Sarah Reisman, Bren Professor of Chemistry and Norman Davidson Leadership Chair of the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, has been awarded this year's Richard P. Feynman Prize for Excellence in Teaching, Caltech's highest teaching prize.Reisman's research focuses on the chemical synthesis of organic molecules produced in nature by bacteria, fungi, or plants, and seeks […]

Scientists sifting through archival data captured by NASA's former NEOWISE mission found an unusual star that quickly disappeared, fading to nothing more than a wispy shell. Their conclusion: The star, a dying supergiant named M31-2014-DS1 located in the Andromeda Galaxy, imploded into a black hole instead of undergoing the more common scenario in which a […]

Caltech's Joseph E. Shepherd (PhD '81) and Shouleh Nikzad (PhD '90), chief technologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), have been elected to membership in the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). The 2026 class, which includes 130 members and 28 international members, was announced on February 10.Membership in the NAE is an honor afforded to […]

Parker Thompson, a second-year undergraduate in applied and computational mathematics, secretary of the Associated Students of the California Institute of Technology (ASCIT), and a peer advocate, died on February 3, 2026. He was 19 years old.In a note to the Caltech community, President Thomas F. Rosenbaum, the Sonja and William Davidow Presidential Chair and professor […]

The planets in our solar system grew out of a disk of material that swirled around our Sun. Inner rocky planets formed as tiny grains stuck together, becoming pebbles, then boulders, and, ultimately, full-grown planets. The outer gas and ice giant planets also accumulated cores of rocky material, which then attracted halos of cooler gas […]

Earth's biosphere is brimming with symbiotic relationships: from bacteria that became our cells' mitochondria, to mycorrhizal fungi that help plants grow, to the myriad mites, wasps, worms, and flies that make a living by parasitizing other animals.Symbiosis often appears to be a one-way street: When it evolves, there is no going back as symbionts become […]

George Rossman (PhD '71), professor of mineralogy, emeritus, passed away on February 6, 2026. He was 81.Rossman was born on August 3, 1944, in La Crosse, Wisconsin. He spent his childhood in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, a lumber town in the state's densely wooded northwest. Rossman cultivated a passion for the natural sciences throughout his childhood, […]

Right now, molecules in the air are moving around you in chaotic and unpredictable ways. To make sense of such systems, physicists use a law known as the Boltzmann distribution, which, rather than describe exactly where each particle is, describes the chance of finding the system in any of its possible states. This allows them […]

Caltech scientists have developed a way to guide light on silicon wafers with low signal loss approaching that of optical fiber at visible wavelengths. This accomplishment paves the way for a new generation of ultra-coherent and efficient photonic integrated circuits (PICs), which will have a profound impact in a variety of on-chip applications including precision […]

Can we reimagine the way we power modern life? On Wednesday, February 25, 2026, Kimberly See, professor of chemistry, will discuss her group's research on next-generation battery chemistry that may lead to more efficient and sustainable ways of energizing the world.In a public talk titled "Chasing Sustainable Battery Chemistries for the Future," See will explain […]