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Gurudev Dutt, associate professor in Pitt’s Kenneth P. Dietrich �鶹��ý of Arts and Sciences, is among 11 physics researchers whose innovative projects were selected for funding by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Simons Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation.

Dutt and his colleagues will magnetically levitate diamond crystals to create and measure macroscopic quantum superpositions and explore the interface between quantum physics and gravity. Selected from hundreds of proposals, other projects include hunting for dark matter and building ultraprecise atomic clocks. The ambitious “tabletop” experiments all aim at expanding the frontiers of fundamental physics while still fitting into a typical room-sized university physics research lab.

Each of the projects will receive funding for up to five years, with the four foundations together pledging more than $30 million for all the undertakings.