UCLA has received $1.5 million from the Julian Schwinger Foundation for Physics Research to fund three new fellowships for graduate students in the department of physics and astronomy, bringing the total number of Julian Schwinger Fellowships to four.
As a result of the gift, the UCLA Chancellor’s Centennial Graduate Scholars Match contributed $500,000 and the UCLA Division of Physical Sciences another $2.5 million toward the awards.
The fellowships honor Julian Schwinger, a UCLA physics professor from 1971 until his death in 1994, who was considered one of the 20th century’s preeminent physics scholars. Schwinger shared the 1965 Nobel Prize with Richard Feynman and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga for their work on quantum electrodynamics.
UCLA awarded the first Schwinger fellowship in 2014 after a $1.2 million gift from the foundation. The fellowships are awarded tograduate students in physics, particularly those studying physical phenomena on multiple scales, such as energy-concentrating phenomena. They cover tuition and fees, and provides a stipend and professional and travel expenses for up to four years to enable scholars to focus on their research.
The Julian Schwinger Foundation for Physics Research was formed by his wife, Clarice Carrol, and his colleague Seth Putterman, a UCLA physics professor who is the foundation’s president. The gift is part of the Centennial Campaign for UCLA, which is scheduled to conclude in December 2019 during UCLA’s 100th anniversary year.
