Physics & Astronomy

Oct 7, 2020
It was September, and the leaves outside physicist and Physical Sciences alumnus Thomas Baker’s window in Sherbrooke, Canada, were just starting to turn orange. It was a change for Baker, who, as a…
Sep 30, 2020
The UCI researchers who probe the Earth and sky for answers to momentous questions about the environment, the oceans and the atmosphere have gotten smart about unlocking solutions. The key: They turn…
Sep 23, 2020
If you were given a chance to study the cosmos with NASA’s much-anticipated James Webb Space Telescope, what would be your target? University of California, Irvine astronomer Vivian U knows what she…
Sep 15, 2020
When Chris Barty focuses his mind on something, it is with laser precision. The UC Irvine Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy learned from an early age he was drawn to lasers after…
Sep 11, 2020
The widespread adoption of electrified transportation is seen as an important step in slowing climate change, but that depends on our ability to produce enough batteries for this and other…
Aug 26, 2020
The detection more than a decade ago by the Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope of an excess of high-energy radiation in the center of the Milky Way convinced some physicists that they were seeing…
Aug 10, 2020
Irvine, Calif., Aug. 10, 2020 — An international group of more than 260 scientists, including physicists at the University of California, Irvine, has produced one of the most stringent tests for…
Aug 10, 2020
From measuring atmospheric circulation, to using living cells to create artificial materials, our new faculty cover a broad spectrum.
Aug 7, 2020
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is renowned for the hunt for and discovery of the Higgs boson, but in the 10 years since the machine collided protons at an energy higher than previously achieved…
Jul 31, 2020
The awards honor efforts in research, teaching, and in making the world a better place to live.
Jul 15, 2020
There’s a secret at the UC Irvine School of Physical Sciences. The secret is at the Infinity Fountain, which sits outside Rowland and Reines Halls and in front of Aldrich Park, and which is where…
Jul 1, 2020
The two W.M. Keck Observatory telescopes sit inside domes perched atop Hawaii’s dormant Mauna Kea volcano. Run by the University of California and Caltech, these telescopes help astronomers and other scientists discover things like planets orbiting other stars, or measure the acceleration of the expansion of the universe. Gary Chanan, Professor Emeritus in the UCI Department of Physics & Astronomy, has won the Yale 2020 Award for Advancement of Basic and Applied Science for the…