Physical Sciences

Women chemists

UCI ranks third for return on investment among public universities

Of the dozens of college surveys that rank thousands of universities across the nation, Money magazine’s recent poll has come the closest to cracking the code that answers the question: Which institutions of higher learning provide the best return on investment. And UCI scores well. It ranked third among public universities, fourth in the “value-added” […]

Economic slump, not natural gas boom, responsible for drop in CO2 emissions

The 11 percent decrease in climate change-causing carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. between 2007 and 2013 was caused by the global financial recession – not the reduced use of coal, research from the University of California Irvine, the University of Maryland, and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis shows.

6 junior faculty members named 2015-16 UCI Hellman Fellows

Six University of California, Irvine assistant professors have been chosen from a highly competitive cohort to receive 2015-16 UCI Hellman Fellowships, which support research by junior faculty members who show great promise. Their projects focus on self-driving cars, economic instability at the U.S.-Mexico border and the production of carbon-neutral fuels, among other topics.

UCI and JPL glaciologists aboard the Cape Race

Greenland’s fjords are far deeper than previously thought, and glaciers will melt faster, researchers find

West Greenland’s fjords are vastly deeper than rudimentary models have shown, allowing intruding ocean water to badly undercut glacier faces, which will raise sea levels around the world much faster than previously estimated, a UCI-led research team has found.

Siddharth Parameswaran wins NSF CAREER Award

Siddharth Parameswaran, a UCI assistant professor of physics & astronomy, has won a prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER Award that comes with more than $500,000 to support his research in condensed matter physics.

UCI’s Donald Blake wins state’s top air quality award

UCI atmospheric chemist Donald Blake has won California’s elite Haagen-Smit Clean Air Award for his seminal pollution research.

Frugal phytoplankton play role in global carbon cycle

Adam Martiny, UCI associate professor of Earth system science, and study co-author Eric D. Galbraith of McGill University show that frugal phytoplankton may obtain more CO2 in warm, nutrient-depleted parts of the ocean than previously thought. By doing so, they can have a significant impact on marine ecosystems and the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

World map of aquifer depletion

A third of the world’s biggest groundwater basins are in distress

Irvine, Calif., June 16, 2015 – Two new studies led by UC Irvine using data from NASA Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellites show that human consumption is rapidly draining some of its largest groundwater basins, yet there is little to no accurate data about how much water remains in them. The result is that significant […]

6 undergrads win scholarships to study overseas

The Institute of International Education has granted scholarships to six UC Irvine students who will study abroad this summer and fall.

Physicist Jonathan Feng named Simons Investigator

The Simons Foundation has named Jonathan Feng, UCI professor of physics & astronomy, a Simons Investigator in recognition of his exceptional and promising work. The appointment is for five to 10 years and includes up to $1 million in research funding to be used at the investigator’s discretion.