Latest News

The Spring 2025 KITP Newsletter is now available! Read more.

Establishing a permanent legacy and named endowment in honor of Glen H. Mitchel, Jr.

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by Kristi Newton, Senior Director of Development, KITP
KITP Newsletter, Spring 2025

The prestigious postdoctoral scholars program at UC Santa Barbara’s Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) has served as a career launchpad for scores of prominent physicists. The highly competitive program receives over 700 applications for the 3–5 positions that open each year. 
Those few spots will likely be even more sought after when KITP unveils its new and rare means of support for its postdocs: a dedicated housing facility. 
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Dark Matter: Discovering the Invisible Universe 
Join KITP Postdoctoral Scholar Amalia Madden to explore the compelling evidence for dark matter, discuss why understanding it is essential to uncovering the history of our Universe, and learn how researchers today are designing innovative experiments to reveal its hidden nature. Learn more about Café KITP.

Professor David Gross honored with the 2025 Basic Science Lifetime Award in Physics, by the International Congress of Basic Science (ICBS), for the discovery of asymptotic freedom and other pioneering contributions to elementary particle physics and string theory. Read more.

Professor Lance Dixon presents "Voyage from Outer Space to Inner Space: From Gravitational Waves to the Higgs Boson" — learn more and join us for this lecture: RSVP in-person or register to watch online.

The Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) at the University of California, Santa Barbara seeks applications for a Permanent Member with an anticipated start of Fall 2025. The KITP contributes to all areas of theoretical physics through its programs, conferences, and the research of the permanent members, postdoctoral scholars and graduate fellows. The finalist recommended for hire will be offered a joint appointment as a member of the KITP, and as a tenured ladder faculty member of the University of California, Santa Barbara's Physics Department. All fields of theoretical physics are being considered.

When it’s time for an E. coli bacterium to divide, proteins inside the single-celled organism start to chase each other around. 
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Sonia Fernandez, UCSB Public Affairs, Senior Science Writer
KITP Newsletter, Fall 2024

Scientific excellence drives all of KITP’s endeavors, and it is achieved through unfettered intellectual exchanges between each scientist who visits. 
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Demi Cain, KITP Development Coordinator
KITP Newsletter, Fall 2024