Physical Sciences

A worker in a hard hat looks small in comparison to a circular piece of physics experimental machinery.

UC Irvine scientists among winners of Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics

$3 million award recognizes research achievements at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider

April 25, 2025
Jenny Yang, UC Irvine professor of chemistry

Curbing climate change

Jenny Yang and her lab team are refining revolutionary carbon capture technology

April 21, 2025
Five UC Irvine scholars have been newly elected to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (clockwise from top left): Kevork Abazajian, professor of physics and astronomy; Thomas Zimmermann, Chancellor’s Professor of informatics; Melinda Gormley, research and policy coordinator at the Center for Population, Inequality and Policy; Aaron Barth, professor of physics and astronomy; and Nalini Venkatasubramanian, professor of computer science.

AAAS names 5 UC Irvine researchers as 2025 fellows

Scholars are honored for their efforts to advance science or its applications

March 27, 2025

An academic first in Antarctica

UC Irvine Ph.D. student defends dissertation at South Pole after 24-day research expedition

March 17, 2025
Rocket on a launch pad on the California coast.

UC Irvine astronomers view launch of new NASA space telescope

Two-year SPHEREx mission will map the universe and look for life-supporting molecules in the Milky Way

March 12, 2025
Women's History Month collage featuring: (top left to right: Katrine Whiteson, Sunny Jiang; (bottom left to right) Karen Lincoln, Aomawa Shields, Luiza Osorio Silva and Roxane Cohen Silver.

Profiles of excellence

For Women’s History Month, UC Irvine salutes its influential researchers

March 04, 2025

UC Irvine scientists invent new drug candidates to treat antibiotic-resistant bacteria

The new family of antibiotics may one day help save thousands of lives each year

February 24, 2025
Aomawa Shields standing with arms akimbo in front of dark space backdrop with stars and planets.

UC Irvine astronomers gauge livability of exoplanets orbiting white dwarf stars

Computer model comparison reveals rotational factors contributing to habitability

February 13, 2025
Head shot photos of two men.

Two UC Irvine faculty members elected to National Academy of Engineering

Kyriacos Athanasiou and Eric Rignot recognized for outstanding research leadership

February 12, 2025
People on the outside deck of an ocean research vessel at sea.

Climate change is overhauling marine nutrient cycles, UC Irvine scientists say

The research is the first field-based confirmation of such climate impacts

February 04, 2025