KITP News Archive

An international team of scientists has found the fastest-rotating massive star ever recorded. The star spins around its axis at the speed of 600 kilometers per second at the equator, a rotational velocity so high that the star is nearly tearing apart due to centrifugal forces. This confirms a prediction put forward by astrophysicist Matteo Cantiello, a postdoctoral fellow with UC Santa Barbara's Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, who contributed to the discovery published this week in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

[Read UCSB Press Release]

The Simons Foundation has made a generous award to the KITP to support scientists leaving their home institutions for extended visits to the KITP, and to participate in its activities.

To this end we are establishing the "Simons Distinguished Visiting Scholars".

On the 100th anniversary of the first Solvay Conference on Physics, the International Solvay Institutes have created a special "Solvay Centenary Chair," which has been granted to David J. Gross, Nobel laureate in physics, for his seminal contributions to particle physics and string theory.

[Press Release][Announcement from the International Solvay Institutes]

Professor Sean Hartnoll presents "From String Theory to Exotic Materials and Back Again"
[Flyer] [Public lecture page]

Kohn Hall, named for UCSB's Nobel Prize-winning physicist Walter Kohn, received the LEED Silver certification in the Existing Building category. LEED is the USGBC's rating system for designing and constructing the world's greenest, most energy-efficient, high-performing buildings.

[Read UCSB Press Release]

Anthony Zee, professor of physics with the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at UC Santa Barbara, has received the Humboldt Research Award in recognition of his lifetime achievements in research.

[Read the UCSB Press Release]

Boris Shraiman has been elected a Member of the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of his distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.

Understanding the Fukushima Reactor Meltdown from a Physics Perspective
[Read more...][Download]

Professor Edward van den Heuvel presents "Life After Stellar Death: Supernovae, Neutron Stars, Pulsars and Black Holes"
[Flyer] [Public lecture page]

Want to try teaching remotely? KITP can help.
[Read More...]

Scientific discoveries are increasingly in the news, but are increasingly complex while their impact on our lives is profound. The need for communicating science across the intellectual spectrum is imperative, and increasingly ideas from science are integrated into film, fiction, plays and other non-scientific writing. In 2002 the Templeton Lectures were presented at the KITP to packed audiences, and in 2005 the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation sponsored the prestigious conference Science Theater Audience Reader (STAR): Theoretical Physics in Drama and Narrative. Playwrights, actors, literature and drama scholars, novelists, biographers and science journalists explored the means by which science concepts are conveyed to the public in a variety of media. Among conference participants were Alan Lightman. Rebecca Goldstein, Peter Galison, Lauren Gunderson, Dennis Overbye and Anthony Zee.

Professor Bonnie Bassler presents "How Bacteria Talk to Each Other"
[Flyer] [Public lecture page]

An explosion—observable in theory, but never seen on the night sky–emerged a little over two years ago from calculations carried out by a team of astrophysicists, including KITP permanent member Lars Bildsten and postdoctoral fellow Nevin Weinberg, as well as UCSB physics graduate student Ken Shen and Bildsten's long-time Dutch collaborator Gijs Nelemans of Radboud University in Nijmegen. Those calculations enabled the team to predict the existence, in distant galaxies, of a new kind of exploding star or "supernova" that would— when detected—be fainter than most observed supernovae and would rise and fall in brightness in only a few weeks.

Preparing your contest entry? check here for past submissions. All entries due 12 noon on December 8, 2010.

Decisions for the programs for the 2012-2013 academic year will be made in February 2011.  Submit a proposal suggestion now.  We need your ideas!
[Letter from the Director] 

Physicist Jean Carlson catalyzes first ever collaboration between NSF-funded institutes associated with UCSB and engaged in research at the edge of two distinctive scientific fields.

UC Santa Barbara astrophysicist Lars Bildsten, a permanent member of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, has been awarded the Wayne Rosing, Simon and Diana Raab Chair in Theoretical Astrophysics in recognition of his pioneering contributions to the discipline.

[Full Story]

First Incumbent of Susan F. Gurley Chair Discusses Ideas That Animate His Research.

But what rivets theorists’ attention is its electrons behaving like neutrinos.