Julian Schwinger (front row between Jack Ng and Margaret Kivelson) standing with many of his doctoral students on his 60th birthday in 1978
(J.D. Jackson, courtesy AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, J. D. Jackson Slide Collection)
Julian Schwinger Foundation for Physics Research
A visionary gift from the Julian Schwinger Foundation (JSF) established a first-of-its-kind graduate fellowship in the UCLA College of Letters and Science. This comprehensive fellowship will enable Ph.D. students to focus on their research without undue financial pressure. The fellowship provides, for a maximum of four years, full tuition and fees, a generous stipend, and a research allowance.
The inaugural Julian Schwinger graduate fellowship was awarded in March 2014 to an outstanding graduate student interested in pursuing research in the field of physics.
The Directors of JSF are convinced that knowledge creation is the key product of a leading university, such as UCLA, and this fellowship will enable generations of young physicists to pursue their passions and make a difference. We can think of no better way to honor the monumental legacy left by Julian Schwinger, one of the finest physics scholars of the 20th century.
“The Julian Schwinger Fellowship is a game changer for the department,” said Joseph Rudnick, dean of Physical Sciences and senior dean of the College of Letters and Science. “This fellowship will allow the department to compete with the best programs in the world, recruit the finest minds in physics and lead to discoveries that could change the world. This tremendous gift not only emphasizes the strength of our physics program here at UCLA, but also highlights the philanthropic spirit of our faculty."
A second gift in 2018, generously matched by the Division of Physical Sciences, created additional graduate fellowships.
Please see the link to learn more about our fellows.
Shuai Sun
Current Fellows
James Terhune
Kuan-Yu Wey
YanYan Zhu
Julian Schwinger
12 February 1918 - 16 July 1994
"Rare is the theoretical physicist who makes repeated and varied contributions apart from the throng; rather still one who not only contributes but sets standards and priorities single-handedly. Julian Seymour Schwinger ... was such an individual.... His ideas, discoveries, and techniques pervade all areas of theoretical physics," wrote P.C. Martin and S. L. Glashow, two of his former students.
In the post-quantum-mechanics era, few physicists, if any, have matched Julian Schwinger in contributions to and influence on the development of physics. A towering giant in theoretical physics, Schwinger left his indelible mark on diverse fields such as quantum mechanics, quantum field theory, electrodynamics, nuclear physics, statistical mechanics, atomic physics, elementary particle physics, gravity, and mathematical physics. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physics 1965 with Sin-Itiro Tomonaga and Richard P. Feynman for "their fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics, with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles".
To learn more about Julian Schwinger, please visit https://schwingerfoundation.org/biography.php