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Nobody in Katy Rodriguez Wimberly’s family does anything similar to what she does for a living, so when she heard that she won UCI’s Latino Excellence and Achievement Award, she knew that one of the reasons why was due to how out of the ordinary it was for her to come to UCI to get her PhD.

On April 7, global carbon dioxide emissions plummeted to levels not seen since 2006, according to a study released yesterday that suggests the coronavirus pandemic might have led to the largest reduction in CO2 ever recorded.

When particle physicist Mike Fenton moved to America last September, things didn’t go quite right for him. But Fenton will be the first to tell you that when the universe began some 13.7 billion years ago during the Big Bang, things started out just right.

The international response to the coronavirus pandemic has so far slashed global carbon emissions by more than 8%, according to detailed estimates from a pair of independent research teams. That’s roughly three times the annual emissions of Italy. But energy consumption is already rebounding in China and elsewhere, and the pandemic could register as little more than a blip in the climate system as government-imposed lockdowns come to an end.

Scientists who normally study how human activities impact the planet have been given a rare opportunity over the past few months to observe what happens when industry, transportation and other sources of carbon emissions are curtailed.

Irvine, Calif., May 19, 2020 – A new weapon in the arsenal against the coronavirus may be sitting in your home entertainment console. A team led by physicist Chris Barty of the University of California, Irvine is researching the use of diodes from Blu-ray digital video disc devices as deep-ultraviolet laser photon sources to rapidly disinfect surfaces and the indoor air that swirls around us.

About ten years ago, teaching courses online was still in its infancy, and many people saw the practice as mostly “gimmicky,” explains Professor Philip Collins of the UCI Department of Physics & Astronomy. But that didn’t stop Collins from moving his classes online long before most others followed suit. He has worked to improve online course delivery ever since, and for his ongoing efforts Collins recently received the Excellence in Digital Learning Award from UCI.

Irvine, Calif., May 14, 2020 — A $1.5 million gift from philanthropist Roy Eddleman to the University of California, Irvine School of Physical Sciences will support the creation of a research institute focused on ushering in the future of quantum science.

In January, UCI chemistry doctoral student Brenna Biggs visited a dairy farm in Visalia, California where there are lagoons churning with cow manure. Biggs drove around the farm in a white Sprinter van owned by the University of California, Riverside, and the van had nothing in its trunk but empty space and lab equipment. Biggs used two-liter stainless steel canisters to capture samples of the air that hovered around the farm, and she stored the samples in the back of the van, which she calls a…

Professor Albert Siryaporn couldn’t have known it, but research he and a team of scientists published last year in December would, just a few months later, position him and his lab to combat the raging coronavirus pandemic.

Every summer since 2009, the NASA Student Airborne Research Program (SARP) has brought about 30 undergraduate STEM students from across the United States to California for an internship experience with NASA Earth Science research that includes flights on a research aircraft. This year with COVID-19 travel and social distancing restrictions in place, SARP might be grounded but the internship continues with new at-home data collection as well as the analysis of previously collected aircraft,…

Inspiration is a wind that can kindle a fire. That wind stirred on October 29, 2019 in the Pacific Ballroom at the UCI Student Center as Professor Jonathan Feng gave a talk as part of the School of Physical Sciences’ Breakfast Lecture Series.