Rebecca Raymond

March 2, 2026

From Liftoff to Touchdown: UCSB Gaucho Rocket Project sets its sights on landable rockets

By Rebecca Raymond

Launching rockets may seem like a lofty goal achieved only at major companies like NASA and SpaceX, yet UC Santa Barbara students in the Gaucho Rocket Project turn their passion for rocketry into a reality by designing, ...

January 15, 2026

Accelerating into the new year: UCSB Sherwin Group’s groundbreaking physics research

By Rebecca Raymond

The physics department at UC Santa Barbara houses its own powerful particle accelerator that accelerates electrons to 99.4% of the speed of light: The Sherwin Group’s ability to produce short and powerful pulses in the...

October 30, 2025

A guide to gift card scams

By Rebecca Raymond

Rebecca shares strategies for college students to identify gift card scams in their workplaces.

October 23, 2025

UCSB physics department celebrates two of its faculty members receiving the 2025 Nobel Prize

By Rebecca Raymond

Students and faculty of UC Santa Barbara’s physics department gathered in Corwin Pavilion for the department’s annual Nobel Prize-focused colloquium on Oct. 14. This year’s event was particularly special as the dep...

July 6, 2025

Recent studies of the Cosmos field

By Rebecca Raymond

Dr. Caitlin Casey, an observational astronomer, has recently joined the physics department at UC Santa Barbara. She co-leads the C.O.S.M.O.S. collaboration — a project distinguished by its deep exploration of the C.O.S...

May 29, 2025

Best of Scientific Breakthroughs

By Jesse Chamberlain, Jessica Arocho, John Cho, Katharine Chi, Olivia Lohrer, Rebecca Raymond, Saanvi Tiwary, Yumiko Florando

A look back on notable scientific happenings and achievements at UCSB during the 2024-25 school year.

April 17, 2025

Simply Stated: ‘Trash pandas’ on our campus: can we coexist?

By Rebecca Raymond

Spotting a raccoon at night is an experience shared frequently by students at UC Santa Barbara but what brings them onto our campus?

February 13, 2025

The mission to Mars: Can SpaceX put the U.S. flag on the red planet?

By Rebecca Raymond

SpaceX has long set its sights on Mars, and has made the bold promise that they will land humans on Mars in 2029, which will eventually pave the path for chief executive officer Elon Musk’s plans for Mars colonization ...

January 23, 2025

Research in Review: frog extinction, plastic pollution, and cancer studies in animals

By Rebecca Raymond

New UCSB research on frogs, plastic pollution, and cancer in animals.

November 21, 2024

Simply Stated: How is randomness in nature plotted to form a simple bell curve?

By Rebecca Raymond

Nature’s design can seem random upon first glance; however, a closer look reveals a common pattern that ties it all together, from the growth of a tree bark to the toss of a coin — the bell curve.