Thomas G. Phillips, the John D. MacArthur Professor of Physics, Emeritus, passed away on August 6, 2022. He was 85.

Phillips was a pioneer in observational astronomy detecting light in the millimeter and submillimeter wavebands. He led the national and international teams that developed both ground- and space-based telescopes to observe in these portions of the electromagnetic spectrum; these instruments can penetrate regions enshrouded by large amounts of dust and gas, thus providing astronomers with a new view of the universe.

The Resnick Sustainability Institute’s Pioneer Postdoctoral Fellowship Program recruits outstanding recent PhD graduates to pursue research and training in exciting areas of sustainability at Caltech. The Pioneer Fellowship was established to increase the number of historically underrepresented minority faculty in sustainability science, by providing support for a more diverse and inclusive postdoctoral community from which the next generation of faculty are drawn. We recognize that a diversity of backgrounds and experiences is an enormous asset in the pursuit of cutting-edge science and technology development to support a more sustainable planet. This fellowship will empower these researchers by giving them access to cutting edge facilities, training, and broad expertise in sustainability science and engineering. 

The Solvay Conferences ("Conseils Solvay") are probably the most famous conferences in physics and chemistry. They are a key part of the history and development of science. They were responsible for initiating the first meeting between Einstein and Poincaré; they were highly instrumental in the understanding of the theory of quantum mechanics and later, of many other areas of modern physics and chemistry; and through the decades they have been associated with an astonishing number of Nobel Laureates.

John Preskill gave the opening overview talk at the conference in Brussels. The written version of the overview can be found below.

Set to launch no earlier than June 2024 and managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), SPHEREx will make a totally unique map of the cosmos that will contain hundreds of millions of objects, including stars, galaxies, star-forming regions, and other cosmic wonders. Unlike any previous map, it will provide images of individual objects as well as a light spectrum for every point in the sky. A spectrum can contain a treasure trove of information about a cosmic object, including its chemical composition and age, and its distance to faraway galaxies.

Caltech students and faculty gathered in Ramo Auditorium on August 9 to watch a 20-minute Q&A with NASA astronaut and former Caltech postdoc Jessica Watkins, who is working on the International Space Station (ISS) as a member of the SpaceX Crew-4 mission, which launched in April 2022.