The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation has named Luc Deike, an expert in climate-related fluid dynamics, an Experimental Physics Investigator.
Deike, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and the High Meadows Environmental Institute at Princeton University, focuses on fundamental physics problems important to ocean-atmosphere interaction, oxygen and carbon fluxes in the ocean, marine aerosol emissions and atmospheric cloud processes. The awarded work will focus on how and why tiny particles in clouds cause water to freeze into ice, so scientists can better predict whether clouds will warm or cool Earth.
The Experimental Physics Investigators Initiative gives mid-career experimental physicists the freedom to explore new ideas and research questions that traditional funding sources may not support. Deike will receive $1.35 million over five years for his research, which promises to improve climate models.
Deike’s research has been recognized with a National Science Foundation CAREER award, the François Frenkiel Award for Fluid Mechanics and the Milton van Dyke Award from the American Physical Society’s Division of Fluid Dynamics. He was named a finalist for the 2025 Cozzarelli Prize from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and was recognized for his commitment to mentoring by the 2023 Graduate Mentoring Award from the Princeton University Graduate School and the McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning.
He earned his doctoral degree from Université Paris Diderot. From 2013 to 2016, he completed postdoctoral research at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California-San Diego before joining the Princeton faculty in 2017. He is currently acting director of the High Meadows Environmental Institute.
