Annual Reports and Newsletters
Excerpt from UCLA Physics & Astronomy Annual Report 2009 - 2010: As Chair of the UCLA Department of Physics and Astronomy, it is with pride that I present our 2010-11 Annual Report. This document is represents a snapshot of a fast-moving and exciting scenario, in which we attempt to distill the most compelling and newsworthy events affecting the department in the past 12 months. It is hoped that you, the reader, will find your curiosity piqued, and that you will be compelled to seek out more information on the myriad of cutting edge educational and research programs offered here. This information can be gleaned through the departmental web site, which I encourage you to consult for a more detailed and current picture.
In each year's annual report, in addition to summaries of research highlights from across the department, the spotlight is placed on one area in particular in our feature article. This year we present a portrait of our strong and multi-faceted elementary particle theory research group, in an article entitled "In Pursuit of Particles, Strings, and Black Holes." In it, you will find an intriguing description of this research group's work, which provides theoretical underpinning of experiments from frontier collider physics searches for the Higgs boson, to those investigating cosmological remnants of the Big Bang. Modern elementary particle theory is perhaps above all concerned with development of a unified theory of fundamental interactions; front line struggles in this thrust at UCLA include unique efforts in string theory and super gravity.
In addition to the focused spotlight of the feature article, this report gives vignettes of the impressive variety of recent research undertaken by departmental faculty. The themes embraced by UCLA physics and astronomy research indeed range, as appreciated even from the elementary particle theory alone, from the tiniest to the vastest length scales in the universe. UCLA physicists play lead roles in the search for the Higgs at the Large Hadron Collider, as well as other high profile experiments in elementary particle and nuclear physics. At the other end of the distance scale, UCLA astronomers investigate the intricacies of the galactic center and the cosmic microwave background using state-of-the-art telescopes such as the Keck, along with instruments developed in our world-leading Infrared Lab. UCLA is also home to a vigorous astroparticle program, which connects the ultra-small and the extra-galactic length scales through studies of fundamental cosmic particles and their interactions.
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