Centers & Facilities
Interdisciplinary Research Centers
Science is increasingly interdisciplinary, and the School of Physical Sciences has been very active in leading UCI toward a future of highly integrated scientific inquiry, education, and innovation. Several key centers include the following:
AirUCI is dedicated to understanding and solving the urgent challenges related to air pollution, climate change, water quality, and green technology, at the local and global level. The center has 23 UCI faculty member affiliates across the disciplines of chemistry, physics, engineering, and medicine as well as national and international collaborators.
Chemistry at the Space-Time Limit (CASTL) is a National Science Foundation funded center that develops the essential science and technology to probe single chemical events in real space and time.
Center for Complex Biological Systems (CCBS) integrates expertise and perspectives from diverse scientific fields to develop a deeper understanding of systems biology, includes faculty member representation from all four of our departments, and is affiliated with the graduate program: Mathematical, Computational, and Systems Biology.
Center for Cosmology brings together particle physicists and astronomers to explore links between the largest and smallest scales in nature. The Cosmology Center takes advantage of the fact that Physics & Astronomy have a combined department at UCI.
Center for Solar Energy is dedicated to studying the fundamental scientific principles of solar energy conversion.
Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center brings together a multidisciplinary group to discover, teach and heal within the broad discipline of cancer medicine. Members from the Departments of Chemistry and Mathematics play an important role in this center.
Data Science Initiative coordinates and links the activities of researchers and students across campus involved in various aspects of data science.
Institute for Mathematical and Behavioral Sciences (IMBS) is a specialized research center that facilitates interaction among scientists to formulate precisely and test theories of human behavior.
Irvine Materials Research Institute (IMRI) is an umbrella institute for materials research at UCI, and provides major instrumentation and staff support for materials characterization for UCI, other universities, and industry.
Physical Sciences Machine Learning Nexus fosters knowledge and collaboration among PS faculty in the broad area of machine learning and data science.
NSF-Simons Center for Multiscale Cell Fate Research (CMCF) brings together scientists across the physical and biological sciences to take on the formidable multiscale challenges associated with investigating complex cell fate systems using an integrated mathematical and experimental approach.
Southern California Center for Galaxy Evolution, led by UCI Department of Physics & Astronomy, brings together members from five University of California campuses to promote research in how galaxies are formed.
UCI OCEANS (Oceans, Changing Environments, Arts, and Nearshore Societies) is a campus-wide initiative that tackles, through research and education, pressing marine and on-shore environmental concerns and investigates questions at both global and local scales.
Water UCI facilitates seamless collaboration around questions of fundamental and applied water science, technology, management, and policy, and includes participation from faculty and students in the Department of Earth System Science.
Research Facilities
The School of Physical Sciences houses specialized, first-class research facilities that allow our researchers and students to stay at the forefront of scientific discovery and education. The School also has fully staffed glass and machine shops and a chemical stockroom that is accessible at all times. Please contact each facility directly for more information including current capabilities, user rates, and outside user availability.
This joint facility has an 800 MHz NMR spectrometer for biomolecular studies. The 800 MHz NMR spectrometer can detect proton, carbon and nitrogen signals and is equipped with hardware optimized for biomolecular applications.
Location: Natural Sciences 1, Rm 1218
Contact: Rachel Martin, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Chemistry
Email: rachel.martin@uci.edu
Center for Isotope Tracers in Earth Science (CITIES), Department of Earth System Science
The CITIES facility houses a range of sophisticated analytical instrumentation to prepare and analyze gases, organic matter, inorganic samples, and water for stable isotope composition. This includes four stable isotope mass spectrometers (IRMS) – capable of measuring air, water, soil, plant, and rock samples – and a High-Resolution Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer (HR-ICP-MS) that is utilized for measuring elemental and isotopic tracers in natural samples. The Nu AttoM HR-ICP-MS can be utilized for high-precision analysis of nearly every element in the periodic table in both inorganic and organic solution matrices for a wide range of applications.
Location: Croul Hall
Contact: Kathleen Johnson, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Earth System Science
Email: kathleen.johnson@uci.edu
Phone: (949) 824-6174
Greenplanet: Cluster Computing
The Greenplanet Cluster in the School of Physical Sciences in partnership with the Department of Chemistry Modeling Facility is a 362-node (6648-CPU, 20-GPU) research computing cluster based on both Intel and AMD processors. Inter-node networking uses Intel QDRInfiniband tuned for MPI parallel processing. Greenplanet is on the UCI Lightpath, with seven 10-Gb/s links to the Internet. Datastorage resources were recently doubled to 950TB with the addition of a 360TB BeeGFS array. Physical Sciences Computing Support staff and the Modeling Facility Director architect, operate, maintain, and provide user support for several hundred users from physical sciences and related fields.
Location: Engineering Gateway Data Center - Accessed Remotely
Email: hpcops@ps.uci.edu
Phone: (949) 824-2755
Irvine Materials Research Institute (IMRI)
IMRI serves as the cross-campus nexus for materials characterization and fabrication. IMRI operates a range of state-of- the-art, open-access user facilities for the characterization of inorganic, organic, and biological materials and devices ranging from sub-Å to macroscopic length scales. IMRI is home to five transmission electron microscopes (TEMs), including the two highest-performance instruments in the world (Nion UltraSTEM 200 HERMES and JEOL Grand ARM) and a cryo-TEM (JEOL JEM-2100F) as well as comprehensive sample preparation instrumentation. IMRI also offers a wide range of state-of- the-art nanofabrication and characterization techniques, including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), focused ion beam (FIB) milling and deposition, electron beam lithography, thermal and e-beam evaporation, glancing angle deposition, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD), in situ electrical/optical/mechanical nanoprobing, atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray computed tomography, surface metrology, 3D light microscopy, and sample preparation.
Locations: Calit2, Engineering Hall, Engineering Tower
Contact: Jian-Guo Zheng, Ph.D., Staff Director
Email: jzheng@calit2.uci.edu
Phone: (949) 824-0441
Instrumentation Development Facility, Department of Earth System Science
The IDF is equipped to support electronic instrumentation from simple interconnects to complex systems. Services include advice, repair, design & development, and parts services. The IDF is open to all of campus.
Location: 2214 Croul Hall
Contact: Cyril McCormick E.E., Instrumentation Engineer
Email: mccormic@uci.edu
Phone: (949) 824-0045
Laser Spectroscopy, Department of Chemistry
Laser Spectroscopy Facility incorporates three laboratories for linear and nonlinear optical spectroscopy and materials characterization: Linear, Microscopy and Ultrafast Laboratories. Linear Spectroscopy Laboratory incorporates various techniques, as absorption/reflection/scattering spectroscopy, fluorescence, IR spectroscopy, circular dichroism, dynamic and static light scattering. Microscopy lab provides all-optical, Raman and fluorescence microscopy capabilities. Ultrafast laboratory equipped with several high energy pulsed laser systems: nanosecond, picosecond and high power femtosecond beamline. The spectral range of the experiments span from far UV to far infrared range to perform various transient absorption experiments, time-resolved fluorescence, four-wave mixing, THz time-domain spectroscopy to name a few.
Locations:
Rowland Hall 315 – Linear Spectroscopy Laboratory
Rowland Hall 316 – Microscopy Laboratory
Rowland Hall 307 – Ultrafast Laboratory
Contact: Dmitry Fishman, Ph.D., Staff Director
Email: dmitryf@uci.edu
Phone: (949) 824-8016
Machine Shop, School of Physical Sciences
The research machine shop provides quality machined parts and welding services to faculty, students, and staff. The shop works with a range of materials, such as titanium, molybdenum, stainless steel, nickel alloys, tool steel, tungsten, aluminum, composite materials, plastics, and wood. The shop also assists researchers in designing equipment to meet their needs with FeatureCam/Gibbs technology to use CAD programs for fabricating parts. The shop operates a fully stocked tool crib that sells materials and hardware.
Location:B012 Reines Hall
Contact:Mark Steinborn, Manager
Email:msteinbo@uci.edu
Phone: (949) 824-6445
Websites:
Research Shop
Student Shop
Mass Spectrometry, Department of Chemistry
The facility has over ten instruments that can study molecules as light as gases or as massive as proteins and polymers. A very unusual feature is that four of the mass spectrometers are student-operated and are available on a 24/7 basis. The facility also has multiple instruments applicable to biological applications. LC-ESI-MS (TOF and QqQ) and GC-MS are available in Open Access format for small molecule analysis, e.g., for identification and quantification of drugs and endogenous compounds. Protein analysis and identification is offered using nano-LC-MS/MS and MALDI-TOF.
Location: 1002 Reines Hall
Contact: Felix Grun, Ph.D., Staff Director
Email: fgrun@uci.edu
Phone: (949) 824-5682
Molecular Modeling, Department of Chemistry
This facility provides cutting-edge resources for performing computational simulations of chemical systems, spanning quantum-mechanical electronic structure of molecules and materials to molecular dynamics of large biomolecules and membranes. Calculations are primarily performed on the Greenplanet cluster. Current software packages include Turbomole, Spartan, Gaussian, NAMD, CP2K, AMBER, Octopus, NWChem, and AutoDock.
Location: 2102 NS2
Contact: Nathan Crawford, Ph.D., Staff Director
Email: model@uci.edu
Phone: (949) 824-4508
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (NMR), Department of Chemistry
The facility has four high-resolution instruments including a 600 MHz NMR spectrometer, two 500 MHz NMR spectrometers, and one 400 MHz NMR instrument. The instruments are equipped with a range of probeheads to enable access to a wide range of experiments, covering multi-dimensional, multi-nuclear and variable temperature NMR. The facility is available to all researchers at UCI, once they are trained, and operates 24/7 in open-access hands-on mode.
Location: B106 Reines Hall
Contact: Philip Dennison, Ph.D., Staff Director
Email: dennison@uci.edu
Phone: (949) 824-5649
Nuclear Reactor, Department of Chemistry
The reactor is a 250-kilowatt steady-state power Mark I TRIGA built by General Atomics and includes a variety of sample irradiation facilities. Several gamma-ray spectrometer systems are available, with a variety of detectors and modern software systems. A Compton suppression system and a multi-sample automatic changer provide for low background level and long sequenced counting. A delayed neutron counting system allows determination of small quantities of fissionable materials. A cesium-137 source provides gamma irradiation capability for specimens up to 12 inches in size. The facility is both a research and teaching tool, and open for use by students or classes at other universities and colleges.
Contact: Jonathan Wallick, Nuclear Laboratory Engineer
Email: wallickj@uci.edu
Phone: (949) 824-6082
UCI School of Physical Sciences researchers use and help manage the UC Observatories, which include the Lick Observatory, the Keck Observatory, and the Thirty Meter Telescope.
The KCCAMS facility operates a modified 500 kV compact accelerator mass spectrometer (AMS) unit from National Electrostatics Corporation (NEC 0.5MV 1.5SDH-1 spectrometer) dedicated to measuring 14C. The spectrometer is equipped with an in house designed 60-sample MC-SNICS Cs sputter ion source, allowing measurement of ~800 unknown samples per month. Target preparation for AMS dating is available as part of the facility: samples handled routinely include organics (plant material and bone), carbonates, water, and CO2 and CH4 in air. Space for processing test samples (swipes) and low-level 14C-tracer work is maintained in neighboring building within the School of Physical Sciences. Further, the KCCAMS facility is further equipped with two stable isotope mass spectrometers (Thermo-Finnigan Delta+), with dual inlet or continuous flow capability. Peripheral interfaces include an elemental analyzer for elemental and isotope analysis of carbon and nitrogen in solids, a Gasbench II for isotope analysis of CO2, a thermal combustion elemental analyzer for isotope analysis of H2O, and a pre-concentrator coupled to a gas chromatograph for isotope analysis of trace gases, including N2O and CH4.
Contact: John Southon, Ph.D., Researcher
Email: jsouthon@uci.edu
Phone: (949) 824-3674
X-Ray Crystallography, Department of Chemistry
The facility contains two Bruker SMART APEX2 single-crystal diffractometers, each equipped for low-temperature data collection. There are several computer workstations available for structure determination. The Cambridge Structural Database is available in the lab and to the entire campus via a site license.
Location: 577 Rowland Hall
Contact: Joe Ziller, Ph.D., Staff Director
Email: jziller@uci.edu
Phone: (949) 824-4091
For additional research facilities, please check with the School of Biological Sciences facilities, Henry Samueli School of Engineering facilities, and School of Medicine facilities.