Astronomy & Astrophysics

专业介绍

The Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics (A&A) was approved for creation at UC San Diego in March 2023. The department’s vision was carefully developed over several years with the goal of establishing an autonomous astrophysics program. The A&A program aims to foster exciting growth and strengthen key research areas, enhance undergraduate and graduate education, and support initiatives in diversity, equity, and inclusion. The A&A department, founded by 12 faculty members in 2023, now hosts 18 faculty members who research a wide range of topics, including planetary science, exoplanets, stellar processes, galaxy formation and evolution, dark matter and dark energy, and cosmology.

The new A&A department builds upon a long and illustrious history of astronomy and astrophysics research and education at UC San Diego. Margaret and Geoffrey Burbidge were among the first members of the UC San Diego Physics department, arriving in 1962. Margaret Burbidge, who was the first Director of CASS, was a prominent figure in the field, known for her outstanding contributions to stellar nucleosynthesis and her meticulous observations of nearby and distant galaxies. Sally Ride, who joined the Physics faculty at UC San Diego in 1989, focused on non-linear optics and Thompson scattering and was an active member in science and astronomy outreach in the community. She developed an advanced mock NASA Control room in the CASS building to provide young middle school and high school students with interactive opportunities to learn about space flight, and her work continues today through Sally Ride Science. Art Wolfe performed early calculations of the effects of matter clumping on the appearance of the cosmic microwave background and conducted pioneering observations of damped Lyman-alpha absorption systems in quasar spectra, which provided early information on the physical conditions in distant young galaxies. From 2007 to 2023, theoretical astrophysicist George Fuller served as the CASS director and ushered in new growth with a large number of new faculty, researchers, and technical staff in various astrophysical research areas. Distinguished Professor Fuller, winner of the American Physical Society’s 2013 Hans A. Bethe Prize, is known for his work in theoretical astrophysics, especially regarding neutrinos, stars, and cosmology.