Dear Friends,

Established in 1979 with an originating grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), KITP is a facility for the theoretical physics community. Our major activities are programs and conferences, which convene more than 1,400 visitors at KITP for both prolonged stays (usually three weeks or longer) and four-day conferences. The institute also benefits from international participation, as over 40% of visitors come from outside the United States. KITP’s mission is to be “the place” where new research is initiated, collaborations are formed and new connections are made across disciplines. High demand keeps our facilities full 50 weeks out of the year!

Program development is accomplished with our Advisory Board and dictated by the excellence of the science, the potential for successful advances, and the timing and potential for synergy with KITP’s activities. We place a particular focus on those programs that bring together communities which may not often interact, thereby promoting the interchange of ideas across disciplinary boundaries. Brief scientific summaries of our programs from 2024-2025 are featured in this report. We also include a story of KITP Online, our vast resource of archived KITP talks that we make available
to the world!

In addition to the intellectual infrastructure we have developed, KITP has also built and maintained the physical infrastructure that enables and enhances our work. Kohn Hall is an architectural gem of the UC Santa Barbara campus that was designed by Michael Graves. The construction started 30 years ago and was led by then-Director Jim Langer, then later expanded under the leadership of Director David Gross. 

Since January 2017, our visitors have stayed at the Charles T. Munger Physics Residence. This purpose-built facility, funded by Charlie Munger, provides housing as well as casual interaction spaces that allow our visiting physicists and their families to continue their science and social engagements across all hours. This facility has been transformative by ensuring housing commitments in advance of a visitor’s arrival, and relieving them and our staff of the need to search for housing in the challenging Santa Barbara market.

KITP also takes special care in identifying and mentoring early-career scientists who are with us for long periods: the Graduate Fellows and Postdoctoral Scholars. The time they spend at KITP impacts the institutions they join, collaborations they initiate, students they mentor, and industries they influence. The breadth and depth of exposure to all areas of physics and the global scientific community—via the interactions with visitors and KITP faculty—combined with the freedom and stimulating atmosphere at the institute encourages risk taking and the formation of new ideas while affording a truly unique experience. We have initiated a new project over the last year: KITP House, a donor-funded 50,000 square foot facility that will provide these emerging scientists with their own dedicated, high-quality housing. We expect to open in Summer 2028 and are eternally grateful to the consortium of donors making this possible.

Our outreach efforts are led by Deputy Director Mark Bowick in collaboration with Development Coordinator Demi Cain and Senior Director of Development Kristi Newton. We engage and inform the local Santa Barbara community while also providing opportunities for our early-career scientists to try their hand speaking at their first public-facing event. We strive to do as many of these events as possible and benefit from the excellent attendance of all of you in the community. 

We have been able to stay true to our core mission due to continuous support from the NSF and UC Santa Barbara, as well as the substantially growing support from non-profit science foundations and private philanthropists. This Annual Report also highlights the priority endowments we are building, which would generate perpetual support for the
salaries, benefits, and professional development of KITP Graduate Fellows and Postdoctoral Scholars.

I hope you enjoy learning more about the nature and impact of the work we do here at KITP.

Thanks to all of you for your support and engagement!

Lars Bildsten
Director of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics
Gluck Professor of Theoretical Physics at UC Santa Barbara

Read KITP's Annual Report 2025