Eva Y. Andrei
Eva Y. Andrei is a Distinguished Professor and Board of Governors Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Rutgers University and a Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation EPiQS Investigator. She is an experimental condensed matter physicist known for discoveries in low-dimensional electron systems, from the Wigner solid to graphene and moiré quantum materials.
Scientific Contributions
Andrei's research examines how electron interactions and geometry give rise to new quantum states of matter. Her early work established the existence of a magnetic-field-induced Wigner solid in two-dimensional electron systems, showing that interacting electrons crystallize in a sufficiently strong magnetic field [1].
Her group discovered the fractional quantum Hall effect in graphene [2]. Science named the discovery a runner-up for its 2009 Breakthrough of the Year (Science 326, 1600 (2009)).
Her scanning tunneling microscopy studies of twisted bilayer graphene helped lay the experimental foundations of twistronics, in which the electronic properties of stacked atomically thin layers are controlled by the twist angle between them. Her group discovered twist-dependent van Hove singularities and showed how the electronic spectrum is reconstructed and the Fermi velocity suppressed near the magic angle [3,4]. The group later found charge order and broken rotational symmetry in magic-angle graphene [5]. This work helped establish moiré materials as a platform for studying flat bands and strong electron correlations.
Her group also demonstrated a separate route to flat bands. In periodically buckled monolayer graphene, strain produces pseudomagnetic fields exceeding 100 tesla, which reconstruct the electronic bands and give rise to correlated states [6]. The result showed that mechanical deformation alone can engineer flat bands, without changing the chemical composition or tuning a twist angle.
Taken together, this work showed that the electronic properties of materials can be engineered through geometry as well as chemistry.
Honors and Recognition
- 2026 Kavli Prize in Nanoscience, shared with Pablo Jarillo-Herrero and Allan H. MacDonald, "for foundational work that established the field of Twistronics."
- 2023 Mildred Dresselhaus Prize in Nanoscience and Nanomaterials (inaugural award), American Physical Society, "for the experimental exploration of the exotic properties of low-dimensional electron systems," including the discovery of the fractional quantum Hall effect in graphene and studies of the electronic structure of twisted graphene bilayers.
- 1991 CEA Medal of Physics (France), shared with F. I. B. Williams, G. Deville and D. C. Glattli, for the observation of the magnetically induced Wigner solid in GaAs/GaAlAs heterojunctions.
Andrei is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the American Physical Society.
Professional Leadership
Andrei has served as Chair of the Division of Condensed Matter Physics of the American Physical Society, Chair of the Section on Physics of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Chair of the Condensed Matter and Materials Research Committee of the National Research Council. She has held editorial positions with Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Solid State Communications and 2D Materials.
Selected Publications
- E. Y. Andrei, G. Deville, D. C. Glattli, F. I. B. Williams, E. Paris and B. Etienne, "Observation of a magnetically induced Wigner solid," Phys. Rev. Lett. 60, 2765 (1988).
- X. Du, I. Skachko, F. Duerr, A. Luican and E. Y. Andrei, "Fractional quantum Hall effect and insulating phase of Dirac electrons in graphene," Nature 462, 192 (2009).
- G. Li, A. Luican, J. M. B. Lopes dos Santos, A. H. Castro Neto, A. Reina, J. Kong and E. Y. Andrei, "Observation of Van Hove singularities in twisted graphene layers," Nature Physics 6, 109 (2010).
- A. Luican, G. Li, A. Reina, J. Kong, R. R. Nair, K. S. Novoselov, A. K. Geim and E. Y. Andrei, "Single-layer behavior and its breakdown in twisted graphene layers," Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 126802 (2011).
- Y. Jiang, J. Mao, X. Lai, K. Watanabe, T. Taniguchi, K. Haule and E. Y. Andrei, "Charge order and broken rotational symmetry in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene," Nature 573, 91 (2019).
- J. Mao, S. P. Milovanović, M. Anđelković, X. Lai, Y. Cao, K. Watanabe, T. Taniguchi, L. Covaci, F. M. Peeters, A. K. Geim, Y. Jiang and E. Y. Andrei, "Evidence of flat bands and correlated states in buckled graphene superlattices," Nature 584, 215 (2020).
Contact
Office: Serin W114
Lab: Nano-Physics Laboratory (NPL), Rooms 2–5 and 7
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Rutgers University
136 Frelinghuysen Road
Piscataway, NJ 08854-8019, USA
Phone: (848) 445-8748
Email: eandrei-at-physics.rutgers.edu