The Physics Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara has 58 faculty members. It offers academic programs leading to the B.A., B.S., and Ph.D. degrees.
As of 2014, the department counts three Nobel Prize winners among its faculty: David Gross (2004, Physics), Alan J. Heeger (2000, Chemistry), and Walter Kohn (1998, Chemistry). Physics Nobel Prize winners Herbert Kroemer (2000) and Shuji Nakamura (2014) are both professors of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Materials Departments at UCSB. The Physics Department's faculty includes 13 members of the National Academy of Sciences: Guenter Ahlers, Matthew Fisher, David Gross, James Hartle, Alan Heeger, Gary Horowitz, Joseph Incandela, Walter Kohn, James Langer, Joseph Polchinski, Douglas Scalapino, Boris Shraiman, and Michael Witherell. Heeger is also a member of the National Academy of Engineering. Guenter Ahlers, Matthew Fisher, David Gross, Gary Horowitz, Walter Kohn, James Langer, Joseph Polchinski, Douglas Scalapino, and Anthony Zee have all been elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.Joseph Incandela shared the 2012 Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics with six other physicists for the discovery of the Higgs boson.