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Santa Barbara, Calif.--For 10 years the key landmark for arrivals at the principal entrance to the ocean-side campus of the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) has been the flat-topped, orange tower of Kohn Hall, home of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP), celebrating its 25-year existence under the aegis of the National Science Foundation (NSF) with an international conference on "The Future of Physics," from Oct. 7 to 9.

Santa Barbara, Calif. - David J. Gross, director of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) and the first incumbent of the Frederick W. Gluck Chair in Theoretical Physics at the University of California at Santa Barbara, has been awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics for solving in 1973 the last great remaining problem of what has since come to be called "the Standard Model" of the quantum mechanical picture of reality. He and his co-recipients discovered how the nucleus of atoms works.

The institute celebrated 25 years of international leadership at a ceremony dedicating the new wing, designed by Michael Graves, award-winning architect of Kohn Hall, distinguished by its unique interplay of form and function.

Santa Barbara, Calif.—David J. Gross, director of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) at the University of California at Santa Barbara, has been selected the 2004 recipient of France's highest scientific honor—the Grande Médaille D'Or (the Grand Gold Medal)—for his contributions to the understanding of fundamental physical reality. Gross, who holds the Frederick W. Gluck Chair in Theoretical Physics at UC Santa Barbara, will receive the award, conferred by the French Academy of Sciences, at ceremonies in Paris on November 23.

Santa Barbara, Calif.--According to string theory, all the different particles that constitute physical reality are made of the same thing-tiny looped strings whose different vibrations give rise to the different fundamental particles that make up everything we know. Whether this theory correctly portrays fundamental reality is one of the biggest questions facing physicists.

Professor Lars Bildsten, Permanent Member at the KITP, has been awarded the Biermann Lectureship at the Max-Planck Institute for Astrophysics (MPA) in Munich for Summer 2004. Established in 1997, the Biermann Lectureship brings a world-ranked astrophysicist to Garching for a month with the task of giving a series of prize lectures and interacting broadly within the various local institutes. The aim is to stimulate scientific activity across the Munich astronomical community. Previous Biermann Lecturers were Joseph Silk (1997), Roger Blandford (1998), Bob Williams (1999), Bohdan Paczynski (2000), James Truran (2001), and Ramesh Narayan (2002).

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) -- The prestigious High Energy and Particle Physics Prize of the European Physical Society for 2003 has been awarded to David Gross, a professor of physics and director of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

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Lars Bildsten, a permanent member of the KITP and professor in the UCSB physics department, has had his theory of neutron stars supported by the results of a NASA study.

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Matthew Fisher has been elected to the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS).

Take a look at the invitation to KITP's groundbreak ceremony