Luc Deike

Luc Deike wins Experimental Physics Investigators Initiative award from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

By High Meadows Environmental Institute on Oct. 12, 2026, 4:11 p.m.

Luc Deike

Photo by
Sameer A. Khan/Fotobuddy

Luc Deike, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and the High Meadows Environmental Institute, has won an Experimental Physics Investigators Initiative award from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

The award supports tenured, mid-career faculty doing experimental work in physics. Deike is one of 21 U.S. researchers in this year's cohort.

Deike’s research focuses on fundamental fluid dynamics, including surface waves, drops and bubbles in turbulence, motivated by their importance in ocean-atmosphere interaction, oxygen and carbon fluxes in the ocean, marine aerosol emissions and atmospheric cloud processes. 

The Moore Foundation award will support his work using a new facility housed in his lab to study cloud microphysics at cold temperature.

“Clouds and airborne particles remain one of the largest sources of uncertainty in atmospheric science because they can either cool or warm the planet depending on where they are and how they form,” the foundation said in its award announcement. “Deike’s work could provide a stronger experimental basis for understanding how ice forms in clouds and for testing competing ideas about cloud behavior. … More broadly, the project could help clarify how clouds respond to changing atmospheric conditions.”

Deike joined the Princeton faculty in 2017 from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California-San Diego, where he was a postdoctoral researcher from 2013 to 2016. He is currently serving as acting director of the High Meadows Environmental Institute. 

He received his Ph.D. from Paris Diderot University in 2013 and his M.Sc. and B.Sc. from the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. Among other honors, he is the recipient of a 2019 National Science Foundation CAREER award. 

Deike was one of four professors honored in 2023 with a Graduate Mentoring Award from the Princeton Graduate School and the McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning, recognizing Princeton faculty “who nurture the intellectual, professional and personal growth of their graduate students.” 

Related Stories

Board approves seven faculty appointments .

So much depends on the velocity of tiny droplets cast upward .

Research published by Princeton's Luc Deike and colleagues  describes the "jet velocity" of droplets, or aerosols, as they occur in liquids such as seawater and sparkling wine.

Earth's oceans have absorbed 60 percent more heat per year than previously thought .

Strong ocean warming suggests that Earth is more sensitive to fossil-fuel emissions than previously thought.

Chemist Marissa Weichman wins Packard Fellowship to study one of the least-understood aspects of climate change .

The prestigious early-career fellowship is designed to encourage blue-sky thinking and to foster discoveries that improve lives and broaden our understanding of the universe.

Fifteen scholars named Presidential Postdoctoral Research Fellows .

The program, now in its fifth year, recognizes and supports outstanding scholars primed to make important contributions in their fields. The 2024 cohort includes disciplines spanning the humanities, engineering, the sciences and the social sciences.

The Pacific Ocean’s oxygen-starved 'OMZ' is growing, Princeton research finds .

Until recently, climate models have been unable to say whether OMZs will grow or shrink from climate change. Now, a team led by Princeton’s Laure Resplandy has confidently predicted that the boundaries of the Pacific OMZ, will expand by as up to 2 million additional cubic miles by the end of the century.

Faculty members honored for excellence in mentoring graduate students  .

This year's award winners are Elizabeth Davis, Luc Deike, Kinohi Nishikawa and Lindy McBride.