KITP News Archive
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.
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
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.
KITP Public Lecture, Wednesday, March 6, 2013, 8:00 pm
Professor Joe Polchinski presents "Gravity and Quantum Mechanics - The Quest for Unification"
[Flyer] [Public lecture page]
Theoretical Physicists at the KITP Make Strides in Understanding Quantum Entanglement
While some theoretical physicists make predictions about astrophysics and the behavior of stars and galaxies, others work in the realm of the very small, which includes quantum physics. Such is the case at UC Santa Barbara, where theoretical physicists at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) cover the range of questions in physics.
Joe Polchinski is announced a Laureate of the 2013 Physics Frontier Prize
Joseph Polchinski, a permanent member of UC Santa Barbara's Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) and professor of physics at UCSB, has been named one of three recipients of the 2013 Physics Frontier Prize from the Milner Foundation. With the award, Polchinski becomes a nominee for the foundation’s $3 million Fundamental Physics Prize, to be presented in 2013.
Lars Bildsten Named Director of Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics
After an international search for a new director for the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) at UC Santa Barbara, the search committee found the best person for the position was already in Santa Barbara: Lars Bildsten, professor of physics and a KITP permanent member. The baton was passed on July 1 from Professor David Gross, a 2004 Nobel laureate, who will remain at KITP as a permanent member.
KITP Receives Funding to Explore Interface of Physics and Biology
Interdisciplinary Biology at KITP receives new funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund and launches, in collaboration with UCSB Biology and CNSI, a new initiative: the Santa Barbara Advanced School of Quantitative Biology.
Lifetime Achievement Awarded to Hébert
Jean-Pierre Hébert, KITP Artist in Residence, is awarded the 2012 ACM SIGGRAPH Lifetime Achievement Award in Digital Art.
KITP Public Lecture, Wednesday, March 14, 2012, 8:00 pm
Professor Diana Kormos Buchwald presents "Worshipped Today, Scorned Tomorrow...: Albert Einstein and the Perils of Public Engagement"
[Flyer] [Public lecture page]
Planck Satellite Reveals Enormous Haze at the Center of Milky Way
Images produced by the Planck satellite have revealed an enormous cloud of electrons traveling near the speed of light in the heart of our Galaxy, the Milky Way. These electrons interact with the Galaxy's magnetic field to produce a haze of microwave radiation seen by Planck.
[UCSB Press Release] [JPL Press Release] [ESA Press Release]
Scientists Publish New Findings about the 'Supernova of a Generation'
An international team of scientists, including astrophysicists from UC Santa Barbara, has discovered that a supernova that exploded in August –– dubbed the supernova of a generation –– was a "white dwarf" star, and that its companion star could not have been a "red giant," as previously suspected. The findings are published in two papers in the journal Nature this week.
UCSB Scientist Contributes to Discovery
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.
Simons Foundation to Support Distinguished Visitors
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".
KITP Director awarded Centenary Solvay Chair
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]
KITP Public Lecture, Wednesday, October 12, 2011, 8:00 pm
Professor Sean Hartnoll presents "From String Theory to Exotic Materials and Back Again"
[Flyer] [Public lecture page]
Kohn Hall Receives LEED Silver Certification From U.S. Green Building Council
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.
KITP Physics Professor Anthony Zee Receives Humboldt Research Award
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.
Boris Shraiman elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences
Boris Shraiman has been elected a Member of the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of his distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.
How Bad is the Reactor Meltdown in Japan?
Understanding the Fukushima Reactor Meltdown from a Physics Perspective
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