KITP News Archive

Articles about KITP and featured articles from KITP newsletters

KITP Public Lecture: Wednesday, June 18, 2014 - 8:00 pm

Professor Brad Marston presents "The Quantum Physics of Global Warming"

[Flyer] [Public lecture page]

KITP Public Lecture: Wednesday, May 14, 2014 - 8:00 pm

Professor Cristina Marchetti presents "The Physics of Flocking".

[Flyer] [Public lecture page]

Joe Polchinski

Joe Polchinski to give Faculty Research Lecture in Fall 2014

Joe Polchinski, Permanent Member at KITP and Professor of Physics, was just named the 59th Annual Faculty Research Lecturer at UC Santa Barbara.

[UCSB Press Release]

Tony Zee

Tony Zee elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Anthony Zee, Professor in the UCSB Department of Physics and one of the KITP's early permanent members, was just elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

[UCSB Press Release]

Music of the Spheres

Café KITP: Music of the Spheres

The Secret Songs of Stars

Music of the Spheres: The Secret Songs of Stars

A starry night sky has a knack for making us speechless, but dumb awe just isn’t enough for astrophysicist Matteo Cantiello of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics. Don’t miss a great opportunity to find out astonishing stuff about those night lights in a kickoff event for what will become an ongoing science café series sponsored by KITP.

[About Café KITP] [Flyer]

Moore Foundation supports Theoretical Research in Quantum Materials

Moore Foundation supports Theoretical Research in Quantum Materials

The Emergent Phenomena in Quantum Systems (EPiQS) initiative, a program of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, has recently awarded $1.5 million over five years to the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) to fund Moore Postdoctoral Scholars working on the physics of quantum phenomena in materials. This funding will help scientists understand quantum materials in new ways and pave the way for potentially world-changing technological applications.

[UCSB Press Release]

Teacher's Conference Highlighted in the News

KITP's Teacher's Conference Highlighted in the News

On February 15, visiting physicists at UCSB's Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics introduced flocking and swarming paradigms to over 50 high school teachers from across the country.

[Press Release]

KITP Public Lecture: Wednesday, February 19, 2014 - 8:00 pm

Professor Theo Geisel presents "Rhythms & Algorithms ~ Physics and Music"
[Flyer] [Public lecture page]

KITP Supports Theorists at Primarily Undergraduate Institutions

KITP Supports Theorists at Primarily Undergraduate Institutions through the Scholars Program

Scholars program draws professors who teach at primarily undergraduate institutions.

Information about the program can be found here:

http://silverlode.kitp.ucsb.edu/apply/fellowships/kitp-scholars

[UCSB Press Release] [Noozhawk Press Release]

Fred Kavli, 1927-2013

Fred Kavli, 1927-2013

Fred Kavli, founder of the Kavli Foundation and science philanthropist, passed away on Nov. 21, 2013. A strong supporter of theoretical physics, Kavli's contributions to the KITP enabled a dramatic transformation of the Institute's activities through the physical expansion of Kohn Hall, and the initiation of an endowment to support the visits of more than 1,000 physicists per year to the facility. More information on Fred Kavli can be found at The Kavli Foundation.

KITP Permanent Member Joseph Polchinski wins the 2014 Physics Frontier Prize

UC Santa Barbara physics professor and permanent member of the university's Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) Joseph Polchinski is one of several laureates for the Milner Foundation's 2014 Physics Frontiers Prize. According to the organization, this prize recognizes "transformative achievements in the field of fundamental physics and aim(s) to provide recipients with more freedom and opportunity to pursue future accomplishments." This is Polchinski's second win in two years.

[UCSB Press Release]

Team from UCSB's Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics Places First in Data-Mining Challenge on Translational Medicine

Adel Dayarian and Sahand Hormoz, along with two other collaborators, won the sbv IMPROVER data-mining challenge on translational medicine.

[UCSB Press Release]

KITP Call for Proposals 2013

KITP Call for Proposals 2013

KITP Needs your Ideas!

KITP Needs your Ideas! Now is the time to submit program pre-proposals or full proposals for the year 2015-2016 at http://www.kitp.ucsb.edu/submit-a-program-proposal.

KITP Public Lecture, Monday, November 04, 2013, 8:00pm

Dr. Stuart Parkin presents "The Spin on Electronics! The nanoscience and nanotech of spin currents"
[Flyer] [Public lecture page]

KITP Rapid Response Program on "Fuzz or Fire"

KITP Rapid Response Program on "Fuzz or Fire" in the News

What happens when you fall into a black hole? In a September 25, 2013 Kavli Foundation Science Spotlight, four theoretical physicists involved in KITP's recent "Fuzz or Fire" workshop, including KITP Permanent Member Joseph Polchinski, answered audience questions about the latest theories on this exciting question.

[Press Release]

David Gross Assumes the Frederick W. Gluck Professorship

Gluck Endows Chair in Theoretical Physics for Institute Director

Fred Gluck, best known for his legendary performance at the helm of the leading international management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, has given $1 million to endow the chair of the director of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB). David Gross, who came from Princeton University in 1997 to serve as director of the Institute, is the first Frederick W. Gluck Professor of Theoretical Physics.

Upcoming Rapid Response Program

Upcoming Rapid Response Program on the Quantum Properties of Black Holes highlighted by The New York Times

An article appearing on August 13, 2013 in The New York Times has highlighted the intellectual puzzles associated with the quantum properties of black holes. This is the topic of a Rapid Response Program to be held at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics from August 19-30, 2013.

Summer Course at KITP and CNSI

Summer Course at KITP and CNSI Explores New Approaches to Quantifying How Animals Acquire Shape and Form

It's a summer course like no other at UC Santa Barbara or anywhere else. Spread between the lecture halls of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) and the labs in the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) on campus, the new Santa Barbara Advanced School of Quantitative Biology is abuzz with activity.

[UCSB Press Release]

KITP Public Lecture, Wednesday, July 31, 2013, 8:00pm

Professor Eric F. Wieschaus presents "On Growth & Form of the Embryo: From Gene Expression to Tissue Mechanics"
[Flyer] [Public lecture page]

Cooperating to Study Cooperation

Cooperating to Study Cooperation

Physicists and biologists are working together to understand cooperation at all levels of life, from the cohesion of molecules to interspecies interactions.

Physicists and biologists don't usually mix, and when they do, things can get messy. But the University of California, Santa Barbara’s Kavli Institute of Theoretical Physics (KITP) is trying to change that. For more than 30 years, this prestigious research facility, which in 2007 was rated by a study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences as one of America's most influential research institutes, has been pairing the world's brightest physicists with scholars from diverse fields in an effort to answer a wide-range of scientific questions - most recently, the evolution of multicellular life.

[Read more]