Latest News

  • Fatih Dinc
    New Mathematical Frameworks Reveal How Stable Thoughts Emerge from Chaotic Brain Activity

    “The mind is what the brain does,” as the pioneering artificial intelligence researcher Marvin Minsky once said. So, it’d be fantastic to understand at what level of anatomy, or complexity, the brain actually carries out its processing and computation. Read more

    by Harrison Tasoff, Science Writer, UCSB Public Affairs & Communications
    KITP Newsletter, Spring 2026

  • A dark, purple-toned space scene shows two bright white spheres spiraling around each other at the center, surrounded by several broad, glowing rings of swirling material. The rings curve across the image in layered elliptical bands, fading from violet and lavender highlights into deep black shadows. A speckled field of particles fills the background.
    High-Precision Gravitational Waves

    It is remarkable that over the past 20 years, we have seen two significant scientific discoveries: the Higgs boson and gravitational waves, both of which were made possible by monumental efforts by experimentalists and the support of forward-thinking government funding agencies. Read more

    by Ira Rothstein, Carnegie Mellon University
    KITP Newsletter, Spring 2026

  • Sunlit circular Tower Room meeting room in Kohn Hall with a blue skylight, round windows, a sofa, and striped wooden armchairs overlooking palm trees and the ocean.
    Report from Goleta

    An account of three days haunting the halls of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics. Read more

    by Claire L. Evans, Wild Information on Substack
    KITP Newsletter, Spring 2026

  • Lily Collins and David J. Gross, 2026 Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics winner speak onstage during the 12th Breakthrough Prize Ceremony at Barker Hangar on April 18, 2026 in Santa Monica, California.
    KITP’s David Gross wins Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics

    The Breakthrough Prize Foundation announced David J. Gross, KITP Permanent Member and Chancellor’s Chair Professor in Theoretical Physics at UCSB, as the winner of the 2026 Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. Read more

    Shelly Leachman, Editorial Director, UCSB Public Affairs & Communication
    KITP Newsletter, Spring 2026

  • Newsletter banner showing an excavator at a construction site with mountains in the background. Transcribed Text: UC SANTA BARBARA Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics Newsletter www.kitp.ucsb.edu | Spring 2026
    Director's Letter - Spring 2026

    The image above shows the start of construction for KITP House! Since I last wrote, we have achieved many milestones. Read more

     

    Lars Bildsten, KITP Director
    KITP Newsletter, Spring 2026

  • The rogue super-massive black hole compresses gas in its wake, forming a long “contrail” of young, blue stars. This unusual event happened when the universe was approximately half its current age.
    Physicists reconstruct the collision that launched a runaway black hole

    The scientists who spotted it interpreted the feature as a super-massive black hole plowing through intergalactic space, triggering star formation in its wake. Now researchers from UC Santa Barbara and University of Texas at Austin have published a paper on the violent event that could have shot this behemoth from its host galaxy. Read more.

  • KITP Annual Report 2025 Cover
    Annual Report 2025

    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!

     

  • Close-up of musicians playing string instruments, including a visible hand playing a cello and blurred violinists in the background.
    New mathematical frameworks reveal how stable thoughts emerge from chaotic brain activity

    "The mind is what the brain does," as the pioneering artificial intelligence researcher Marvin Minsky once said. So it’d be fantastic to understand at what level of anatomy, or complexity, the brain actually carries out its processing and computation. This quandary is precisely what captivates Fatih Dinc, a postdoctoral scholar at UC Santa Barbara's Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) and Geometric Intelligence Lab. Read more

     

  • bildsten-aaas
    Lars Bildsten elected as member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences

    Gluck Professor of Theoretical Physics Lars Bildsten, Director of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, elected as a new member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2026. Read more

     

  • gross
    David Gross Wins 2026 Special Breakthrough Prize

    The Breakthrough Prize Foundation today announced physicist David J. Gross, of UC Santa Barbara’s Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, among the winners of the 2026 Breakthrough Prizes, honoring scientists whose discoveries are significantly driving growth of human knowledge. Read more