“Why Not Both? Pursuing two passions: physics and professional ballet career”
Merritt Moore
Ballerina and quantum physicist. She studied at both the University of Oxford and Harvard University
Friday September 30, 2022 | 5pm | Forum Rolex
Dr. Merritt Moore will share her journey pursuing physics at Harvard and Oxford and a professional ballet career. Even though many said it would not be possible to pursue both, she finds that dancing helps unlock her creativity as a scientist and approaching ballet from an analytical perspective helps push herself physically. She shares how her two passions came together and propelled her into her new career: choreographing with robots around the world (which she hopes to one day take to space). She’ll also share the failures and the lessons along the way.
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 and is now dancing and choreographing with robots, which have been featured by TIME, BBC, Financial Times, and Vogue.
5:00 pm
Welcoming words
Jan Hesthaven, Vice President for Academic Affairs, EPFL
5:10 pm
Campus Lecture
Merritt Moore, Ballet dancer and quantum physicist
6:00 pm
Q&A
6:15 pm
Cocktail
An aperitif will be offered to close this campus lecture and the photo exhibition “They, Robots” (at the Rolex Learning Center, until 2 October) in the presence of the artist, Matthieu Gafsou.