Dr. merritt moore

“Merritt has achieved what some would call ‘the impossible’: a career as a professional ballet dancer and as an academic quantum physicist.” - University of Oxford

Dr. Merritt Moore is a quantum physicist and professional ballet dancer. She graduated with Magna Cum Laude Honors in Physics from Harvard and graduated with a PhD in Quantum Optics from the University of Oxford. She also pursues a professional ballet career, previously with the Zurich Ballet, Boston Ballet, English National Ballet, and Norwegian National Ballet. She was awarded Forbes 30 under 30, is featured in Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls vol 2, and is now dancing and choreographing with robots, which have been featured by TIME, BBC, Financial Times, and Vogue.

Mariel Pettee (Physics PhD, Yale University, 2021) is a Chamberlain Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Her research encompasses the development of custom machine learning techniques for high-energy particle physics and astrophysics that have broad applicability across other areas of fundamental science and art. Since 2017, she has worked at the intersection of AI & art, including leading independent teams of researchers using machine learning to generate choreography based on 3D motion capture of her own movements. As a choreographer, director, and performer, she uses theater and dance work to research audience activation, duration, power, self-documentation, authenticity, fear, and playfulness. Most recently, she has worked with Yale School of Drama students and companies including Kinetech Arts, LeeSaar, Urban Bush Women, Paul Taylor 2, and the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company. She was a choreographer-in-residence at Harvard University’s Dance Center in 2014. Prior to her PhD, she earned her Bachelors in Physics & Mathematics from Harvard University and her Masters in Physics at the University of Cambridge (Trinity College) as a Harvard-Cambridge Scholar. 

Dr. Ilya Vidrin is a choreographer, dancer, and educator based in Boston, MA. Ilya’s work sits at the intersection of performing art, ethics, and science, and he has a Masters degree from Harvard and a PhD. from Coventry University focusing on Ethics in Physical Interaction.  Born into a refugee family, Ilya grew up navigating the nuances of cultural expectations, language barriers, and diverging political ideologies and uses his creative practice to explore the embodiment of empathy, cultural competence, and social responsibility. He has partnered in the past with Boston Ballet, Jacob’s Pillow, The Royal Swedish Ballet, Berlin Staatsballett, and many others, and brings a thoughtful, positive approach to his studio work.