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Professor of Physics
Astrophysics Black Holes and Neutron Stars Fundamental Physics Physics Quantum Computers Space

Adhikari is an experimental physicist with interests in fundamental physics including tests of gravity and quantum mechanics. His group focuses on techniques for precision measurement as related to gravitational-wave detection and new fundamental physics. He is a key member of the LIGO team.

Bren Professor of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Biology

Adolphs works with a variety of tools, including fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging), eye tracking, and recording electrical activity in the brain to see how people recognize, perceive, and process emotions and other social cues in facial expressions. He studies individuals with various neurological profiles, including those with focal brain damage, autism, Williams syndrome, and neurosurgical patients who have electrodes in their brains.

Flintridge Foundation Professor of Political and Computational Social Science

Alvarez's research focuses on public opinion and voting behavior, election technology and administration, electoral politics, political campaigns, and statistical and computational modeling. He has long been interested in empirically testing formal models of elections and voting.

Bren Professor of Mechanical and Civil Engineering and Control and Dynamical Systems

Ames' research interests center on robotics, including the mathematics of bipedal walking and powered prosthetics. He has teamed up with Joel Burdick on the Robotic Assisted Mobility Science Initiative (RoAMS), which combines spinal cord implants with powered exosuits to return mobility to paraplegics.

Bren Professor of Computing and Mathematical Sciences

Anandkumar has done seminal work in Artificial Intelligence (AI) impacting a broad range of scientific domains. She developed the first AI-based high-resolution weather model, tens of thousands of times faster than current forecasting systems, that is running at weather agencies, and widely adopted by both academia and industry. Her AI algorithms have enabled many other scientific advances such as designing a novel medical device, inventing an anti-cancer drug currently in clinical trials, and safer autonomous drone flights. These are built on the foundations of Neural Operators, an AI framework she developed for scientific modeling and solving partial differential equations (PDE).

Seymour Benzer Professor of Biology; Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute for Neuroscience Leadership Chair; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Director, Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute for Neuroscience

Anderson's research focuses on understanding how emotional behavior is encoded in the brain, at the level of specific neuronal circuits, and the specific neuronal subtypes that comprise them. This information will provide a framework for understanding how and where in the brain emotions are influenced by genetic variation and environmental influence, and may someday lead to improved drugs to treat psychiatric disorders such as depression.

Professor of Mechanical and Civil Engineering
Civil Engineering Earthquakes Engineering

Asimaki studies the dynamic response of topographic features and geotechnical systems to natural and man-made hazards, with emphasis on earthquakes. The work exists at the interface between civil engineering and earth sciences and aims to the design of resilient urban infrastructure systems.

Professor of Planetary Science

Batygin studies a wide variety of problems related to the formation and evolution of the Solar System, the evolution of exoplanets, and the physical processes of planetary interiors and atmospheres. Together with Mike Brown, he has proposed the existence of an as-yet-undiscovered ninth planet in the Solar System, and continues to use computer modeling and orbital dynamics to constrain the location and size of the missing planet.

Richard and Barbara Rosenberg Professor of Planetary Astronomy; Terence D. Barr Leadership Chair, Center for Comparative Planetary Evolution; Director, Caltech Center for Comparative Planetary Evolution

Brown is the "Pluto Killer" whose discovery of Eris led to Pluto's demotion to a dwarf planet. Together with Konstantin Batygin, he has proposed the existence of an as-yet-undiscovered ninth planet in the Solar System, and continues to use computer modeling and orbital dynamics to constrain the location and size of the missing planet.

Professor of Geology
Geochemistry Geology Plate Tectonics

Bucholz investigates a variety of questions related to the formation of the continental crust, subduction zones (where one tectonic plate slips beneath another), and variations in the chemistry and character of igneous rocks.

Assistant Professor of Physics; William H. Hurt Scholar
Astrophysics Black Holes and Neutron Stars Fundamental Physics Gravitational Waves Physics Space

Chatziioannou is a member of the LIGO team and an expert in gravitational-wave science, including the physics of extreme objects, such as black holes and neutron stars. She is also a member of the NANOGrav team.

Staff Scientist

Christiansen is a staff scientist at Caltech's IPAC astronomy center; chief scientist of the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute; and project scientist of the NASA Exoplanet Archive.

She specializes in exoplanet science, and analyzes data from the extension of NASA's Kepler mission, called K2, as well as NASA's TESS mission. She helps develop citizen-science projects involving exoplanets, and, in 2022, gave a popular TED Talk on exoplanets.

She is the most successful woman planet hunter in the world, and is helping plan NASA's next generation of flagship missions, including the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, and the Habitable Worlds Observatory.

Bren Professor of Control and Dynamical Systems; Jet Propulsion Laboratory Senior Research Scientist

Chung leads the Autonomous Robotics and Control Lab at Caltech, an affiliated lab of the Caltech Center for Autonomous Systems and Technologies. He works on autonomy, dynamics and control, and robotic perception of various autonomous vehicles and robots including self-driving cars, drones, and spacecraft. His research speciality also includes swarm flight on earth and in space, and has been developing space flight missions for space swarms with JPL. His recent work focuses on safety and robustness of Machine Learning and AI based Control Systems.

Visiting Associate in Geophysics

Cochran is an observational seismologist at the United States Geological Survey in Pasadena, California. She conducts research on human-induced earthquakes, earthquake early warning, earthquake triggering, rupture processes, and seismic wave propagation.

G. Bradford Jones Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Physics; Investigator, Heritage Medical Research Institute

Daraio is developing new materials with advanced mechanical and sensing properties, for application in wearable medical devices, robotics and vibrations control. She developed new materials and methods for acoustic imaging and thermal sensing in medicine and health monitoring. She also built soft robots capable of motion without motors, using controlled material deformation instead. Lately, she has been focusing on solutions for haptic technologies in human-computer interactions.

Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering, and Biophysics
Biology Chemistry Engineering Gut Microbiome Microbes Physics

Datta studies the dynamics of complex, soft ("squishy"), and living systems to address challenges in biotechnology, energy, medicine, and sustainability. His work primarily focuses on microbial collectivescomplex fluids, and porous hydrogels.

Professor of Astronomy and Data Science
Dark Matter and Dark Energy Data Science Sky Surveys Space

Djorgovski has worked on a number of subjects in extragalactic astronomy and cosmology, including properties, formation, and evolution of galaxies and quasars, gravitational lenses, dark energy, large digital sky surveys and big data astronomy, applications of machine learning and AI for scientific data analysis, data science and its methodology transfer between different disciplines, and others.

Robert P. Sharp Professor of Geology and Geochemistry; Ted and Ginger Jenkins Leadership Chair, Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences
Chemistry Climate and Sustainability Exoplanets Geochemistry Geology Planetary Science Space

Eiler's research focuses on the application of stable isotope geochemistry to answer fundamental questions about Earth, and in the environmental and planetary sciences. His pioneering instrumentation and techniques have been used to determine how dinosaurs regulated their body heat, how organic molecules formed in space, and more.

Professor of Geobiology

Fischer studies the coevolution of life and Earth surface environments through diverse and fundamental transitions in Earth history—singularities that forever changed the way in which these partners interact—to understand these transitions mechanistically and in detail.

Professor of Medical Engineering; Investigator, Heritage Medical Research Institute

Gao is developing the next generation of wearable health monitors, including ones capable of wirelessly monitoring key indicators of health (including salts, sugars, uric acid, amino acids, and vitamins as well as more complex molecules like C-reactive protein) through sweat.

Hans W. Liepmann Professor of Aeronautics and Medical Engineering; Booth-Kresa Leadership Chair, Center for Autonomous Systems and Technologies; Director, Graduate Aerospace Laboratories; Director, Center for Autonomous Systems and Technologies

Gharib runs Caltech's robotics research center, CAST. In addition, he has pioneered several biomedical breakthroughs that are currently improving human lives, including an eye stint for glaucoma patients, a heart valve inspired by dragonfly larvae, and an app that measures heart health through signals in blood flow.

John D. MacArthur Professor of Theoretical Physics and Mathematics

Gukov's work is focused on developing AI systems that can tackle hard research-level math problems. Solving challenging mathematical tasks (such as proving or disproving long-standing conjectures or establishing difficult theorems) often requires discovering intricate, multi-step solutions. His team's mission is to use these hard mathematical problems as environments to design new AI algorithms and architectures that can identify rare solutions carrying disproportionately high rewards.

Donald A. Glaser Professor of Physics; Executive Officer for Physics

Hsieh is an experimental condensed matter physicist. He and his group search for and study new quantum phases of matter in solids using a variety of laser-based spectroscopic techniques. They work on materials including metals, insulators, magnets, semiconductors and superconductors. The work has potential applications in faster, more efficient computers and electronic devices, quantum computers, and other quantum technologies.

Research Scientist and Director of Astrophysics Outreach
Asteroids Astrophysics Black Holes and Neutron Stars Dark Matter and Dark Energy Sky Surveys Space

As the Director of Astrophysics Outreach at Caltech, Hummels is an expert at simplifying complicated topics in physics and astronomy for broad audiences.  He hosts the popular Stargazing Lectures and Astronomy on Tap events, organizes star parties in national parks, has served as scientific consultant on several sci-fi films, and gives frequent public astronomy lectures around California and beyond.

Hummels is an expert in galaxies and the processes that dictate their formation and evolution over cosmic time including star formation, supernovae, and black holes. By building and running complex simulations of galaxies on supercomputers, Dr. Hummels studies the interplay between galaxies and their environments, making predictions for the next generation of space-based telescopes like James Webb and the Habitable Worlds Observatory.

Visualization Scientist
Astrophysics Black Holes and Neutron Stars Dark Matter and Dark Energy Gravitational Waves Space

Hurt is an astronomer who specializes in creating illustrations and animations to help explain astronomy, physics, and other groundbreaking science. He focuses on distilling complex concepts into clear visuals that help people understand the underlying science. His graphics have been used by news outlets across the world and appeared on covers of major research journals. This work includes photographic renderings of observational data, compelling artist's concepts of astrophysical phenomena and exotic exoplanets, and videos that delve into the science of cosmic discoveries.

Professor of Visual Culture

Jacobson is a historian of modern visual culture and media. His research focuses on world making and the creation of artificial environments, from media architecture and visual representation to energy infrastructure, climate control, and terraforming.

Visiting Associate in Geophysics
Earthquakes Seismology

Dr. Jones worked as a seismologist at the US Geological Survey for 33 years where she developed the methodology used for earthquake advisories in the State of California, created the Great ShakeOut drill, encompassing over 60 million participants globally in 2019, served as Science Advisor for Seismic Safety for the Mayor of Los Angeles and wrote over 100 published papers on statistical seismology and integrated disaster scenarios.

Professor of Astronomy
Asteroids Astrophysics Black Holes and Neutron Stars Gravitational Waves Sky Surveys Space

Kasliwal specializes in observations of supernovae, colliding neutron stars, and other explosive cosmic events. She has developed small infrared-seeing telescopes at Palomar Observatory that scan the night skies for rapidly changing events, and she is involved with the Zwicky Transient Facility instrument at Palomar, which also scans the skies for changing objects but uses visible light. She is the principal investigator of GROWTH (Global Relay of Observatories Watching Transients Happen), a international project in astronomy that studies the physics of fast-changing events in the cosmos.

Professor of Planetary Science; Divisional Academic Officer for Geological and Planetary Sciences

Knutson uses a combination of space- and ground-based telescopes to characterize the properties of planets orbiting nearby stars. This includes determining whether they are primarily made of gas or rock, checking to see what gases are present in their atmospheres, and (for gas giant planets) studying their clouds and atmospheric circulation patterns (for example: How hot is the day side and how cold is the night side?).

Research Professor of Mechanical and Civil Engineering

Kohler's research uses technological advances in sensor and internet-of-things developments to conduct real-time vibration monitoring of the ground, and mid-rise and high-rise buildings to study damage and failure events. She focuses on tomographic inverse methods and forward dynamic computations applied to observed and numerically simulated datasets due to earthquake, wind event, explosion, and human-generated vibration sources.

Professor of History and Social Science, Emeritus

Kousser is a prizewinning historian of voting rights and civil rights in the United States from 1880 forward. He has served as an expert witness or consultant in over 60 federal or state voting rights cases. He also testified before the House Judiciary Committee about the renewal of the Voting Rights Act in 1981 and 2019.  

Professor of Geology
Geology

Lamb's work explores the movement of sediment and soil, and how that shapes the surface of the earth and other planets. In Southern California, he studies debris flows that follow wildfires in the area's hilly regions. He also currently studies the Mississippi River and land loss along the Gulf Coast, and river dynamics in Arctic Alaska. Lamb runs the Caltech Earth Surface Dynamics Laboratory, a 4000 sq. ft. high-bay space to build physical models of rivers in permafrost, mountain rivers and river deltas.

Luis B. and Nelly Soux Professor of Microbiology; Merkin Institute Professor
Gut Microbiome

Immunologic and neurologic imbalances underlie many diseases. The human body represents a scaffold upon which multitudes of commensal species build residence, creating a diverse ecosystem with members of five of the six kingdoms of life. Mechanisms that mediate the interdependent and complex interactions between the microbiome and animals, as well as their influences on human health, represent an exciting frontier of science and medicine. Our laboratory aims to discover how gut bacteria influence the development and function of the immune and nervous systems, with the goal of understanding mechanisms by which the microbiome contributes to the critical balance between health and disease.

Professor of Physics

Newman searches for new physics: new particles, interactions and physical principles at the Large Hadron Collider, including the use of machine learning methods. He studies the discovery potential of future colliders; new crystals and heavy glasses for precision measurements at future colliders; and the development of the next generation networks and global distributed systems for data-intensive science programs.

Fred Kavli Professor of Theoretical Physics and Mathematics; Director, Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics

Oguri studies quantum field theory, quantum gravity, and string theory. He explores mathematical structures in these theories and uses them to develop new theoretical tools for solving fundamental questions in physics. His work in physics has also inspired progress in mathematics.

Professor of Physics

Patterson is an experimental physicist studying the fundamental particles and forces of nature. His work includes large-scale experiments to measure the properties of neutrinos, to understand their influence on the evolution of the universe and its constituents, and to look for evidence of new physical phenomena.

Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics; Allen V. C. Davis and Lenabelle Davis Leadership Chair, Institute for Quantum Science and Technology

Preskill began his career in particle physics and cosmology, but now his main research area is quantum information science. He's interested in how to build and use quantum computers, and in how our deepening understanding of quantum information can illuminate issues in fundamental physics.

Theodore Y. Wu Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering
Climate and Sustainability Climate Modeling

Schneider is a climate scientist and professor at Caltech. His research has focused on the intensification of rainfall extremes due to global warming, the destabilizing effects of cloud cover changes on the climate system, and the dynamics of winds and weather on Earth and other planets. He is currently leading the Climate Modeling Alliance, an initiative aimed at developing the first climate model that uses machine learning to enhance the accuracy and usability of climate predictions. He has served on numerous national and international committees on AI in science and climate risks, including in the National Academies of Science and Engineering and the White House.

Professor of Philosophy

Sebens studies the philosophy of physics, focusing on the foundations of quantum mechanics, classical field theory, and quantum field theory.

Professor of Economics and Mathematics

Tamuz works in both mathematics and microeconomic theory, and is an expert in probability.

Staff Seismologist
Earthquakes Geology Seismology

Gabrielle Tepp is the Caltech Seismological Laboratory's staff seismologist. She works for the regional seismic network on a variety of tasks, including seismic analysis for earthquakes, evaluating and maintaining the earthquake catalog quality, bringing new analysis tools and data into realtime monitoring, and assisting with software development and maintenance. Previously, she has conducted research on earthquake detection, volcano seismology, and hydroacoustics of submarine volcanoes.

Professor of Geochemistry; Investigator, Heritage Medical Research Institute

Tissot examines the isotopic composition of meteorites to understand the early solar system and how planetary bodies, including the Earth, evolved. Isotopes, which are twin versions of an element differing only in their number of neutrons, are also tracers of physicochemical processes at all scales, including galactic chemical evolution, planetary differentiation, and even human migrations.

Assistant Professor of History
American Political History History Politics

Wiggins is the author of Black Excellence: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Black Liberalism. In it, she reinterprets post-1960s black politics by situating black liberals' seemingly conservative, often punitive policies within a longer black liberal tradition. Emerging in response to the violence of white supremacy, black liberalism contained an enduring disciplinary impulse in which liberal leaders aimed to excise black pathology and cultivate instead black excellence.

Professor of Theoretical Physics
Dark Matter and Dark Energy Fundamental Physics Particle and Nuclear Physics Space

Zurek is a theoretical physicist specializing in innovative ideas explaining the mysterious nature of dark matter and space-time. She develops theories in collaboration with others to create table-top experiments that can test theories of dark matter, including the hidden sector theory she helped develop, as well as theories of quantum gravity.