Juana Moreno

Juana Moreno is the Patricia Hewlett Bodin Distinguished Professor of Physics at Louisiana State University's Department of Physics & Astronomy, part of the College of Science. She holds a Ph.D. from Rutgers University (1997). Her research focuses on transport and magnetic properties of correlated electron systems, including diluted magnetic semiconductors, heavy fermion compounds, and low-dimensional materials. She utilizes computational methods like dynamical mean-field theory and density matrix renormalization group approaches. Recent work includes nanoscale quantum dots, orbital degrees of freedom in heavy-fermion modeling, and first-principles-based simulations.

Key research themes include Anderson localization, quantum criticality in Hubbard models, and applications of machine learning (e.g., quantum convolutional neural networks). She has published extensively in Phys. Rev. Lett., Phys. Rev. B, and interdisciplinary journals. Her work bridges computational physics with experimental relevance, addressing both fundamental and applied challenges in materials science. Awards include the prestigious Patricia Hewlett Bodin Distinguished Professor title.

Her educational contributions include developing computational thinking curricula for high schools and teacher training programs. Recent projects involve automatic grading systems for computational courses and integrating culturally relevant pedagogy in coding education. Research collaborations span LSU's Hearne Institute for Theoretical Physics and interdisciplinary initiatives like GeauxDock for protein functional annotation.