Physical Sciences | UC San Diego

10/19/2026

✨Congratulations✨ of UC San Diego Physics Professor Tzer Han Tan on receiving a 2026 DOE Early Career Research Program award. His project, “Medium-Mediated Physical Learning in Nonreciprocal Active Materials,” was one of only 67 selected nationwide by DOE.

DOE’s Early Career Research Program (ECRP) Supports the Next Generation of American Scientific Leadership Across Universities, National Laboratories, and User Facilities.

10/15/2026

Congratulations to Fermi Lab on its Genesis Mission Phase II DOE award, “Accelerating eXtreme Environment Specs-to-Silicon.” Known as AXESS, the project aims to revolutionize custom microelectronics design by using super intelligence to accelerate development of chips that can function in extreme environments. The project will boost innovation and national competitiveness, with potential impacts in quantum, fusion energy and particle physics. UC San Diego faculty Javier Duarte and Ryan Kastner are co-PIs.

Two new awards will expand Fermilab’s critical role in the Genesis Mission by developing custom microelectronics and advancing quantum information science.

10/14/2026

UC San Diego researchers have developed a new approach to coherent X-ray diffraction, allowing them to observe dynamics within a neuristor made of vanadium dioxide while electricity was applied. They discovered a strategy to make the material learn and forget, a critical component of neuromorphic computing.

UC San Diego researchers have developed a new approach to coherent X-ray diffraction, allowing them to observe dynamics within a neuristor made of vanadium dioxide while electricity was applied. They discovered a strategy to make the material learn and forget.

10/13/2026

Congratulations to UC San Diego Mathematics Professor Emerita Ruth Williams on receiving the 2026 INFORMS President’s Award. An internationally recognized leader in stochastic systems, Williams has contributed to the advancement of the fields of operations research, applied probability and the mathematical sciences through her numerous achievements, leadership, mentorship, and service. Additionally, her work has extended the reach and impact of operations research into a variety of fields, including telecommunications, manufacturing, and biology.

INFORMS has named Ruth J. Williams, a Distinguished Professor of the Graduate Division and a Distinguished Professor of Mathematics Emerita at the University of California, San Diego, as the recipient of the 2026 INFORMS President’s Award.

10/12/2026

Congratulations to UC San Diego Professor of Chemistry Joel Yuen-Zhou on being named a 2026 American Physical Society Fellow. Joel was recognized for his "seminal contributions to polariton chemistry through rigorous many-body theories of molecular ensembles in optical cavities, and for pioneering work on organic spin photophysics for quantum information science." https://bit.ly/4rT73Ms

10/08/2026

Congratulations to Professor of Biochemistry Navtej Toor on receiving $1.3M from the W. M. Keck Foundation for an ambitious research project to map the complex 3D structures formed by RNA molecules in human cells.

The W. M. Keck Foundation has awarded $1.3 million to UC San Diego to support an ambitious research project to map the complex three-dimensional structures formed by RNA molecules in human cells.

10/05/2026

The next 10 years are poised to be the most transformative decade yet in the space industry. With eyes on the construction of a planned NASA lunar base by 2032 and a potential future mission to Mars, a fundamental question has persisted for millennia: Is anyone else out there? UC San Diego is working on an answer.

Curiosity drives almost all of us, and little sparks the imagination more than thinking about who might live among the stars.

10/02/2026

Even a minuscule error in the orientation of a telescope’s polarization detectors can produce a false reading of cosmic birefringence. Researchers at UC San Diego have developed a method to test the relative polarization-angle calibration of different detector sets providing a crucial calibration check. https://bit.ly/4dCF5P7

10/01/2026

💥Congratulations💥 to UC San Diego Professor of Physics Pat Diamond on receiving the American PhysicalSociety’s 2026 James Clerk Maxwell Prize for Plasma Physics. Pat was recognized for his “theoretical contributions to the statistical dynamics and self-organization in plasmas, especially experimentally confirmed predictions of predator-prey interactionsbetween turbulence and emergent zonal flows near the LH transition and the ExBstaircase in confined magnetized plasmas.”

09/30/2026

🌟Congratulations🌟 to UC San Diego's American Chemical Society (ACS) Student Association for earning a 2025-26 Outstanding ACS Student Communities Award and a Green Chemistry Award. The Green Chemistry Award is given to chapters that conduct activities that support the implementation of sustainable approaches to chemistry and engineering.