Education: UCLA Names Dean of Sciences

Roberto Peccei, an internationally known theoretical particle physicist, has been appointed dean of physical sciences at UCLA.

Peccei, who had been chair of UCLA’s physics department since 1989, said this week that his goal is to gain first-tier status for UCLA’s physical sciences departments--astronomy, atmospheric sciences, chemistry, earth and space sciences, mathematics and physics.

“We can achieve this goal by hiring the best young faculty,” Peccei said. “Even in these difficult times, the university must continue to renew itself. This will not occur at the same rate as in the 1980s, but it must remain our goal.”

Among Peccei’s contributions to physics is the Peccei-Quinn Symmetry, which he developed with Stanford University colleague Helen Quinn. The theory, according to a UCLA statement on Peccei’s appointment, “predicts the existence of very light particles called axions, which may be the mysterious ‘dark matter’ that makes up 90% of the universe.”