Single-particle and collective excitations in Ni-63Albers, M.; Zhu, S.; Janssens, R. V. F.; Gellanki, Jnaneswari; Ragnarsson, Ingemar; Alcorta, M.; Baugher, T.; Bertone, P. F.; Carpenter, M. P.; Chiara, C. J.; Chowdhury, P.; Deacon, A. General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.• Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research.• You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal Ca,2α3nγ ) 63 Ni reaction at beam energies between 275 and 320 MeV. Three collective bands, built upon states of single-particle character, were identified. For two of the three bands, the transition quadrupole moments were extracted, herewith quantifying the deformation at high spin. The results have been compared with shell-model and cranked Nilsson-Strutinsky calculations. Despite the Z = 28 shell closure and the approach to the purported N = 40 subshell, the 63 Ni isotope is able to sustain collective excitations at moderate and high spin.