News

Physics, Computation Experts Help Earn $15M to Advance AI, Data Analysis
Assistant Physics Professor Javier Duarte will help lead the new Accelerated AI Algorithms for Data-Driven Discovery (A3D3) Institute, a $15 million NSF-funded effort with a mission to leverage AI algorithms for analyses of large scientific data sets.

Students, faculty and staff assemble Do-It-Yourself Air Filtration Boxes that Fight COVID-19 Spread
Continuing to ramp up Return to Learn strategies to make UC San Diego as safe as possible, campus scientists and student volunteers assembled low-cost, easy-to-produce boxed air filters that can be deployed in school settings to filter air to minimize aerosol transmission of COVID-19.

Michael Alves Awarded NSF Fellowship to Broaden Diversity in Chemistry
First-generation PhD student Michael Alves is working to expand mentoring and paid school-year research for underrepresented minority students. “The (NSF) MPS-Ascend fellowship seems to be one of the first steps made to bring EDI work beyond PhD programs on a large scale.”

Physicists Simulate Artificial Brain Networks with New Quantum Materials
As bandwidth demands on today’s computers reach their limit, scientists are developing systems with new materials that can match the speed and precision of animal nervous systems. UC San Diego physicists have now simulated the foundation of new types of computing devices that mimic brain functions.

Researchers trained mice to control seemingly random bursts of dopamine in their brains, challenging theories of reward and learning
Biophysicist David Kleinfeld authors a Research Brief in The Conversation that describes recent work in his laboratory on dopamine, the “feel good” neurological messenger related to reward and pleasure. Kleinfeld and his colleagues recently published research in which they we were able to train mice to voluntarily increase the size and frequency of seemingly random dopamine impulses in their brains. The findings challenge theories of reward and learning behaviors.

It’s Not Just SARS-COV-2: Most Respiratory Viruses Spread by Aerosols
Publishing in Science, Kim Prather and international colleagues analyzed superspreading events during the COVID pandemic and found that airborne transmission is the most likely transmission route, as well as the means of spread for many other respiratory viruses, rather than surface contacts or contact with large droplets.

Here’s how cool a star can be and still achieve lasting success
Science News features astrophysicists Dino Hsu and Adam Burgasser in an article about their new research on the boundary between red and brown dwarfs. New research by Hsu, Burgasser and their colleagues describes the dividing line between the two types by exploiting how they move through space.

Researchers Discover Hidden SARS-CoV-2 ‘Gate’ That Opens to Allow COVID Infection
New visualizations of SARS-CoV-2 have allowed researchers to discover how the virus enters and infects healthy human cells. They found that glycan sugar molecules act as infection “gates” to our cell’s receptors.

Keck Foundation Supports Innovative Strategy for Chemical Synthesis
Theoretical chemist Joel Yuen-Zhou and his colleagues have been awarded a $1 million grant from the Keck Foundation to support a potentially transformational idea that could rewrite the way pharmaceuticals are developed. The new “PASER” technology could unleash waves of innovation as a radical departure from the way that chemicals are currently synthesized.

Air filtration is essential to keeping indoor spaces safe from delta variant
Atmospheric chemist Kim Prather is interviewed by KCBS Radio on the steps necessary to protect incoming students from airborne virus transmission. She discusses the multiple layers of protection needed, not just masks. "It’s so important to be cleaning the air," she said. "I am concerned that people are not hearing that message as much."

How the coronavirus infects cells — and why Delta is so dangerous
Computational biophysical chemist Rommie Amaro comments in a Nature news feature on science’s efforts to decode the structure and function of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Last year Amaro’s lab helped created the most detailed visualization yet of the virus’ outer coating based on structural and genetic data and rendered atom-by-atom by a supercomputer.

Spring Valley Group Stages Clean-Up In Tijuana River Valley
Chemistry and Biochemistry PhD student Adam Cooper is contributing to efforts to clean up the Tijuana River Valley. In an interview with KPBS, he discusses lab tests he has conducted on water samples from the valley and his concerns about the chronic, toxic exposure to the surrounding community.

‘Feel Good’ Brain Messenger Can Be Willfully Controlled, New Study Reveals
UC San Diego researchers and their colleagues have discovered that spontaneous impulses of dopamine, the neurological messenger known as the brain’s “feel good” chemical, occur in the brain of mice. The study found that mice can willfully manipulate these random dopamine pulses for reward.

Brian Leigh Recognized with Three University Honors
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Assistant Teaching Professor Brian Leigh has been honored with three awards from UC San Diego. The awards highlight Leigh’s contributions as an outstanding teacher, faculty member and community member.

Mayer Hall Recognized for Historical Contributions to Physics
The American Physical Society has designated UC San Diego’s Mayer Hall as a historic site in recognition of the groundbreaking accomplishments of UC San Diego physicists Walter Kohn and Lu Sham. Their development of the “Kohn-Sham equation” inside Mayer Hall became the foundation for the computation of material properties of electrons and nuclei.

Seven Physical Sciences Faculty Receive 2021 NSF CAREER Awards
Seven faculty members of UC San Diego’s Division of Physical Sciences have been named to the 2021 class of recipients in the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program. NSF CAREER Awards support early career development activities for those who most effectively integrate research and education.

Grad Student with Environmental Justice Goals Awarded NSF Research Award
Chemistry graduate student Ke’La Kimble has been awarded a prestigious fellowship from the NSF to support research on the detection of airborne viruses. Following her PhD, her plans include establishing a new science and education center back home in her native Louisiana as a step in the march toward environmental justice.

Diamonds Are a Physicist’s Best Friend
Physics condensed matter experimentalist Chunhui Rita Du leverages the imperfections in diamonds to investigate materials needed for a new era of computing and storage. New quantum materials are exotic substances that are allowing scientists to create novel technologies at previously unseen scales.

Chemistry Faculty Offer Returning Students Hands-on Lab Experience
Following the restrictive shutdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Chemistry and Biochemistry faculty took steps to get students safely back into the laboratory learning environment. They offered an optional in-person chem bootcamp in spring quarter for students to gain hands-on laboratory experience.

Celebrating the Class of 2021
New Physics PhD recipient Sean Bearden has completed a journey in education that started in a correctional facility and culminated in the awarding of the UC President’s Dissertation Year Fellowship for his research. “I was a nontraditional student who made it into one of the top doctoral programs in the country; I could not let the opportunity slip away. I knew a doctorate would change my life.”

Mathematicians Find Long-Sought Building Blocks for Special Polynomials
Math Professor Emeritus Benedict Gross comments in a new Quanta Magazine article on a solution for one of mathematician David Hilbert’s “unsolved problems.”

“It’s something we’ve been looking for a long time, and they’ve really made a big breakthrough. It’s completely different than what Hilbert had in mind. But that’s the way math is. You can never say how a problem is going to be solved.”

Interim Director Named for San Diego Supercomputer Center
Department of Physics Professor Frank Würthwein, an expert on experimental particle physics and a founding faculty member of the Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute, has been named interim director of the San Diego Supercomputer Center.

A Textbook Case for Heeding Planetary Limits
Astrophysicist Tom Murphy has published a textbook, “Energy and Human Ambitions on a Finite Planet,” which takes a rigorous look at Planet Earth and the demands on its resources that will guide its future inhabitability.

Physical Sciences at 60
Triton magazine interviewed Katja Lindenberg, Brian Maple and Michael Sharpe, three of the division’s first professors, to reflect on the early days of the division and learn what is in store for the next 60 years.