University of Texas at Arlington Professor Named to Prestigious Experimental Physics Investigators Cohort

Ben Jones, associate professor of physics at The University of Texas at Arlington, has been named to the 2025 cohort of Experimental Physics Investigators, a distinguished group of mid-career researchers pushing the boundaries of experimental physics. The award, sponsored by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, provides $1.3 million in funding over five years to each of the 22 members of the new cohort.

Dr. Jones studies neutrino physics, and his group focuses on the nature and size of the neutrino's mass, barium tagging for neutrinoless double beta decay, and searches for phenomena such as oscillations of sterile neutrinos. With the Moore Foundation funding, Jones will apply single-molecule fluorescence imaging techniques his lab developed for barium tagging as part of the NEXT (Neutrino Experiment with a Xenon TPC) project to search for another rare process, neutrinoless double electron capture.

Key Takeaways:

• Dr. Ben Jones, associate professor of physics at The University of Texas at Arlington, has been named to the 2025 cohort of Experimental Physics Investigators, a distinguished group of mid-career researchers.
• The award, sponsored by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, provides $1.3 million in funding over five years to each of the 22 members of the new cohort.
• Dr. Jones studies neutrino physics, and his group focuses on the nature and size of the neutrino's mass, barium tagging for neutrinoless double beta decay, and searches for phenomena such as oscillations of sterile neutrinos.
• The Moore Foundation funding will support the application of single-molecule fluorescence imaging techniques to search for neutrinoless double electron capture.
• Dr. Jones has received over $5 million in federal research grants from the Department of Energy and authored over 450 research papers with 13,000 citations since joining UTA in 2016.
• The Moore Foundation launched the Experimental Physics Investigators initiative in 2022 to support 120 scientists over six cohorts, with more than $77 million awarded to date.

Statistics:

• $1.3 million: funding provided to each member of the 2025 cohort of Experimental Physics Investigators over five years.
• 22: number of members in the new cohort.
• $77 million: total amount awarded to date by the Moore Foundation's Experimental Physics Investigators initiative.
• 2016: year Dr. Jones joined the University of Texas at Arlington.
• 450: number of research papers authored by Dr. Jones since joining UTA in 2016.
• 13,000: number of citations for Dr. Jones' research papers.
• 5 years: duration of funding provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

Sources:

• VerticalNews, "University of Texas at Arlington Professor Named to Prestigious Experimental Physics Investigators Cohort" (2025)
• NewsRx LLC, "University of Texas at Arlington Professor Named to Prestigious Experimental Physics Investigators Cohort" (2025)