KITP News Archive

Charlie Munger has announced his $65,000,000 donation to the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics. This donation will be used to build and furnish a Residence for the KITP's visiting scientists. Designed with physicists in mind, this 75,000 square foot facility will house the majority of KITP's thousand yearly visitors and their families in a comfortable and intimate setting that inspires informal scientific interactions. The visitor offices and intense collaborative interactions that are the hallmark of KITP's mission will, of course, remain in Kohn Hall.

[UCSB Press Release] [About KITP Residence]

Greg Huber, an UCSB biophysicist and deputy director of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, collaborates with colleagues to describe the geometry of a common cellular structure.

[UCSB Press Release]

‘Space-Time Versus the Quantum’
Joe Polchinski, Permanent Member at KITP and Professor of Physics at UCSB, shares his ideas about how to reconcile quantum mechanics and the theory of general relativity at this year's Faculty Research Lecture that will take place at 6 pm in Corwin Pavilion.

[UCSB News]

Three former Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) postdocs, Sean Hartnoll (Stanford University), Shinsei Ryu (University of Illinois), and Tadashi Takayanagi (Kyoto University), were among the recipients of the 2015 New Horizons Prize awarded by the Breakthrough Prize Foundation.

The purpose of the KITP Graduate Fellowship Program is to offer a unique opportunity for a select group of physics graduate students from institutions in the United States and beyond to spend 5-6 months at the KITP, to participate in KITP research programs and broaden their understanding of physics in areas of current research. For participation in the summer/fall term, nominations must be received by March 1, 2015.

We are now accepting applications for the third annual Santa Barbara Advanced School of Quantitative Biology Summer course, The Course of Cellular Evolution: A Laboratory Course on the Evolution of Cellular Function. The goal of the course is to explore, via open-ended research-grade experiments, some of the most exciting questions about the interplay between cell biology and evolution.

[QBio Summer Course Home Page] [Associated Program, Evolutionary Cell Biology]

Three physics faculty, Lars Bildsten, KITP Director and Professor of Physics, David Morrison, Chair of the Math Department and Professor of Math and Physics, and Tony Zee, Professor of Physics, were recently designated as Fellows of the American Physical Society.

[UCSB Press Release]

Director Lars Bildsten is happy to announce the release of the Winter 2015 KITP Newsletter. He expects to release such a Newsletter twice a year, with the next one arriving in August 2015.

[Download Newsletter (pdf)]

Arcavi, a joint postdoctoral scholar at KITP and the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network will now be able to search for additional evidence of the complete shredding of stars that happen to pass near the supermassive  black holes at the centers of distant galaxies.

[UCSB Press Release]

Professor Randy Schekman presents "How Cells Package and Traffic Proteins for Export"

[Flyer] [Public lecture page]

KITP program on "Deconstructing the Sense of Smell" brought together theoretical neuroscientists and experimental biologists to unravel the complex mechanisms that underlie the behavioral response to odors.

Together to discuss the chemical, molecular, cellular, circuit and systems mechanisms that underlie neural and behavioral responses to odor.

[UCSB Press Release]

Over thirty scientists spent a week learning how to use Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA), an open-source computational tool developed by Bill Paxton here at KITP.

[UCSB Press Release]

Director Lars Bildsten is happy to announce the release of the Fall 2015 KITP Newsletter. He expects to release such a Newsletter twice a year, with the next one arriving in February 2016.

[Fall 2015 Newsletter]

The next Café KITP at SOhO, features Iair Arcavi.  He will speak on Supernova Hunters.

SOhO is located at 1221 State St., 2nd floor.  The event is Wednesday, September 9, 2015, 6:00 – 7:30 pm. Doors open at 5:00 pm.

[About Café KITP]

The Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics seeks to appoint a Deputy Director, starting as early as September 1, 2016. The Deputy Director works closely with the Director in planning the Institute's 12 yearly research programs and plays a prominent role in outreach planning, computing, and in administering the Institute.

[See our ad for further information]