UCLA campus institutes

The areas embraced by UCLA physics research span the range from the well-established disciplines of "big science", e.g. the search for the Higgs boson at the LHC, and frontier plasma science underpinning fusion energy, to newly emerging fields such as the physics of hearing and neuroscience.

In astronomy, UCLA faculty are pioneers in the areas of extra-solar system planets, galactic astronomy, and cosmology. This effort is uniquely enabled by the world-renowned capabilities in design and construction of infrared instrumentation by our Infrared Laboratory.

The creation of cutting edge instruments that open the door to scientific discovery is a common theme here. UCLA faculty were central to the development of the X-ray free-electron laser, and are now among the first users of this revolutionary imaging tool.