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 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.”