Physical Sciences

Team creates online maps used by foreign countries to predict – and prepare for – intense rainfall.

UCI students educate, entertain children visiting Santa Ana museum.

In the past year, UC Irvine students, staff and faculty have stepped up in the face of continuing budget challenges and fee increases with innovation, drive and talent. The result? Research breakthroughs, national honors, global outreach, sports firsts – even a Guinness world record. Here are some top 2010 stories.

Meeting provides a collegial counterpoint to stormy political environment.

Physical sciences dean since 2006, the renowned chemist is a ‘committed campus collaborator.’

UC Irvine physics professor and award-winning science fiction author Gregory Benford will write the introductory essays for “The Wonderful Future That Never Was,” a collection of predictions made in the pages of “Popular Mechanics” that reflects societies hopes and fears.

Cosmologist and TV co-host James Bullock helps people see the really big picture — from the Milky Way to the farthest reaches of the universe. He’s one of the “bright young stars” in his field.

National Research Council ranks several UC Irvine doctoral programs among the tops in the nation. Young programs are on an upward trajectory.

James Bullock thinks bigger than most. Growing up in Toledo, Ohio, he wasn’t particularly fascinated by stars. He believes he first noticed the night sky at his grandparents’ North Carolina farm, but he’s not sure. What interests the UC Irvine professor of physics & astronomy is the whole shebang — the entire universe. “A cosmologist […]

With his bow ties and seersucker suits, Roger McWilliams might appear to be old-fashioned, but the UCI physicist invents futuristic laser tools that have advanced everything from telecommunications to healthcare.