The Institute for Fundamental Science (IFS) enhances the experimental, theoretical, and astronomy research activities at the University of Oregon. IFS is one of several centers and institutes supported by the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation, and maintains close relationships with the Department of Physics, the Department of Chemistry, the Department of Mathematics, and the Materials Science Institute.
The institute hosts visiting scientists, supports graduate and undergraduate student research, facilitates interaction between the experimental activities and theoretical investigations of IFS members, and fosters communication of research to the broader community.
IFS members have major involvement in international collaborations including the ATLAS and FASER Experiments at CERN, LIGO’s gravitational wave observatories, and others. We have vigorous programs of research in astronomy and astrophysics; condensed matter theory and statistical mechanics; data science; mathematics; particle theory; quantum information and quantum optics; and the International Linear Collider project.
Center Activities
Quantum Properties on a Human Scale: Nobel Prize in Physics 2025
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2025 was awarded jointly to John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis “for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit”
7 October 2025 || Source
The Nobel Prize laureates in physics for 2025, John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis, used a series of experiments to demonstrate that the bizarre properties of the quantum world can be made concrete in a system big enough to be held in the hand. Their superconducting electrical system could tunnel from one state to another,
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IFS Seminar October 20, 2025: Adrian Fraser (University of Colorado)
Salt-finger convection in oceans, and “missing mixing” problems in stars
Speaker: Adrian Fraser (University of Colorado)
Date: Monday October 20, 2025
Time: 4:00 – 5:00 pm
Location: 472 Willamette Hall (IFS Seminar Room)
Abstract: Stars of all sizes and ages are plagued by missing mixing problems—discrepancies between observations and stellar models suggesting some unknown turbulent mixing occurs in their interiors. The precise nature and degree of this anomalous mixing can have major consequences for the fates of these stars and their angular momentum and chemical makeup over
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Particle or wave? Getting to the heart of quantum mechanics
Watch UO physicist–and IFS Director–Graham Kribs walk you through one of the seminal experiments that helped open the quantum age.
9 April 2025 || University Communications
Quantum mechanics is a branch of physics that attempts to explain the behavior of matter and energy at their smallest level, down to the size of subatomic particles like electrons, photons and quarks. And at that size, reality is very different from our everyday world.
The quantum world is distinct from the classical world familiar to us because particles in the quantum world exhibit both particle-like and
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