KITP News Archive

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 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]

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".

UCSB Press Release

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]

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]

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.

[UCSB Press Release]

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.

[UCSB Press Release] [Fundamental Physics Prize Foundation]

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.

[UCSB Press Release]

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

The discovery builds upon earlier research by Planck team member Gregory Dobler, a postdoctoral fellow at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at UC Santa Barbara. Dobler, along with collaborators, previously studied hints of this emission in images from the Wilkinson Microwave Anistropy Probe, and led the initial discovery of a gamma-ray counterpart in data from the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope, originally termed the Fermi "haze" and later the Fermi "bubbles."

[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.

[Read UCSB Press Release] [Read Caltech Press Release]

UCSB Scientist Contributes to Discovery

The KITP web site and all associated web services such as our registration system will be down for software updates from 10am to 10:30am (Pacific Time) on Friday, April 18. Visits to any KITP web pages will produce a 'Down for Maintenance' notice during this downtime.

If you have any problems or questions, please contact the Help Desk at (805)893-7340 or via email.

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.

[Read UCSB Press Release]

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.

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.

[Read the UCSB Press Release]