The School of Physical Sciences was established as one of the founding schools at UC Irvine and accepted its first students in 1965.

Students earn degrees and conduct research in 4 departments:  Chemistry, Earth System Science, Mathematics, and Physics & Astronomy.

Approximately 1,208 undergraduate students are enrolled in Physical Sciences majors and 473 graduate students. Doctoral degrees are also granted from all 4 departments. 140 faculty members, 121 researchers, 75 post-docs, and 130  staff members keep the School of Physical Sciences moving forward.

The school is one of the nation’s largest producers of bachelor’s degree-level graduates, ranking 5th nationally in chemistry and 11th in physics.  

State-of-the-art multidisciplinary research takes place at the School of Physical Sciences’ 12 research units, centers and institutes:

• AirUCI
• Center for Chemical and Material Physics Program (ChAMP)
• Center for Chemical and Structural Biology
• Center for Cosmology 
• Center for Interdisciplinary Chemical Synthesis
• Center for Mathematical and Computational Biology
• Center for Solar Energy
• Chemistry at the Space-Time Limit (CaSTL) 
• The Environment Institute: Global Change, Energy, and Sustainable Resources
• Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP)
• Institute for Surface and Interface Science (ISIS)
• Southern California Center for Galaxy Evolution (CGE)

The School of Physical Sciences has 13 specialized research facilities:

• Array of Enhanced Nodes Supercomputer (AENEAS)
• Computational and Applied Mathematics Infrastructure
• Earth System Modeling
• Electronics Facility
• Instrumentation Development Facility
• Integrated Nanosystems Research
• Laser Spectroscopy
• Molecular Modeling 
• Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (NMR) 
• Stable Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (IRMS)
• UCI Observatory
• W.M Keck Carbon Cycle Mass Spectrometer 
•  X-Ray Crystallography