Ibarra García Padilla Named KITP Scholar

Eduardo Ibarra García Padilla, Harvey Mudd College assistant professor of physics, received a Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics scholarship for 2026–2028. During three two-week visits to the Kavli campus in Santa Barbara, California, Ibarra García Padilla will engage with other physicists in the areas of quantum many-body physics, condensed matter physics and atomic physics. He’ll also have access to Kavli Institute programming, including talks, conferences and other physics-themed events.

The Kavli scholarship supports researchers in physics who are faculty at teaching-intensive, non-PhD-granting U.S. colleges with a heavy emphasis on teaching and research activity. 

“One of the most exciting aspects of the KITP scholarship is that I will have the opportunity to meet and interact with scientists I would not generally have the opportunity to come across,” Ibarra García Padilla says. “I am looking forward to being in a space to share ideas with other physicists and start new collaborations.”

Through his research on quantum many-body physics, Ibarra García Padilla aims to understand the collective behavior of a large number of interacting quantum particles. “These interactions can create entirely new kinds of matter and display behaviors that you’d never see with just one particle,” he says. 

Ibarra García Padilla says the Kavli Institute scholarship will allow him to bring new ideas and research directions to his Harvey Mudd research group and classes, noting the strong and genuine interest HMC physics majors have in conducting meaningful research. 

“On the teaching side, students like finding links between the topics we cover in class and cutting-edge physics research, and this fellowship will allow me to do so more frequently,” says Ibarra García Padilla. “On the mentoring side, I’ll be able to offer more research opportunities where students can develop their skills as scientists and make important contributions to the physics community.”