Mathematical & Physical Sciences

Stuart D. Bale has been awarded the 2025 Arctowski Medal for "revolutioniz[ing] our understanding of the energization of and heat transport in the solar wind." The Arctowski Medal is presented every two years to recognize outstanding contributions to the study of solar physics and solar terrestrial relationships. The Medal is presented with an award of $100,000, plus $100,000 to support research in solar physics and solar terrestrial relationships at an institution of the recipient’s choice. The Arctowski Medal was established in 1958 by the bequest of Jane Arctowska in honor of her...

Astronomer Calvin Leung was excited last summer to crunch data from a newly commissioned radio telescope to precisely pinpoint the origin of repeated bursts of intense radio waves — so-called fast radio bursts (FRBs) — emanating from somewhere in the northern constellation Ursa Minor.

Leung, a Miller Postdoctoral Fellowship recipient at the University of California, Berkeley, hopes eventually to understand the origins of these mysterious bursts and use them as probes to trace the large-scale structure of the universe, a...

Studying the physics of atomic particles takes a lot of room. The Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the biggest particle accelerator, is in a ring tunnel 27km (17 miles) long buried about two football fields deep underground. It serves as the factory, or artisanal manufacturer, of bespoke subatomic particles like quarks. But where is the design studio for these rare particle models? That would be the Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics (...

Ellin and Ned Purdom grew to appreciate astronomy later in life. Neither took astronomy courses in the 1970s while at UC Berkeley, where the two met. Now, they look forward to the Department of Astronomy’s Evening with the Stars lecture every year, and in February, the couple pledged $500,000 and a portion of their estate to advance student access and diversity in astronomy.