An expert in quantum precision measurements, Nancy Aggarwal creates technologies to detect the universe’s unseen phenomena. In her lab, she’s developing two major experimental platforms: a first-of-its-kind gravitational-wave observatory and precision measurement systems for next-generation dark matter searches.

The Regeneration Research Program is designed to help faculty fill gaps created by the current constrained funding environment. Grant awards range from $5,000 to $20,000, depending on proposed needs and budget justification.

UC Davis Professor of Physics and Astronomy Andrew Wetzel has been appointed to the newest class of the U.S. Defense Science Study Group, a program directed by the Institute for Defense Analyses. The program invites outstanding science and engineering professors to apply their skills and research to the United States’ security challenges.

While almost the complete inverse of astronomy and cosmology, fields concerned with the largest objects in our universe, particle physics aims to answer similar questions but from a different vantage. Matthew Citron discusses how particle physicists like himself use particle accelerators to search for dark matter.

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have made a surprising discovery about a galaxy long, long ago and far, far away: It isn’t rotating. That’s something only seen in the most massive, mature galaxies that are closer to us in space and time, said Ben Forrest, a research scientist in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Davis, and first author on the paper published May 4 in Nature Astronomy. 

TIME has named University of California, Davis Distinguished Research Professor Tony Tyson, of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, to the 2026 TIME100, its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

At the April Astronomy on Tap event, Professor Daniel Cebra, the chair of the UC Davis Department of Physics and Astronomy, discusses how space agencies such as NASA contend with cosmic radiation when it comes to space travel and how his work as a high-energy nuclear physicist can help address these hazards.

The discovery of room-temperature superconductors would open a huge range of applications and new technologies. There are no physical laws that rule out such materials, according to a recent perspectives article by a group of scientists including Warren Pickett, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of physics and astronomy at UC Davis.

At the most recent Astronomy on Tap event at Sudwerk Brewing, Professor Tucker Jones, Department of Physics and Astronomy, describes how the James Webb Space Telescope is being used to pinpoint the cosmic dawn, an early period in the universe’s history when the first stars and galaxies formed.

The Department of Physics and Astronomy will hold a screening March 13 of “What is Real? Six Short Films About Quantum Physics.” The screening will take place at 7 p.m. in 1002 Cruess Hall, followed by a Q&A.