The Kavli Institutes in Theoretical Physics

The Kavli Foundation supports four areas of science — astrophysics, nanoscience, neuroscience and theoretical physics. Together, these fields seek answers to some of humanity’s most fundamental scientific questions while creating basic knowledge for a better future. They are also among the most exciting scientific areas in the 21st century, with the promise of discoveries in the near future that – just a relatively short time ago – would have been unimaginable.

Knowing no boundaries in the sciences, theoretical physics seeks to explain and predict all manner of physical phenomena - particular phenomena that can’t be explained with traditional experiments. It does so while also seeking to reconcile laws of physics that seem irreconcilable. Is there such a thing as a Theory of Everything? Answering this is just one of the field’s tremendous challenges.

The Kavli Theoretical Physics Institutes are contributing to the progress of theoretical physics while also providing the framework for identifying scientific opportunities across multiple research fields. There are two theoretical physics institutes:

Kavli Institute of Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara
Kavli Institute for Theoretical Sciences at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences