballet, Forbes Women's Summit, Switzerland, Germany, LA, Bucharest, and Harvard AI Opening (special guests including Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan). This led to collaborations with Louis Vuitton and features in TIME, Financial Times (FT), Vogue, BBC.
Follow Instagram/ Twitter/ Linkedin @MerrittMoore.
RESUME
PROFESSOR/ RESEARCH/ EDUCATION
NYU Abu Dhabi, UAE — Adjunct Professor of Practice and Distinguished Artist in Residence 2022-2023
University of Oxford, UK — Ph.D. Atomic and Laser Physics/ Sept 2012 - Jan 2018
Doctorate research focused on investigating large quantum states of light with telecommunication-band integrated photonics with Professor Ian Walmsley.
Harvard University, USA — B.A. Physics Magna Cum Laude Honors/ Sept 2006 - Dec 2011
Condensed Matter Research: Conducted new experiments to explore the potential for Majorana Fermions to exist in InAs nanowire structures for potential topological quantum information processing with Professor Charles Marcus.
High Energy Particle Physics Research: coauthor of ‘W Boson Charm Quark Cross Section’ paper 2010 with Professor Melissa Franklin and Postdoc Shulamit Moed.
PROFESSIONAL BALLET CAREER
Norwegian National Ballet, Norway — Corps de Ballet/ April 2018 - Oct 2019
Average 10-15 hrs/day of training, performed in 44 shows (Swan Lake, La Bayadere, Symphony in C)
English National Ballet, UK— Corps de Ballet/ Nov 2014 - Jan 2015
Average 10-15 hrs/day of training, performed in 48 shows (Swan Lake, Nutcracker)
Boston Ballet, USA — Corps de Ballet/ Aug 2010 - Jan 2011
Average 10-15 hrs/day of training, performed in 67 shows (La Bayadere, Nutcracker)
Zurich Ballet, Switzerland — Corps de Ballet/ June 2008 - June 2009
Average 10-15 hrs/day of training, performed in 80+ shows (Artifact by William Forsythe, Don Quixote, Peer Gynt, La Sylphide)
Jose Mateo Ballet, USA — Guest Principal/ Nov - Dec 2019, Nov - Dec 2018, Jan - May 2012
Average 10-15 hrs/day of training, performed in 48 shows (Triple Bill, Nutcracker)
Harvard Ballet Company, USA — Dancer/ Sept 2010 - Dec 2010
Co-Directed performance Momentum on Harvard Mainstage with over 60 dancers and tech personnel
ROBOT DANCES________________________________________________________________
Boston Ballet, USA — Turning Pointe September 2022
MACHINE YEARNING: Industrial robots and human dancers create a provocative partnership, with AI-enhanced original music composed in real-time through movement
Harvard A.I Event with Mark Zuckerberg, USA — September 2022
MACHINE YEARNING: Industrial robots and human dancers create a provocative partnership, with AI-enhanced original music composed in real-time through movement
Global AI Summit, Saudi Arabia — Sept 2022, invited by the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
FORBES Summit, UAE — Sept 2022, invited by the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
America’s Got Talent, USA — May 2021, all 4 yes’s from judges. Link
Cloudfest, Germany — March 2021. 4 robot dances. LinkHarvard ArtLab, USA — Artist-in-Residence/ March 2019, Jan 2020 - Feb 2020
Invited to be a research Artist-in-Residence to create a human/robot dance duet with an industrial robotic arm to be choreographed by A.I.
Collaboration with Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard Graduate School of Design, University of Oslo, Universal Robotics, HiroFutures and Alice Williamson.
Victoria and Albert Museum Robot/Dance installation, UK — Dancer, Choreographer/ Sept 2017
Co-choreographed and performed with a KUKA industrial robot with projection graphic technology for London Design Festival and Digital Design Weekend at the V&A in collaboration with BRIA, KUKA Robotics UK, Holition, Adelphi Automation, SCM Handling and Alice Rose.
Barbican Theatre Virtual Reality, UK — Dancer, Science Expert/ April 2017
Helped designed “quantum” experiences in VR film to help make quantum phenomena more intuitive with Darren Johnston
Performed a dance with motion capture for the VR film
Arts & Science Outreach— Guest Speaker/ 2013 - present
Forbes Women’s Summit NY— Guest Speaker/ June 2019
US Embassy ‘Women in STEM’ Event London — Guest Speaker/ March 2019
Princeton Physics Department Public Event — Guest Speaker/ Feb 2019
TEDx University of Oslo— Guest Speaker/ May 2019 (no available YouTube link)
TEDx Oxford, UK— Guest Speaker/ 2013 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9OnFlYYF_o
Guest speaker to over 40 schools to encourage boys and girls in STEM
Created SASters (Science - Art -Sisters) and SciArt Party international community passionate about art and science
AWARDS & HONORS
Forbes 30 under 30/ 2018
Michael von Clemm Fellowship to pursue physics Phd at Oxford/ 2012
Harvard Suzanne Farrell Dance Award — 2012
Featured in “Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls” Vol. 2
BBC series: “Astronauts: Do you have what it takes?” - Astronaut selection process/ April - May 2017
One of the selected 12 out of thousands to undergo rigorous astronaut training based on European Space Agency (ESA) application criteria
Led by Astronaut and former Commander of the International Space Station, Chris Hadfield, former NASA medical researcher Dr Kevin Fong, and psychologist Dr Iya Whiteley
Training included: helicopter pilot training, simulated emergency splashdown & underwater capsule escape, phlebotomy, Mars Rover ‘Bridget’ operation, Soyuz space capsule docking, Basic Russian (spoken)
PUBLISHED PAPERS
M. Stobinska, A. Buraczewski, M. Moore, W. R. Clements, J. J. Renema, S. W. Nam, T. Gerrits, A. Lita, W. S. Kolthammer, A. Eckstein, and I. A. Walmsley, "Quantum interference enables constant-time quantum information processing” Sci. Adv. 5, eaau9674 (2019).
G. Triginer, M. D. Vidrighin, A. Eckstein, M. Moore, W.S. Kolthammer, and I.A. Walmsley, “Experimental Characterisation of a Broadband Multimode Squeezed Light Source in the High Gain Regime,” European Quantum Electronics Conference (2017).
J. Sperling, A. Eckstein, W. R. Clements, M. Moore, J. J. Renema, W. S. Kolthammer, S. W. Nam, A. Lita, T. Gerrits, I. A. Walmsley, G. S. Agarwal, and W. Vogel, "Identification of nonclassical properties of light with multiplexing layouts," Phys. Rev. A 96, 013804 (2017).
J. Sperling, W. Clements, A. Eckstein, M. Moore, J. Renema, W. Kolthammer, S. Nam, A. Lita, T. Gerrits, W. Vogel, G. Agarwal, and I. Walmsley, "Detector-Independent Verification of Quantum Light," Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 163602 (2017).
Barz, Stefanie, Vedran Dunjko, Florian Schlederer, Merritt Moore, Elham Kashefi, and Ian A. Walmsley. "Enhanced delegated computing using coherence." arXiv preprint arXiv:1501.06730 (2015).
Spring, Justin B., Patrick Salter, Paolo Mennea, Benjamin Metcalf, Peter C. Humphreys, Merritt Moore, James C. Gates et al. "Quantum interference of multiple on-chip heralded sources of pure single photons." In Quantum Information and Measurement, pp. QW1B-6. Optical Society of America, 2014.
Peter C. Humphreys, Benjamin J. Metcalf, Justin B. Spring, Merritt Moore, Patrick S. Salter, Martin J. Booth, W. Steven Kolthammer,Ian A. Walmsley, “Strain-optic Active Control for Quantum Integrated Photonics,” Optics Express (2014)
P. C. Humphreys, B. J. Metcalf, J. B. Spring, M. Moore, X.-M. Jin, M. Barbieri, W. S. Kolthammer, and I. A. Walmsley, “Linear Optical Quantum Computing in a Single Spatial Mode,” Physical Review Letters 111, 150501 (2013).
J. B. Spring, P. S. Salter, B. J. Metcalf, P. C. Humphreys, M. Moore, N. Thomas-Peter, M. Barbieri, X.-M. Jin, N. K. Langford, W. S. Kolthammer, M. J. Booth, and I. Walmsley. On-chip low loss heralded source of pure single photons. Opt. Express, 21(11):13522, 2013.
Chang, Willy, Vladimir Manucharyan, Merritt Moore, Ferdinand Kuemmeth, Charles Marcus, Thomas Sand Jespersen, and Jesper Nygard. "Andreev bound states in proximitized InAs nanowires." Bulletin of the American Physical Society 57 (2012).
Melissa Franklin, Shulamit Moed, Merritt Moore “Measurement of the W + single charm production cross section using soft electron tags with 4.3/fb,” Public Note (CDF note 10089) (2010).