News
Stay informed about our group's research highlights, notable achievements, and key activities. You can also find updates on the PI's X/Twitter page. Below, you'll find news from 2022 onward. To explore updates from before 2022, click on the corresponding year below or visit our dedicated earlier news page.
2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016
2025
-
03/03/2025
Postdoc Jani Penttala and graduate student Diego Padilla participated in the Physics Opportunities at an Electron-Ion Collider XI conference, held from February 24–28 in Miami, Florida. They presented their latest research findings and engaged in discussions with the broader community. More details about the event can be found here.
-
02/21/2025
Our group had a pizza lunch together—always the best time! Great food, great company, and lots of laughs!
-
01/15/2025
Prof. Zhongbo Kang has been invited to join the National Advisory Committee for the Institute for Nuclear Theory (INT) at the University of Washington, Seattle, for the term 2025 to 2027. As the Department of Energy’s national center for nuclear theory, INT provides a collaborative environment where scientists can advance the frontiers of subatomic physics through cutting-edge scientific programs.
-
01/10/2025
We host the 2025 California EIC Consortium Collaboration Meeting from January 9 to 10, 2025. Even though the unexpected wildfire in Los Angeles has caused significant uncertainty and that made our meeting to be hybrid, we still have a productive meeting. You can find more details on the meeting website.
2024
-
12/23/2024
We have some fantastic news to share: let's all congratulate Xoán Mayo López on receiving and accepting a postdoctoral fellowship at the MIT Center for Theoretical Physics! Congratulations, Xoán!
-
12/12/2024
We bid farewell to Xoán Mayo López from the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain, who arrived at UCLA on September 28. During his visit, we accomplished a lot together: one paper was completed, several projects are now underway, and he delivered an excellent seminar to conclude his stay. Many thanks to Professor Carlos A. Salgado for sending such a talented and collaborative student. We look forward to more fruitful collaborations in the future!
-
12/11/2024
Robert Kao successfully passed his qualifying oral exam this afternoon and has officially advanced to PhD candidacy. Congratulations! -
12/05/2024
Luke Sellers has won the Outstanding TA Award from the department for the second year in a row! Huge congratulations to Luke!
-
12/05/2024
Fidele Twagirayezu successfully defended his thesis this morning! We can now officially call him Dr. Twagirayezu - huge congratulations!
-
11/28/2024
Jani Penttala participated in the Light Cone 2024 conference, where he presented his recent research findings.
-
11/03/2024
At UCLA’s Exploring Your Universe 2024 today, the largest campus science fair, Zhongbo presented a public lecture “In Rutherford’s Footsteps: What Makes Up Everything Around Us?” Postdoc Jani Penttala, together with graduate student Diego Padilla, led a Particle Physics booth featuring a miniature cloud chamber, where visitors had the opportunity to observe the fascinating tracks of subatomic particles.
-
10/17/2024
Zhongbo presented a colloquium titled “Quantum Imaging of the Proton: New Windows into the Strong Force” at UC Riverside’s Department of Physics and Astronomy.
-
10/16/2024
We just took a new group photo! It’s always wonderful to capture these moments together. Everyone looks fantastic, don’t you think?
-
10/10/2024
John Terry, a former graduate student at UCLA and now a Director’s Postdoctoral Fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory, delivered this year’s Fanyi Zhao Memorial Lecture today. His talk, titled “Imaging the Building Blocks of the Universe”, offered valuable insights into 3D imaging of the nucleus and concluded with fond recollections and personal memories of Fanyi Zhao.
-
09/30/2024
Excited to welcome Xoán Mayo López, a graduate student from Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, working with Prof. Carlos Salgado. He'll be joining us for the entire quarter - looking forward to great collaborations ahead.
-
09/26/2024
Zhongbo delivered a colloquium titled “Strong Interaction Physics at the Electron-Ion Collider” at the Department of Physics and Astronomy, California State University, Los Angeles. -
09/18/2024
Many thanks to Dr. Shohini Bhattacharya from Los Alamos National Laboratory for her wonderful visit and the insightful seminar she delivered. Her time at UCLA was filled with engaging discussions and valuable exchanges of ideas. We truly appreciate her contributions and look forward to future collaborations!
-
08/30/2024
Our group recently enjoyed a wonderful lunch at a local Persian restaurant, sharing great food, excellent company, and lively conversations about our latest projects and ideas in physics. While not everyone could attend, those who did had a fantastic time together!
-
08/13/2024
Special thanks to Prof. Tuomas Lappi from the University of Jyväskylä for a wonderful visit and insightful discussions.
-
08/08/2024
Congratulations to incoming graduate student Noah Moran for receiving UCLA's Competitive Edge Fellowship from the Graduate Division, which supports his research during the summer before his first year. -
07/27/2024
Our graduate student, Diego Padilla, participated in the 36th National Nuclear Physics Summer School (NNPSS), held from July 15 to 26, 2024, at Indiana University, Bloomington. For more information about the school, click here.
-
07/03/2024
Zhongbo served once again this year on the 2025 APS Division of Nuclear Physics Dissertation Award Committee. -
06/29/2024
Jani Penttala delivered two lectures at the Midsummer School in QCD 2024, held in Saariselkä, Finland, from June 28 to 29, 2024. The lectures were well-received, and we congratulate Jani on his excellent presentations!
-
06/15/2024
Our graduate student, Luke Sellers, participated in the 2024 CFNS Summer School on the Physics of the Electron-Ion Collider, held at Stony Brook University from June 3 to 14, 2024.
-
06/10/2024
Many thanks to Drs. Wenyang Qian and Meijian Li from the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain, for a productive visit. Over the course of one and a half months, they gave insightful lectures on quantum simulations, delivered engaging seminars, and collaborated on research projects with our group. Their contributions have been invaluable, and we look forward to continuing the collaboration.
-
12/19/2024
Many thanks to Dr. Joao Barata from Brookhaven National Laboratory for visiting us and giving a nice seminar at UCLA. We truly appreciated the engaging discussions and the insights he shared during his visit.
-
05/23/2024
Kyle Lee has been awarded the inaugural Electron-Ion Collider Users Group Award (2024 EICUG Award)! Congratulations, Kyle!
-
05/22/2024
Ryan Babbush, the Director of Google's Quantum Algorithms and Applications Team, recently visited UCLA and delivered an exceptional seminar. During his visit, Zhongbo had an engaging discussion with him, gaining valuable insights into the latest advancements in quantum computing.
-
05/10/2024
Many thanks to Dr. Xin-Nian Wang from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for a great visit and an excellent seminar. We deeply appreciate the time and effort he took to share his expertise and engage in insightful discussions with our group.
-
05/09/2024
Jani visited the Institute for Nuclear Theory at the University of Washington in Seattle from May 6 to 10, where he delivered a nuclear physics seminar. He presented our recent work on "Transverse energy-energy correlators in the Color-Glass Condensate." -
05/08/2024
Many thanks to Dr. Kazuki Ikeda from Stony Brook University for visiting us and delivering an interesting seminar. We appreciate the engaging discussions and valuable insights he shared during his time here.
-
03/21/2024
Fidele passed the oral qualifying exam and has successfully advanced to the Ph.D. candidacy. Congratulations! -
03/12/2024
Had the opportunity to visit this remarkable facility, soon to be transformed into the UCLA Research Park—home to the California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy, as well as the UCLA Center for Quantum Science and Engineering. It’s an impressive space dedicated to advancing research and innovation.
-
03/08/2024
We extend our heartfelt thanks to Prof. Wick Haxton from UC Berkeley and Berkeley Lab for delivering an insightful colloquium at UCLA titled "Open Questions in Neutrino Physics".
-
03/01/2024
Warm congratulations to Farid Salazar on securing a tenure-track assistant professor position at Temple University! Farid worked with us as a joint postdoc between UCLA and UC Berkeley/LBNL from October 2021 to November 2023. -
02/23/2024
To strengthen the ties between theory and experimental postdocs, Zhongbo and postdocs in the nuclear group, Yiyu Zhou, Zhongling Ji, and Jani Penttala had a lunch together.
-
01/24/2024
The Physics and Astronomy department front page highlighted "Students of the Ph.D. Physics Bridge program along with faculty and program directors". Zhongbo is currently serving as the program director.
2023
-
12/12/2023
Our undergraduate student, Congyue Zhang, has been selected for the 2023 - 2024 Undergraduate Research Fellows Program (URFP). -
12/07/2023
Today, Jared Reiten successfully defended his thesis "Statistical aspects of jets containing heavy quarks".
-
12/04/2023
We were delighted to welcome John Terry from Los Alamos National Laboratory back for a visit this week.
-
12/01/2023
Zhongbo, the current director of the UCLA-APS Physics Bridge Program, organized a delightful lunch gathering with all the bridge students. Joining the event were department chair Prof. Stuart Brown, DEI committee chair Prof. Smadar Naoz, graduate advisors Brenda Buenrostro and Francoise Queval (our program administrative director), as well as the program's previous director, Prof. Josh Samani. It was a wonderful opportunity to foster community and celebrate the program's efforts in advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion.
-
09/18/2023
We successfully held the "50 Years of Quantum Chromodynamics" conference at UCLA, to celebrate the asymptotic freedom of the strong interaction, that was discovered in 1973 by David Gross, Frank Wilczek, and David Politzer, who shared the Nobel Prize in physics in 2004. See more information on the indico page. Prof. Frank Wilczek gave the opening speech at the meeting, while Prof. David Gross gave a public lecture. All the talks at the conference are outstanding and are available at Bhaumik Institute YouTube channel. Zhongbo has served as the organizing committee chair.
-
09/05/2023
Dr. Jani Penttala has joined our group as a postdoctoral scholar, jointly with DOE's Saturated Glue (SURGE) topical collaboration. Welcome, Jani!
-
09/01/2023
Zhongbo was invited to give four lectures on "TMD Theory and Phenomenology" at the TIDC Autumn School on Electron-Ion Collider held at National Taiwan University in Taipei from August 28 - 30, 2023.
-
08/22/2023
Several of our group members, Andrew Larkoski, Farid Salazar, Yiyu Zhou, Jared Reiten, Mishary Alrashed, Rares Fota, Congyue Zhang, and Zhongbo Kang, attended the California EIC Consortium Collaboration Meeting held at UC Berkeley during August 21 - 22.
-
07/11/2023
Zhongbo was invited to give two lectures on "QCD Factorization and Nucleon Structure" at the 2023 National Nuclear Physics Summer School held at UC Riverside from July 10 - 21.
-
07/01/2023
Thanks a lot to BNL EIC Theory Institute for generous support, Zhongbo attended the CFNS Workshop - TMDs: Towards a Synergy between Lattice QCD and Global Analysis held at Stony Brook University during June 21 - 23, participated in the 25th year anniversary of RIKEN BNL Research Center on June 22, and SURGE collaboration meeting held at Brookhaven National Laboratory during June 28 - 30.
-
06/18/2023
Today, Fanyi gave a student speech representing the Ph.D. community at the department commencement ceremony. Congratulations!
-
06/16/2023
Fidele attended the HUGS 2023 summer school held at Jefferson Lab during May 30 to June 16. The program is designed for experimental and theoretical nuclear and particle physics.
-
05/30/2023
Today, we had farewell lunch for our postdoc Farid Salazar. Farid will leave UCLA to spend half a year at Berkeley (the Berkeley portion of his joint postdoc appointment) before he heads to UW Seattle. We are really happy to have Farid with us and good luck for his future career.
-
05/25/2023
Congratulations to incoming graduate students, Tanner Janda and Diego Padilla, for receiving UCLA's Competitive Edge Fellowship from the Graduate Division, which supports them to start research in the year-zero summer. -
05/18/2023
It’s really nice to chat with Prof. Ivan Deutsch from the Center for Quantum Information and Control (CQuIC), University of New Mexico and to listen to his great seminar.
-
05/15/2023
Zhongbo has been invited to serve on the APS Division of Nuclear Physics Dissertation Award Selection Committee. -
05/11/2023
Zhongbo had a great time visiting Stony Brook University and giving a seminar at the Center for Frontiers in Nuclear Science.
-
05/03/2023
We were delighted to host Prof. Alexei Prokudin, who delivered an insightful seminar at UCLA.
-
04/13/2023
A heartfelt thank you to Zhite Yu from Michigan State University for an engaging visit and an insightful seminar. We greatly appreciated the productive discussions and the exchange of ideas.
-
04/12/2023
We are thrilled to announce that our work on jet charge, led by Andrew, Jinghong, and Zhongbo, has been honored as an Editors' Suggestion in Physical Review Letters. By starting with four fundamental assumptions about nonperturbative QCD, we've gained new insights into the classic observable, jet charge, which successfully explains prior collider experimental observations. [Link to Paper]
-
04/11/2023
Congratulations to Rares Fota and Congyue Zhang, who have just received the department REU fellowship to work on the research projects with us in the summer.
-
03/20/2023
Zhongbo attended the first BNL EIC Theory Institute Advisory Board meeting today. -
03/17/2023
Jared Reiten received a department's Outstanding Teaching Award as a teaching assistant. Zhongbo received the Teacher of the Year Award or the Abelmann Prize for Teaching Excellence.
-
03/14/2023
Congratulations to our postdoc, Farid Salazar, who has received a remarkable offer from the Institute for Nuclear Theory (INT) at UW Seattle to become a research assistant professor or an INT junior fellow, one of the most prestigious opportunities in the field of nuclear theory.
-
03/13/2023
Many thanks to Prof. Yang-Ting Chien from Georgia State University for giving an excellent seminar today.
-
03/09/2023
Prof. Haiyan Gao, associate lab director of Brookhaven National Laboratory and Henry W. Newson Distinguished Professor of Physics at Duke University, gave today's department colloquium titled "The Structure of the Nucleon."
-
02/22/2023
Prof. Bernd Surrow of Temple University had a short visit to our group today.
-
01/30/2023
We had a successful and productive California EIC Consortium Collaboration Meeting. The next in-person collaboration meeting will be held at the Berkeley campus in the summer of 2023.
-
01/13/2023
Zhongbo has been appointed to the SURGE Steering Committee and will additionally take on the role of convener for the Working Group on Small-x evolution and NLO calculations. Saturated Glue (SURGE) is a Topical Theory Collaboration supported by the DOE Office of Science.
-
01/09/2023
We are happy to announce that the California EIC Consortium Collaboration Meeting will be held at UCLA during January 27 - 28, 2023. See here for details. -
01/02/2023
Proud to showcase our framed group picture—a wonderful memory of our team's collaboration and achievements.
-
01/01/2023
We are thrilled to announce that in the Fall of 2023, Fanyi Zhao will be joining the Center for Theoretical Physics at MIT as a postdoctoral fellow. Congratulations, Fanyi! We wish you all the best in your future endeavors.
2022
-
12/12/2022
Brookhaven National Laboratory has formed the BNL EIC Theory Institute to broaden and deepen our understanding of the scientific opportunities that will be made possible by the EIC. Zhongbo will serve on the External Advisory Board of this EIC Theory Institute.
-
12/09/2022
Our theory group is among the five topical theory collaborations in nuclear physics funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. We belong to the "SURGE - Saturated Glue Topical Collaboration." The funding will support our collaborative efforts within the collaboration for the next five years. See here for more information, as well as a BNL news item.
-
12/07/2022
Our work "Nuclear Modification of Transverse Momentum Dependent Parton Distribution Functions by a Global QCD Analysis" was published in Physical Review Letters.
-
11/06/2022
For this year's Exploring Your Universe science fair at UCLA, Zhongbo presented a public lecture on Electron-Ion Collider. After the talk, Zhongbo and his son set up a VR (via Meta Quest 2) for interested kids to explore the beautiful particle collisions. The talk and the VR were well received, and we had a lot of fun talking to parents and kids.
-
10/28/2022
Grace presented a poster on her research work "Simulation of jet production at the future Electron-Ion Collider" at the recent APS Division of Nuclear Physics Fall Meeting.
-
10/27/2022
Zhongbo and Grace participated in "Institute for Nuclear Science to Inspire the next Generation for a Highly Trained workforce" (INSIGHT) center business dinner, along with many other undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds and other inspiring faculties.
-
10/19/2022
Quantum Magazine features an article titled "Inside the Proton, the 'Most Complicated Thing You Could Possibly Imagine'", which delves into the quantum imaging of protons - a research direction our group has been deeply involved in. The piece also highlights the pivotal role that the next-generation Electron-Ion Collider will play in advancing this research. -
09/30/2022
Farid has received the "Best Theoretical Talk" award at the Diffraction and Low x 2022 Workshop.
-
09/29/2022
Congratulations to John on his excellent graduation achievements! His outstanding performance has earned him a prestigious Director's Postdoctoral Fellowship at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He will begin this exciting new chapter next week. Wishing him all the best in his future endeavors!
-
09/23/2022
Zhongbo has been invited to provide an overview of "TMD: Theory and Measurements" at The 2022 Nuclear Science Advisory Committee (NSAC) Long-Range Plan Town Hall Meeting on Hot and Cold QCD, held at MIT during September 23 - 25, 2022.
-
09/21/2022
Zhongbo has been invited to give a talk on "Jets at the EIC" at the Workshop: Theory for EIC in the Next Decade, held at MIT during September 20 - 22, 2022. He will also serve on the writing committee to put together a workshop summary suitable to serve as input to the QCD white paper.
-
09/16/2022
Many thanks to Dr. Yacine Mehtar-Tani from Brookhaven National Laboratory for delivering an insightful seminar and for a highly productive visit filled with engaging discussions.
-
09/12/2022
We are very excited that Dr. Andrew Larkoski has joined our group as a project scientist. Welcome, Andrew!
-
08/24/2022
We are pleased to welcome our CB-EIC undergraduate trainees, Jeisson and Grace, to UCLA this summer! They are engaging with our group on EIC-related projects and gaining hands-on experience in our ongoing research efforts.
-
08/12/2022
Zhongbo was invited to speak at the 2022 Gordon Research Conference on Frontiers in Nuclear and Hadronic Physics, which took place in Holderness, New Hampshire, from August 7 to 12, 2022. For more details, see the conference website.
-
07/24/2022
Our CB-EIC scholar and the DOE undergrad trainee, Grace Garmire, gave a wonderful presentation "Simulation of jet production at the EIC," at EIC User Group Early Career Workshop 2022 held at CFNS Stony Brook University. Earlier on, she also reported this work at our California EIC Consortium Meeting held at UC Davis on 07/19/2022.
-
07/19/2022
We had a great two-day collaboration meeting at UC Davis for our California EIC Consortium Meeting 2022.
-
07/14/2022
We hosted a heartfelt farewell lunch for four of our undergraduate group members, who are graduating this summer: Mishary Alrashed, Yuxuan Tee, Amanda Wei, and Jinghong Yang. Congratulations to all of you, and we wish you the very best in your future endeavors!
-
07/08/2022
Prof. Yuan-Sen Ting from Australian National University visited our group this week. We had engaging discussions on machine learning and its applications to nuclear and particle physics.
-
07/03/2022
Graduate student Fanyi Zhao has embarked on a one-month visit to Brookhaven National Laboratory. She is being hosted by Dr. Raju Venugopalan, a Distinguished Scientist in the Nuclear Theory Group.
-
07/01/2022
Together with Megan Connors (Georgia State U.), Yacine Mehtar-Tani (BNL), Brian Page (BNL), and Xin-Nian Wang (LBNL), Zhongbo organized the CFNS workshop - Jet Physics: from RHIC/LHC to EIC, at Stony Brook University during June 29 to July 1, 2022. The workshop featured outstanding presentations and vibrant discussions that bridged different communities working on jet physics, including particle physics, heavy ion physics, and EIC physics. Kyle Lee, who collaborated with us a lot, is shown giving a talk in one of the pictures.
-
06/03/2022
Zhongbo organized a lunch gathering for all the physics bridge graduate students, providing an opportunity to connect, share experiences, and reflect on their collective progress.
-
05/25/2022
Prof. Leonard Gamberg from Penn State Berks visited us for three days, and as always, we had very productive days with great physics discussions.
-
05/20/2022
Dr. Isobel Kolbe from the Institute for Nuclear Theory at UW Seattle visited us for the entire week and presented a seminar. We deeply appreciate her visit and the engaging physics discussions.
-
04/29/2022
Dr. Raju Venugopalan from Brookhaven National Laboratory visited our group today. We had insightful physics discussions on spin physics at small-x.
-
04/25/2022
Our undergraduate course has greatly benefited from the UCLA Learning Assistant (LA) Program. Today, we held a joint TA/LA content meeting over pizza, thanks to the initiative of our amazing Learning Assistants. A special highlight of the day was an ice cream machine that made fresh ice cream for everyone. Many thanks to our LAs for organizing this productive and fun gathering!
-
04/12/2022
Congratulations to Parth Bhatnagar for receiving the department REU fellowship, a prestigious ten-week Undergraduate Summer Research program fully funded by the department. -
03/15/2022
We had a delightful in-person group lunch today. Unfortunately, Amanda, Fanyi Zhao, Jinghong, and Sasza could not join us, but it was wonderful to reconnect and talk to everyone in person.
-
02/23/2022
Zhongbo gave an engaging presentation at the UCLA Society of Physics Students (SPS) on "Quantum Computing for Quantum Chromodynamics."
-
02/17/2022
Together with UC Riverside, Lawrence Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, and the Cal-Bridge Program, we have received a grant from the DOE's Office of Science for a pilot program aimed at helping low-income, first-generation, and historically underrepresented undergraduate students across California pursue graduate degrees and careers in nuclear physics, with the goal of increasing diversity in the field. Zhongbo is leading the program at UCLA. For details, see the news here.
-
02/15/2022
Congratulations to Fanyi for receiving a graduate fellowship in quantum information science from the Bhaumik Institute for Theoretical Physics. This one-year fellowship will support our research on quantum simulations for nuclear and particle physics. -
02/10/2022
We are extremely pleased and grateful to have been awarded a UC Southern Hub Seed Grant from the UCLA Office for Research & Creative Activities. This grant supports collaborative research among UCLA, UC Riverside, Lawrence Livermore National Lab, and Los Alamos National Lab on Electron-Ion Collider Physics. The one-year grant will enable joint training for a graduate student with Livermore Lab and a postdoctoral fellow with Los Alamos Lab, while fostering closer collaboration with the nuclear physics group at UC Riverside.
-
01/20/2022
Sasza Czajka is attending the 2022 TMD Collaboration Winter School in Santa Fe, New Mexico, from January 20 to 26, 2022. The school is hosted by Los Alamos National Laboratory and sponsored by the TMD Collaboration (The DOE Topical Collaboration for the Coordinated Theoretical Approach to Transverse Momentum Dependent Hadron Structure in QCD).
-
01/18/2022
We are delighted to share that John Terry will join Los Alamos National Laboratory as a Director's postdoctoral fellow in the Theoretical Division's Group T-2 (Nuclear and Particle Physics, Astrophysics, and Cosmology) in Fall 2022. Meanwhile, Kyle Lee will join the Center for Theoretical Physics at MIT as a postdoctoral fellow. Congratulations on their remarkable achievements, and we wish them the best of luck in their future careers. -
01/13/2022
Zhongbo is co-organizing the workshop "Correlations in Partonic and Hadronic Interactions (CPHI-2022)," to be held from March 7 to 12, 2022. For more details, see here.
-
01/10/2022
Invited by Prof. Haiyan Gao of Brookhaven National Lab and Duke University, the Chair-Elect of the Executive Committee at APS Division of Nuclear Physics (DNP), Zhongbo will serve on the DNP Program Committee for a two-year term starting in April 2022. For more information, see here.