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Lily Collins presents David Gross with his Breakthrough Award
Photo Credit
Lester Cohen/Getty Images Getty Images for Breakthrough Prize
Lily Collins and David J. Gross, 2026 Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics winner speak onstage during the 12th Breakthrough Prize Ceremony at Barker Hangar on April 18, 2026 in Santa Monica, California.

UCSB’s David Gross wins Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics

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two women on stage
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James Badham
Yangying Zhu (right), assistant professor in the UCSB Mechanical Engineering Department, receives her award certificate from ARPA-E Program Director Dr. Evelyn Wang at the National Academy of Sciences, in Washington, D.C.

Making desalination more efficient, by way of renewable energy
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Exploiting atomically thin materials for energy efficient electronics
A globe made out of healthy foods with a stethoscope against a blackboard background.
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Udra via iStock

Billions worldwide consume inadequate levels of micronutrients critical to human health
scientists in lab with crates
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Jeff Liang
UCSB ExFAB staff and senior participants, from left, Oliver Vining, Elaine Kirschke, Jean-Marie Volland, Nathalie Elisabeth, Sherylle Mills Englander, Max Wilson, Michelle O'Malley, Joel Rothman, Niels Volkmann and Carolyn Mills.

UCSB to lead $22M NSF-funded center on exceptional microbes

Physicists work toward theory to describe pattern formation in conserved fields
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Aspiring engineers receive national research fellowships, with significant funding
Pedestrians in IR walk along a cobblestone street.
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Ildar Abulkhanov via iStock
It’s not quite heat vision, but mosquitoes do use thermal infrared to find human hosts.

Mosquitoes sense infrared from body heat to help track humans down
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UCSB geographer receives NSF grant to study adaptations to land degradation and ‘bright spots’ of resilience
two men standing against a gray background
Photo Credit
Jeff Liang
Professors Andrew Jayich, left, and Jon Schuller

Two UCSB professors selected by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to be Experimental Physics Investigators
image of developing zebrafish retina
Photo Credit
Rana Amini/Campàs Lab
Microscopy image of a developing zebrafish retina, with cell nuclei (blue) and membranes (yellow) shown

How cell nuclei organize eyes and brain
An illustration of macrophages attacking a cancer cell.
Photo Credit
Wildpixel via iStock
Priming macrophage immune cells could supercharge certain cancer therapies.

An appetizer can stimulate immune cells’ appetite, a boon for cancer treatments
A stack of blocks with the rare earth element symbols on them.
Photo Credit
Thibault Renard via iStock
Scientists and engineers would love if separating rare earth elements were as easy as picking one out of a stack of blocks.

A cleaner, more efficient way to process and recycle rare earth elements
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