News Archive

January 9, 2018 — University of California San Diego scientists used ultrafast lasers and supercomputers to develop a new method to probe electron charge transfer at the interface between organic semiconductors and metal surfaces. The UC San Diego research by Department of Chemistry faculty Wei Xiong and Francesco Paesani, plus two graduate students and a postdoctoral fellow, marks the first time that this novel direct charge transfer mechanism was measured in energy systems such as solar cells and photovoltaics—materials that involve the conversion of light into electricity.

December 20, 2017 — University of California San Diego researchers in the Department of Physics have shed light on the formation of supermassive black holes and galaxies. The research by Professor Shelley Wright, graduate student Andrey Vayner and their colleagues outlines the physics surrounding the formation of black holes and galaxies, improving scientific understanding of how the two grow in unison. Their findings, published in the December 2017 issue of Astrophysical Journal directly impact theoretical work on supermassive black holes’ and galaxies’ formation and evolution through cosmic time. Their work also provides important new clues on how black holes impact the star formation history of galaxies.

December 13, 2017 — On behalf of collaborators at institutions world-wide, UC San Diego recently signed a contract for the design and construction of a state-of-the-art millimeter wave telescope for the Simons Observatory. The telescope is the first of several which will be located in the high Atacama Desert of Northern Chile in 2020. At an elevation of 5,200 meters—or 17,000 feet—above sea level, it’s an ideal location to survey the universe. As part of the Simons Observatory team of researchers from 35 member institutions, UC San Diego Department of Physics’ Professor Brian Keating and Assistant Professor Kam Arnold will have access to this instrument to study Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB).

December 4, 2017 — State Governor Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown and First Lady Anne Gust Brown, in partnership with the California Museum, recently announced inductees of the 11th Class of the California Hall of Fame. Among the new members is Mario Molina, the University of California San Diego’s Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemisty who won the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, along with Scripps Institution of Oceanography Emeritus Professor Paul Crutzen, for research on the formation and decomposition of ozone. Molina and eight others will be inducted into the state’s hall of fame during an official ceremony in Sacramento at the California Museum, Tuesday, Dec. 5, at 7 p.m.

December 3, 2017 — Two full-time University of California San Diego faculty members — Don Cleveland, who studies fundamental cellular mechanisms in the search for new treatments for diseases like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and James McKernan, a mathematician who investigates algebraic geometry and multivariate polynomials — are recipients of the 2018 Breakthrough Prize, along with Joanne Chory, a plant biologist at Salk Institute for Biological Studies and adjunct professor in the Division of Biological Sciences at UC San Diego.

December 3, 2017 — Two full-time University of California San Diego faculty members — Don Cleveland, who studies fundamental cellular mechanisms in the search for new treatments for diseases like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and James McKernan, a mathematician who investigates algebraic geometry and multivariate polynomials — are recipients of the 2018 Breakthrough Prize, along with Joanne Chory, a plant biologist at Salk Institute for Biological Studies and adjunct professor in the Division of Biological Sciences at UC San Diego.

November 21, 2017 — University of California San Diego researchers in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and in the Section of Cell and Developmental Biology have “got mail”—of the cellular sort. They know that cells have elaborate “addressing” functions that “send” proteins to the correct compartment, but they are now learning how cells “’write” the addresses and then “read” them. This is important because cellular function depends on each molecule in the cell being where it is supposed to be. But, often, protein molecules are not made in the compartment where they eventually need to function. In a paper recently published in Nature Communications, Professor Elizabeth Komives, chemistry and biochemisty, and Associate Professor Eric Bennett, cell and developmental biology, outline their research.

November 21, 2017 — University of California San Diego researchers in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and in the Section of Cell and Developmental Biology have “got mail”—of the cellular sort. They know that cells have elaborate “addressing” functions that “send” proteins to the correct compartment, but they are now learning how cells “’write” the addresses and then “read” them. This is important because cellular function depends on each molecule in the cell being where it is supposed to be. But, often, protein molecules are not made in the compartment where they eventually need to function. In a paper recently published in Nature Communications, Professor Elizabeth Komives, chemistry and biochemisty, and Associate Professor Eric Bennett, cell and developmental biology, outline their research.

November 17, 2017 — In the Department of Mathematics at the University of California San Diego, the “rule of three” applies in more ways than one. Just factor-in faculty members Peter Ebenfelt, Lei Ni and Ruth Williams, who all recently received national and international honors. Ebenfelt, associate dean of the Division of Physical Sciences, and Lei Ni, chair of the Department of Mathematics, were selected as members of the 2018 Class of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society (AMS). They share this honor with their colleague Ruth Williams, whose many titles also include holder of the Charles Lee Powell Endowed Chair in Mathematics and member of the National Academy of Sciences. Now Williams adds winner of the 2017 Advancement of Women in Operations Research and the Management Sciences (WORMS) Award to her long list of distinctions.