News

2024

Six UChicago scholars elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2024

April 26, 2024

Bonnie Fleming (left), Chuan He

Congratulations to physicist Bonnie Fleming and chemist Chuan He, who have been elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences!


Eric and Wendy Schmidt Announce 2024 Schmidt Science Fellows

April 26, 2024

Takumi Matsuzawa

Congratulations to Physics alum Takumi Matsuzawa, PhD'23, who has been named a 2024 Schmidt Science Fellow. The fellowship was established in 2018 to help researchers expand their work across areas of study and build a community of interdisciplinary thinkers dedicated to solving the world’s biggest challenges. As a Schmidt Science Fellow, Matsuzawa aims to better understand self-regulation mechanisms within cells.


DOE’s Office of Science Graduate Student Research Program Selects 86 Outstanding U.S. Graduate Students

April 26, 2024

Gabriel Yusuke Hoshino

Congratulations to Gabriel Yusuke Hoshino, a Physics PhD student in David Miller's group, for being selected to the DOE’s Office of Science Graduate Student Research Program for Experimental Research in High Energy Physics at Fermilab.

Through world-class training and access to state-of-the-art facilities and resources at DOE National Laboratories, SCGSR prepares graduate students to enter jobs of critical importance to the DOE mission and secures our national position at the forefront of discovery and innovation.


Megan Weiner Mansfield awarded 51 Pegasi b Fellowship in planetary astronomy

April 26, 2024

Megan Weiner Mansfield

Megan Weiner Mansfield, PhD'21 (Geophysical Sciences), has been awarded the 51 Pegasi b Fellowship, a three-year postdoctoral fellowship that provides recipients with resources, freedom, and flexibility to conduct theoretical, observational, and experimental research in planetary astronomy at a selected host institution.

Fellows were selected based on research achievements, plans, and potential to impact the field of planetary astronomy. Fellows were also selected based on their commitment to and plans for advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in planetary astronomy.

Weiner Mansfield's research—leveraging cutting-edge tools across scientific disciplines to transcend our understanding of exoplanet atmospheres and the keys to life—will be conducted at Arizona State University.


PSD Spotlight: LinLin Jones

April 24, 2024

LinLin Jones

LinLin Jones, MPP’21, is a Grants and Contracts Supervisor in the Physical Sciences Division Local Business Center. She joined the University in 2019 and has a Master of Arts in Public Policy Analysis from UChicago. We interviewed LinLin about her interests and experiences.


The theoretical physicist who worked with J. Robert Oppenheimer at the dawn of the nuclear age

April 19, 2024

Theoretical Physicist, Educator Melba Phillips. Lost Women of Science. PRX. Scientific American.

Listen to a Scientific American podcast about Prof. Melba Phillips, a UChicago physicist who contributed to the development of nuclear physics and then became an outspoken critic of nuclear weapons.


Annual Robot Block Party held at Museum of Science and Industry

April 18, 2024

red and white robot

CS Asst. Prof. Sarah Sebo discusses why her robot cheats at Rock, Paper, Scissors.


Q&A: How AI and big data can go green

April 18, 2024

Andrew A. Chien

CS Prof. Andrew Chien is exploring ways to help big electricity users tap clean energy.


Two UChicago scholars elected as 2023 American Association for the Advancement of Science fellows

April 18, 2024

Guangbin Dong (left) and Benoît Roux

Profs. Guangbin Dong and Benoît Roux have made breakthroughs in organic synthetic chemistry and biophysics. They join the 2023 class, announced April 18, which includes scientists, engineers and innovators across multiple fields.


Machine learning could help reveal undiscovered particles within data from the Large Hadron Collider

April 18, 2024

ATLAS event display

Scientists used a neural network, a type of brain-inspired machine learning algorithm, to sift through large volumes of particle collision data.


Sarah King uses art competition to enhance student understanding

April 11, 2024

4-panel comic strip: Finding small bits in waves with Tiny, the older than time animal

For the past two years, Chemistry Assistant Professor Sarah King has organized an open art contest in her CHEM 122 class. At the end of the quarter, several students are selected to present a visual project before the class that breaks down complex chemistry principles into creative works of art. By incorporating elements of creativity and communication, the competition serves multiple purposes in King’s pedagogical approach.


Non-unital noise adds a new wrinkle to the quantum supremacy debate

April 11, 2024

Bill Fefferman

CS PhD Student Soumik Ghosh and Assistant Professor Bill Fefferman find that random circuit sampling problems that incorporate non-unital noise do not anticoncentrate, breaking every easiness and hardness result to date.


Winners of the 2024 UChicago Science as Art competition announced

April 11, 2024

black and white graphical computer program simulation of a discrete dynamical system of the plane

The University of Chicago has announced the winners of its 2024 “Science as Art” contest, which highlights images of innovative scientific research from the UChicago community.

The contest drew more than 60 entries from undergraduates, graduate students, staff, alumni, postdoctoral researchers, and faculty members, showcasing everything from fossils to fly anatomy. Together, these images display the pursuit of knowledge in a new light, underscoring the beauty of intellectual exploration.

The grand-prize winner is “Peculiar Dynamics” by Computer Science PhD student Sam Everett!


Meteorites may be lost to Antarctic ice as climate warms, study says

April 11, 2024

Snowy mountains in Antarctica

In a CNN article, Geophysical Sciences postdoc Maria Valdes states that as the climate continues to warm, Antarctic rocks are sinking into the ice at an increasing rate, making many meteorites inaccessible to scientists and causing the loss of "precious time capsules that hold clues to the history of our Solar System."


The inadvertent geoengineering experiment that the world is now shutting off

April 11, 2024

A large container cargo ship travels over the ocean

MIT Technology Review article discusses the same study regarding the reduction in air pollution and its connection to global warming. Geophysical Sciences professor David Keith notes that this inadvertent "geoengineering experiment" is now being shut off as the world cleans up its air.