Keeping up with Manuel Calderon de la Barca Sanchez is as difficult as tracking quarks at high energy — which he does in his research of relativistic heavy ion physics. A branch of nuclear physics, the field studies how nuclei — the cores of atoms that make up all the objects around us — behave when separated into particles known as quarks and gluons.

To conduct such research, Calderon must spend several weeks at a time at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, smashing nuclei together in a huge collider.

Back at UC Davis, he remains in constant contact with about 20 collaborators at other universities, brainstorming on the latest research and preparing for conferences worldwide. Calderon, who also teaches Physics 7, is married to the newly hired neuroscientist Karen Zito.

In choosing UC Davis, they were attracted to the friendly nature of Davis and the fact that Zito's family lives nearby — a huge asset as they begin planning their own family.