Physics Professor Cindy Regal, also of NIST, is one of eight investigators recognized for curiosity-driven research in chemistry or physics who will receive up to $2 million over five years

Cindy Regal, professor of physics at the University of Colorado Boulder, has been named a 2025 Brown Investigator, the Brown Institute for Basic Sciences at Caltech announced today.

Regal, who is also Baur-SPIE Chair at JILA, a joint institute of CU Boulder and NIST, is one of eight scientists to gain this distinction, which carries up to $2 million in support over five years.

Brown Investigator Awards are given to mid-career faculty working on fundamental challenges in the physical sciences, particularly those with potential long-term practical applications in chemistry and physics, the institute stated.

 

Cindy Regal, a CU Boulder professor of physics, has been named a 2025 Brown Investigator.

Regal aims to use the research support to demonstrate quantum entanglement—a connection between particles like photons or atoms that persists despite their physical distance—with objects of larger mass than have been entangled before.

Regal said the Brown Investigator Award is a thrilling opportunity for her research group. “The Brown Institute’s focus on fundamental and risky studies will allow us to explore quantum mechanical phenomena in a regime that is enticing to physicists and for future impact, yet also exceedingly difficult to achieve in the laboratory,” she said, adding: 

“We are keen to try a new concept in precision optical measurement and control that we hypothesize will generate quantum states in ever-larger and more tangible mechanical excitations. These explorations would not be possible to embark on without the unique resources provided to Brown Investigators.”

Regal earned a BA in physics summa cum laude from Lawrence University in Wisconsin in 2001 and a PhD in physics from CU Boulder in 2006. She did postdoctoral research at CU Boulder and at the California Institute of Technology before joining the CU Boulder faculty in 2010.

She won the Cottrell Scholars Frontiers in Research Excellence and Discovery Award in 2020, was named fellow of the American Physical Society in 2017 and won the CO-Labs Colorado Governor’s Award for High-Impact Research in 2016.

The Brown Institute for Basic Sciences at Caltech, established in 2023 through a $400-million gift to the Institute from entrepreneur, philanthropist and alumnus Ross M. Brown (BS '56, MS '57), seeks to advance fundamental science discoveries with the potential to seed breakthroughs that benefit society—a goal it shares with Caltech.

"Mid-career faculty are at a time in their careers when they are poised and prepared to make profound contributions to their fields," Brown said.

"My continuing hope is that the resources provided by the Brown Investigator Awards will allow them to pursue riskier innovative ideas that extend beyond their existing research efforts and align with new or developing passions, especially during this time of funding uncertainty."

Brown established the Investigator Awards in 2020 through the Brown Science Foundation in support of the belief that "scientific discovery is a driving force in the improvement of the human condition," according to its news release from the Science Philanthropy Alliance, which helped guide Brown in realizing his philanthropic vision.

"We're delighted to partner with Ross Brown and the members of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Brown Institute for Basic Sciences to identify and support outstanding investigators in fundamental chemistry and physics," said Caltech Provost David A. Tirrell, Carl and Shirley Larson Provostial Chair and Ross McCollum-William H. Corcoran Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering.

A total of 21 investigators were recognized in the first four years of the program, including eight in the 2024 class, the first cohort to be installed under the auspices of the Brown Institute for Basic Sciences at Caltech.

Brown Investigators from all cohorts are invited to an annual meeting that offers opportunities to share ideas. The second annual meeting was held at Caltech in February 2025.

To determine the new cohort, a select number of research universities from across the country were invited to nominate faculty members who had earned tenure within the last 10 years and who are doing innovative fundamental research in the physical sciences.

Nominees were then evaluated by an independent scientific review board that recommended grant winners. In administering the program, Caltech refrains from nominating its own scientists for Brown Investigator Awards. In return, the Institute draws other funds from the Brown gift to support fundamental research in chemistry and physics.

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