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 internationally recognized for pioneering discoveries in low-dimensional electron systems, graphene, and moiré quantum materials.

Scientific Contributions

 Andrei's research has advanced our understanding of how electron interactions, dimensionality, and geometry give rise to novel quantum states of matter. Her early work established the existence of a magnetic-field-induced Wigner solid in two-dimensional electron systems, demonstrating that interacting electrons can crystallize under sufficiently strong magnetic fields [1].

Her group discovered the fractional quantum Hall effect in monolayer graphene, providing the first direct evidence of strong electron correlations in this relativistic two-dimensional electron system [2]. The discovery was recognized by Science magazine as one of the Top 10 Scientific Breakthroughs of 2009.

Andrei's pioneering scanning tunneling microscopy studies of twisted bilayer graphene helped lay the experimental foundations of twistronics, a field in which the electronic properties of materials are controlled by the relative orientation of atomically thin layers. Her group discovered twist-dependent van Hove singularities, demonstrated the dramatic reconstruction of the electronic spectrum and suppression of the Fermi velocity near the magic angle [3,4], and subsequently revealed charge order and broken rotational symmetry in magic-angle graphene [5]. These discoveries helped establish moiré materials as a platform for exploring flat bands, strong electron correlations, and emergent quantum phases.

Her group also demonstrated a distinct route to flat-band engineering through strain-induced pseudomagnetic fields exceeding 100 tesla in periodically buckled monolayer graphene [6]. This discovery showed that mechanical deformation alone can profoundly reconstruct electronic bands and produce strongly correlated states, without changing the material's chemical composition or requiring a precisely tuned twist angle.

Together, these discoveries have contributed to a new paradigm in quantum materials research: electronic properties can be engineered not only through chemistry, but also by controlling geometry, dimensionality, and electronic interactions.

Honors and Recognition

• 2026 Kavli Prize in Nanoscience, shared with Pablo Jarillo-Herrero and Allan H. MacDonald, for pioneering work establishing the field of twistronics and moiré quantum materials.

• 2023 inaugural Mildred Dresselhaus Prize in Nanoscience or Nanomaterials, awarded by the American Physical Society for the experimental exploration of exotic properties of low-dimensional electron systems, including the fractional quantum Hall effect in graphene and the electronic structure of twisted graphene bilayers.

• 1991 French CEA Medal of Physics, shared with F. I. B. Williams, G. Deville and C. D. Glattli, for the observation of the magnetically induced Wigner solid in GaAs/GaAlAs heterojunctions.

 

Andrei is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAA&S) and the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and a fellow of  the American Physical Society  (APS). 

 

Professional Leadership

Andrei has served as Chair of the Division of Condensed Matter Physics of the American Physical Society, Chair of the Physics Division 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 also held editorial positions with Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Solid State Communications, and 2D Materials.

 

Selected Publications

1.  Observation of a magnetically induced Wigner solid , EY Andrei, G Deville, DC Glattli, FIB Williams, E Paris, B Etienne Phys. Rev. Lett. 60, 2765  (1988)

2.   Fractional quantum Hall effect and insulating phase of Dirac electrons in graphene, X. Du, I Skachko, F. Duerr, A. Luican, E.Y. Andrei  , Nature 462 (2009)  

3.  Observation of Van Hove singularities in twisted graphene layers,  G. Li, A. Luican, J.M. B.  Santos, A. H. Castro Neto, A. Reina, J. Kong, E.Y. Andrei, Nature Physics 6 (2010) 109  

4.     Single-layer behavior and its breakdown in twisted graphene layers, A. Luican, G. Li, E.Y. Andrei,
 Physical Review Letters 106  (2011) 126802

5.   Charge-order and broken rotational symmetry in magic angle twisted bilayer graphene, Y. Jiang, J. Mao, X. Lai, K. Watanabe, T. Taniguchi, K Haule, E.Y. Andrei, Nature 573 (2019) 91

6.  Evidence of flat bands and correlated states in buckled graphene superlattices,  Jinhai Mao, Slaviša P. Milovanović, Miša Anđelković, Xinyuan Lai, Yang Cao, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Lucian Covaci, Francois M. Peeters, Andre K. Geim, Yuhang Jiang & Eva Y. Andrei, Nature  584,  215 (2020)