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The School of Physical Sciences is committed to sharing information about its administration, academics, outreach and research. From writing stories and media training, to coordinating press interviews and posting social media news, we cover the physical sciences around the clock, year-round.

	UC San Diego Scientists Lead the Way with NSF CAREER Awards Chemistry professor Fleur Ferguson has received a prestigious NSF CAREER award, which recognizes promising early career researchers. Her work on targeted protein degradation will help us learn more about the treatment and prevention of degenerative diseases.
	STEM Girl Summer Even today, women remain underrepresented in STEM careers, especially in male-dominated fields like physics, engineering and mathematics. Physics graduate student Robin Glefke hopes to change that with STEM Girl Summer.
	How a Picky Enzyme Helps Fight Infection Phospholipid enzymes play a crucial role in our body's inflammatory immune response. For the first time, researchers from chemistry professor Ed Dennis's lab have reported on the selectivity of these enzymes in macrophage cells, revealing new insights that may help treat disease.
	Dean's Undergraduate Excellence Awards (2024) The Dean's Undergraduate Excellence Awards recognize students in the School of Physical Sciences who have demonstrated academic excellence and promise as researchers. This year we recognize 30 outstanding students.
	How Comb Jellies Have Adapted to Life at the Bottom of the Ocean Chemistry Professor Itay Budin teamed up with researchers from around the country to study the cell membranes of comb jellies and found they had unique lipid structures that allow them to live under intense pressure.
	Tracking a Low-Mass Star as it Speeds Across the Milky Way Professor of Astronomy Adam Burgasser's lab helped identify a rare hypervelocity L subdwarf in the Milky Way. But why is it in such a hurry and where is it going?
	Brewing Coffee and Understanding Turbulence The key to a perfect cuppa? Directed percolation! Physics Professor Nigel Goldenfeld used this concept to solve a 150 year old physics problem of how turbulent fluids move through a pipe.
	Two Scientists Elected to Royal Society Congratulations to Professor of Physics Nigel Goldenfeld and Professor of Chemistry Mark Thiemens on being elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society, the United Kingdom’s national academy of sciences.
	A Change of Direction Assistant Professor of Physics Mattia Serra has developed a new method that can manipulate the movement of embryonic cells using short-time attractors — a concept Serra had previously developed and adopted to help search and rescue operations at sea.
	Meet Ph.D. Student Etienne Palos Etienne Palos is a graduate student in Francesco Paesani's lab. He's studying physical chemistry and heading to Europe as a Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings Fellow.
	A New Gene-Editing System Tackles Complex Diseases Alexis Komor's lab has developed new, efficient genome editing tools called multiplexed orthogonal base editors (MOBEs) that can help model complex polygenic diseases.
	Helping Transfer Students Thrive in Science T-REx is a four-week summer program designed to help incoming transfer students gain valuable research experience, meet peers and faculty, and build confidence before the school year starts.
	Hot and Cold: an Exo-Earth and Its Ultracool Star A team of scientists, including Astronomy Professor Adam Burgasser's lab, have discovered a hot exo-planet orbiting an ultracool star named SPECULOOS3-b. Sounds delicious but you wouldn't want to live there.
	Staff Spotlight: Sherry Seethaler Sherry Seethaler's latest book provides guidance on how to effectively communicate technical and scientific work to broader communities.
	Ken Intriligator Joins Prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences Ken Intriligator joins the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His groundbreaking work is revealing new ways to describe the entire universe within a single theory of elementary particles and fields.
	Five UC San Diego Scientists Elected AAAS Fellows School of Physical Sciences faculty members Peter Ebenfelt, Natalia Komarova and Wei Xiong were named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science this year.
	What Is a Solar Eclipse? Eclipses are awe-inspiring to scientists and non-scientists alike. Quinn Konopacky gives a quick overview of what a solar eclipse is, why it's important and how to view it safely.
	Kimberly Prather in 99 Seconds Kim studies how aerosols, including pollutants and pathogens, impact the global climate and human health, even miles away from the ocean. Watch a quick video about her work.
	Student Spotlight: Bretton Simpson Bretton Simpson is a senior physics major specializing in astrophysics. He's been fascinated by astronomy his entire life. Learn more about his studies, his hopes for the future and why he thinks the cosmos is too beautiful to give up on.
	Say Hello to Biodegradable Microplastics An alternative to petroleum-based plastics whose microparticles biodegrade in less than a year can help make the environment cleaner and healthier for animals and humans. Michael Burkart and Skip Pomeroy have found a way.
	How Superconductors are Helping Computers “Remember” To advance neuromorphic computing, physicists look to advance not just software, but hardware too. Research from Robert Dynes and Q-MEEN-C shows a promising new way to store and transmit information using superconducting loops.
	The Spontaneous Nature of Turbulence Physics Professor Nigel Goldenfeld shows that even molecular motions can create large-scale patterns of turbulence over a finite period of time.
	Ready for the Real World? With nonprofit organization Treasure Hacks, mathematics-computer science major Brandon Joe aims to help students develop soft skills through games.
	Explaining Galaxy NGC3351 UC San Diego Associate Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics Karin Sandstorm explains the details of the latest image of galaxy NGC3351 from the James Webb Space Telescope.
	The Most Comprehensive List of Slow-Building Solar Flares Yet In a new paper in Solar Physics, a team, led by UC San Diego astrophysics graduate student Aravind Bharathi Valluvan, has catalogued the most slow-building solar flares to date, showing potential for further investigation.
	Shining a Light on the Hidden Properties of Quantum Materials Researchers from Richard Averitt's group (Physics) have used an advanced optical technique to uncover the hidden properties of a quantum material called Ta2NiSe5 (TNS).
	Kim Prather Receives Prestigious National Academy of Sciences Award The award recognizes her research for “revolutionizing our understanding of atmospheric aerosols and their impact on air quality, climate, and human health.”
	Student Spotlight: Karla Rojas Garcia Karla Rojas Garcia, a PhD student in atmospheric chemistry in Vicki Grassian's lab, fights for environmental justice and advocates for science-guided policies to improve polluted communities.
	Highlights from 2023 We're looking back at last year's research breakthroughs, transformative gifts and big news from the School of Physical Sciences.
	Space Oddity: Uncovering the Origin of the Universe’s Rare Radio Circles A team led by Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics Alison Coil believes they may have found the origin of the universe's giant odd radio circles.
	Spiking Nano-oscillators Provide New Insight into Quantum Materials and Advanced Computing Research from Professor of Physics Ivan Schuller's lab shows that when nano-oscillators made from the quantum material vanadium dioxide spike, they exhibit a unique kind of synchronicity.
	A Mathematical Model Connects the Evolution of Chickens, Fish and Frogs New research from Mattia Serra's group suggests that the same physical principles behind multicellular self-organization may have evolved across vertebrate species.
	Can Signs of Life be Detected from Saturn’s Frigid Moon? Robert Continetti's team has shown unambiguous laboratory evidence that amino acids transported in the ice plumes of Saturn's moon, Eceladus, can survive impact speeds of up to 4.2 km/s, supporting their detection during sampling by spacecraft.
	On the Atomic Highway, Researchers Help Atoms Stay in Their Lane As technology rapidly evolves, the need for faster, more precise sensors is critical. One possibility lies with quantum science and technology. New research from Julio Barreiro's lab lays the groundwork by successfully trapping strontium atoms around a tapered optical fiber.
	New Faculty Reshape the Meaning of Inclusive Research, Teaching and Service Assistant Professor of Chemistry John Sous is a part of the university's "Bridging Black Studies and STEM" and plans to develop a course on effective science communication.
	UC San Diego Welcomes Nobel Laureate Donna Strickland Nobel laureate Donna Strickland visited UC San Diego to discuss her career in optical physics and her work creating chirped pulse amplification, for which she received the prize in 2018.
	Beyond UFOs: the Future of Unexplained Anomalous Phenomena Astrophysicist Shelley Wright recently served on NASA's panel on unexplained anomalous phenomena (UAPs) and takes a moment to reflect on her career, the panel and the ongoing search for extraterrestrial life.
	The Math Problem That Took Nearly a Century to Solve Little progress had been made in solving Ramsey problems since the 1930s. Now, UC San Diego researchers Jacques Verstraete and Sam Mattheus have found the answer to r(4,t), a longstanding Ramsey problem that has perplexed the math world for decades.
	Javier Duarte Receives 2024 Henry Primakoff Award Assistant Professor of Physics Javier Duarte has received the 2024 Henry Primakoff Award for Early-Career Particle Physics for his work involving AI and machine learning, as well as his contributions to advances in Higgs physics studies at CERN.
	$30 Million in Funding Helps Scientists Study Universe’s Oldest Light The Simons Foundation has provided $28.8 million and the Heising-Simons Foundation has provided $1.5 million to the UC San Diego to complete the last phase of construction on the Simons Observatory in Chile.
	2023 Revelle Medal Recipients Announced Professor Emeritus of Physics Lu Sham received the 2023 Revelle Medal, recognized for his distinguished and extraordinary service to UC San Diego. Sham is a world-renowned theoretical physicist whose Kohn-Sham equation laid the foundation for density functional theory.
	UC San Diego Launches STEM Education Research Program VERSA is a new, NSF-funded program that gives undergraduates access to research experience while also asking them to think critically about how science is taught and to whom.
	Learning About the Solar Eclipse Astrophysicist Adam Burgasser teaches elementary students about the solar eclipse and how to build their own eclipse viewer. Segment by CBS8.
	Student Spotlight: Deena Pederson Senior Deena Pederson likes a challenge. As a member of the women’s softball team and a math-computer science major, she is always looking for new ways to push herself.
	Alison Coil Appointed Chair of the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics The School of Physical Sciences is pleased to announce the appointment of observational astrophysicist Alison Coil as the inaugual chair of UC San Diego’s new Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics.
	Biochemistry Student Matthew Uzelac Awarded Goldwater Scholarship The Barry Goldwater Scholarship provides one year of funding for students in the natural sciences, engineering and mathematics.

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