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Lars Bildsten Named Director
updated: Jul 31, 2012, 2:11 PM
Source: UCSB
After an international search for a new director for the Kavli Institute for
Theoretical Physics (KITP) at UC Santa Barbara, the search committee found the
best person for the position was already in Santa Barbara: Lars Bildsten,
professor of physics and a KITP permanent member. The baton was passed on July 1
from Professor David Gross, a 2004 Nobel laureate, who will remain at KITP as a
permanent member.
"I am honored to have been selected," said Bildsten, who joined KITP and UCSB in
1999. "It is also a deep responsibility to maintain the tradition of excellent
leadership at the KITP. David Gross very successfully expanded our activities
and funding, increased our international prominence, and placed us in a very
strong position."
"Lars will be an excellent and dynamic leader of the Institute," said Gross, who
served 15 years as director, almost half the life of KITP. "I trust and hope
that the KITP will continue to serve the worldwide community of theoretical
physicists by running excellent programs." Gross's decision to step down
prompted the years-long search that culminated with Bildsten's selection.
"Our Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics has flourished under the inspired
leadership of Professor David Gross, and the brilliant and accomplished
directors who preceded him," said Chancellor Henry T. Yang. "I will never forget
when we celebrated the Institute's 25th anniversary and dedication of the new
wing in 2004, an event that became a double celebration when, that same week,
Professor Gross won the Nobel Prize in Physics. Our campus will always be
grateful David's visionary and dynamic leadership, and the 15 years he devoted
to directing this exceptional Institute. We look forward to his continuing
contributions as our distinguished faculty colleague and KITP permanent member."
Chancellor Yang noted that in 2007, a study published in the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences ranked UC Santa Barbara's KITP as the number 1
highest-impact national research facility for science impact on non-biomedical
research.
"The KITP exemplifies the very best of scientific collaboration, innovation, and
insight," Yang continued. "We are tremendously proud of the Institute's
excellence and impact, and we are excited about its bright future under the
leadership of Lars Bildsten. Professor Bildsten's exceptional strengths and
vision as a researcher, teacher, mentor, and leader, and his deep commitment to
the KITP, our campus, and the scientific community make him the ideal choice for
this important directorship."
Bildsten, who works in the field of theoretical astrophysics, came to UCSB from
UC Berkeley, where he was an assistant and associate professor in both the
Physics and Astronomy departments. Prior to that, he was a research fellow at
Caltech. He received his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Cornell University in
1991. Throughout his academic and teaching career, he has received various
honors, titles, and fellowships, including an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Fellowship, a Cottrell Scholar of the Research Corporation, the Helen B. Warner
Prize, a Compton Fellowship, and a Fannie and John Hertz Graduate Fellowship.
Bildsten was also the Biermann Lecturer at the Max Planck Institute for
Astrophysics, the Salpeter Lecturer at Cornell University, and was recently
elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Bildsten has also been active on many national panels and committees, including
several of the National Research Council, the National Science Foundation, and
the American Physical Society.
"Our mission at KITP is to be the place where theoretical physicists come to
collaborate and initiate new ideas," Bildsten said. Established in 1979 with
funding from the National Science Foundation, KITP has long been a place for
such collaborations, which have resulted in major advances in the field,
breakthrough insights, new research, and Nobel Prizes. These accomplishments
have come from continuous conversations between some of the brightest minds in
the field, promoted by an environment that encourages the trading of ideas
through the multitude of conferences and programs that the institute holds each
year.
A visit to KITP is all one needs to understand the kind of work that goes on
there. Situated on the UCSB campus and overlooking the Pacific Ocean, the
institute at any given time hosts two or three programs in which theoretical
physicists meet up to learn from their scientific colleagues, collaborate, and
discuss the implications of new discoveries. Run by its director (working with
two deputy directors and a cadre of excellent staff), the five permanent
members, and 12-15 postdoctoral researchers also interact with the 60 daily
visitors at what Gross and Bildsten call a "user facility," that attracts
scientists from near and far. Nearly half of the visiting physicists are
international.
"We evolve every year," said Bildsten, whose main job is to steer the ideas and
topics that come into the institute. Some accomplishments -- the prizes and the
research, for instance -- are easy to see in hindsight, but the real work, which
is harder to document, is in planting the seeds that allow the research to move
more quickly, or even to take new directions, such as the more interdisciplinary
collaborations in theoretical biology that are growing in presence at KITP.
Now, as director of one of the most influential institutes for the convergence
of ideas in theoretical physics, Bildsten counts among his priorities the
creation of what he calls the Residence: a place for the many visiting
theoretical physicists that come to the institute each year to stay and continue
to swap ideas and form collaborations.
"Scientists come from their home institutions to be here for months, away from
everyday distractions," said Bildsten, adding that the environment puts them in
a different state of mind and encourages them to interact with their colleagues
in extended discussions and additional free time for thought.
However, what has been missing, he said, is a place for these scientists -- up
to 800 unique visitors a year -- to continue their explorations and interactions
after-hours. Typically they are housed in and around Santa Barbara and Goleta,
in accommodations that separate them from one another.
"They would like to keep interacting with one another," he said.
Bildsten's vision is to have a place that can house up to 50 visitors at a time,
in accommodations with amenities that will facilitate continued informal
interactions. Plans are in the very initial design and scoping stage.
Fundraising is a major part of Bildsten's work in the near future.
The ultimate goal of the Residence is to further KITP's mission of continuous
collaboration leading to new ideas and scientific breakthroughs.
"Sometimes progress is defined as ‘finding the right question to ask,'" said
Bildsten.
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