Gabrielle (Gabbie) Chang, a fourth-year undergraduate computer science major from Hinsdale, Illinois, has been awarded a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, a grant that offers graduating undergrads a year of independent study outside of the United States. During her project, Chang will spend time researching the computational topology of knitted structures in Japan, volunteering on sheep […]

Arden L. Albee, professor of geology and planetary science, emeritus, and chief scientist at JPL, passed away March 19, 2025. He was 96. Albee conducted petrological investigations in the United States and Greenland, and eventually of material from the Moon and Mars.Albee was born and raised in Michigan, the son of two school teachers. He […]

Over the last 150 years, humans have emitted over 2,000 gigatons of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere, increasing the CO2 concentration by 50 percent from pre-Industrial Revolution levels.While some of that carbon remains in the atmosphere or is absorbed by the oceans, about one-third goes back into the land, "eaten" by plants that consume […]

Increasing energy demands and problems associated with burning fossil fuels have heightened interest in more sustainable energy sources, such as sunlight. But there are still areas where carbon-based fuel remains the standard, such as in the aviation industry. To address this need, scientists have been working to devise a way to use sunlight to generate […]

In the effort to build superconducting quantum computers, researchers around the world are working to develop electrical circuits that operate in the microwave domain using individual particles of microwave radiation, or microwave photons, as qubits—the basic building blocks of quantum computing. These microwave qubits are a leading approach to building quantum computers due to their […]

In the wake of the Eaton fire, Caltech researchers working with community members, business owners, and schools in Altadena and Pasadena have quickly deployed a network of particulate air quality sensors on rooftops in and around the burned areas of Altadena. The network, dubbed PHOENIX (Post-fire airborne Hazard Observation Environmental Network for Integrated Xposure-monitoring), aims […]

Walter Massey—inspiring leader, physicist, chair of the Giant Magellan Telescope Organization, president emeritus of Morehouse College and of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, former director of the National Science Foundation, and former director of Argonne National Laboratory—will deliver the keynote address at Caltech's 131st Annual Commencement Ceremony on June 13, 2025."Massey's extraordinary […]

Ion Caltech Today—a reimagined version of Caltech Today designed to deliver daily doses of the campus information and announcements you normally see here—will launch Monday, March 31.Ion Caltech Today—which can be bookmarked after launch at ion.caltech.edu — will feature these sections:Keep an Ion It, focusing on announcements and upcoming events;Construction and Parking, detailing construction impacts […]

What does oil have to do with making movies? On March 26, 2025, at 7:30 p.m. PDT in Caltech's Beckman Auditorium, Brian Jacobson, professor of visual culture, will discuss how Hollywood grew up alongside the oil industry in Los Angeles and how the extractive industries used films to influence how people thought about our world.In […]

Pamela Björkman, the David Baltimore Professor of Biology and Biological Engineering; and Jim Eisenstein, the Frank J. Roshek Professor of Physics and Applied Physics, Emeritus; have each been awarded the Wolf Prize in their respective fields.According to the Wolf Foundation, the Wolf Prize "acknowledges scientists and artists worldwide for their outstanding achievements in advancing science […]