Each simple RNA virus has a genome, its “native RNA.” This genome dictates how the virus replicates in cells to eventually cause disease. The genome also has the code for making a capsid, the protein shell of a virus that encapsulates the genome and protects it like a nanocontainer. A team led by Roya Zandi...
Peter Carney, a second-year undergraduate student at UC Riverside, has earned a spot in a prestigious and highly competitive summer undergraduate research fellowship program at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. The program is hosted by Caltech LIGO. LIGO, which stands for Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory, is based at sites in Louisiana and Washington...
n international team of astronomers led by researchers at the University of California, Riverside, has discovered an unusual massive cluster of young galaxies forming in the early universe. The newly discovered growing galactic metropolis, named MAGAZ3NE J095924+022537, is a newborn galaxy cluster, or protocluster, consisting of at least 38 member galaxies, and is about 11.8...
During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, multiple new and more transmissible variants of the virus have emerged. Understanding how specific mutations affect SARS-CoV-2 transmission could help us to better understand the biology of the virus and to control outbreaks. This, however, is a challenging task, said John Barton, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the...
The Basic Energy Sciences program of the U.S. Department of Energy has renewed a grant to Michael Mulligan, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy. The three-year grant of $370,000 will support research by Mulligan and UCR graduate students in quantum condensed matter theory. The Basic Energy Sciences program supports basic scientific research to lay...
UC Riverside is the lead institution of a grant from the Department of Energy, or DOE, to use machine learning techniques to optimize the design of the ATHENA detector, one of the proposed experiments for the future Electron-Ion Collider, or EIC. The research team, which includes members from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Lawrence...
Gillian Wilson, a professor of physics and astronomy, has been named a fellow of the American Physical Society, or APS, “for pioneering techniques and significant contributions to clusters of galaxies, massive galaxies and cosmology, as well as for sustained leadership in research administration, broadening participation and outreach.” Wilson is one of only seven scientists elected...
UC Riverside physicist Umar Mohideen has achieved what few physicists have in their careers: his research has made the “standard literature,” meaning it has become part of the key experiments of physics. “Since it is in textbooks, the experiment is part of the established key experiments,” said Mohideen, a distinguished professor of physics. “It also...
Boerge Hemmerling and Christopher Bardeen have received an equipment grant of about $214,000 from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, or AFOSR, for a project titled “High-Flux Source for Aluminum Monochloride with Applications in Material Science.” “We will be creating and studying a new material, made of aluminum monochloride,” said Hemmerling, an assistant professor...
Miguel Arratia, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy, has received a $508,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to perform experiments using the electron accelerator facility at the Jefferson Laboratory, or JLab, in Newport News, Virginia, the world’s premier laboratory for imaging the subatomic structure of matter. “We will use an intense electron...
Jonathan Richardson, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy; and Vagelis Papalexakis, an associate professor of computer science and engineering; have received a two-year, $300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, or NSF, to develop novel machine-learning methods capable of analyzing the physical origins of noise in LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory based at...
K enneth Barish, a professor of physics and astronomy, has received a three-year renewal grant of more than $1 million from the Department of Energy, or DOE, to support the activities of the Nucleon Spin Physics Group at UC Riverside. Physicists have made significant theoretical and experimental progress in understanding where the total spin of...
Fourteen UC Riverside faculty members have received highly coveted National Science Foundation CAREER Awards. The number shatters UCR’s record for CAREER Awards set only last year. CAREER Awards are given to faculty members to fund research that is expected to form a firm foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research. They...
Ming-Feng Ho, a doctoral student in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, has received a three-year fellowship from Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology, or FINESST, which supports research projects designed and performed by graduate students. Ho is one of 21 students to receive the prestigious fellowship out of 196 applicants...
Jonathan Richardson, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy, has received a grant of $480,000 from the National Science Foundation to develop advanced instrumentation for the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory, or LIGO, based at sites in Louisiana and Washington. Completed in 2002, LIGO detects gravitational waves — ripples in space that travel at the speed...
Supermassive black holes, or SMBHs, are black holes with masses that are several million to billion times the mass of our sun. The Milky Way hosts an SMBH with mass a few million times the solar mass. Surprisingly, astrophysical observations show that SMBHs already existed when the universe was very young. For example, a billion...
When two similar atomic layers with mismatching lattice constants — the constant distance between a layer’s unit cells — and/or orientation are stacked together, the resulting bilayer can exhibit a moiré pattern and form a moiré superlattice. Moiré patterns are interference patterns that typically arise when one object with a repetitive pattern is placed over...
As its name suggests, dark matter — material which makes up about 85% of the mass in the universe — emits no light, eluding easy detection. Its properties, too, remain fairly obscure. Now, a theoretical particle physicist at the University of California, Riverside, and colleagues have published a research paper in the Journal of High...
When he joined the U.S. Navy in 2010, Mychal Valle didn’t think he would ever return to school. After all, he got to work on new radar technologies in the navy and got recognized for writing technical manuals. But by the time he left the navy in 2016, Valle’s service helped him discover his passion...
