Three UCI physics professors were just named in OC Register's 125 Most Influential People in OC for 2025.
Luis Jauregui - The associate professor and director of UC Irvine’s Quantum Materials and Devices Lab, worked with post-doctoral student Jinyu Liu to discover a new state of matter – excitons. Their work someday could help power computers suitable for deep-space travel.
Paul Robertson - Robertson, an associate professor of physics and astronomy at UC Irvine, co-authored a paper about an exoplanet near a dwarf star in the Milky Way Galaxy that’s among the closest to Earth identified to date. The exoplanet is a candidate for further study, to see if it has liquid water, a possible requirement for life.
Aomawa Shields - Shields, an associate professor of physics and astronomy at UC Irvine, led a study comparing the climates of two exoplanets. The work led researchers to believe white dwarf stars can generate enough heat to serve as the “sun” for an exoplanet. That, in turn, presents new possibilities in the search for extraterrestrial life.
Orange County Register