PSD Academic Accolades and Honors

Astronomy & Astrophysics

• Daniel Holz was named a Highly Cited Researcher in Web of Science's 2023 report, 11/15/23

Chemistry

• Highly Cited Researchers in Web of Science's 2023 report, 11/15/23
  • Qing Dai 
  • Chuan He 
  • Wenbin Lin
  • Jiwoong Park
• Anna Wuttig received an NSF CAREER grant, 11/28/23

Computer Science

• SAND Lab won a 2023 Chicago Innovation Award, 11/16/23

Mathematics

• Luis Silvestre was named a 2024 Fellow of the American Mathematical Society (AMS), 11/1/23
• Benson Farb was awarded the 2024 Steele Prize for Mathematical Exposition (AMS), 11/28/23

Biophysical Sciences

• Tao Pan was named a Highly Cited Researcher in Web of Science's 2023 report, 11/15/23

KICP

• Katrin Heitmann was named a 2023 Fellow of the American Physical Society, 11/14/23

Astronomy & Astrophysics

• Edward "Rocky" W. Kolb received the American Physical Society’s 2024 Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize, 10/24/23
• John Carlstrom’s CMB-S4 project has been awarded $3.7 million by the NSF for the first year of a grant that may provide up to $21.4 million to design a set of next-generation telescopes, 10/26/23

Chemistry

• Steven Sibener received the Ira Remsen Award given by the Maryland section of ACS, 10/9/23
• Ka Yee Lee was named a 2023 Biophysical Society Fellow, 10/10/2023. This honor is given to only seven scientists "who have demonstrated sustained excellence in science and have contributed to the expansion of the field of biophysics."  Ka Yee was honored for her impactful work on the structure and stability of lipid membranes and their interactions with proteins.
• Bryan Dickinson was awarded $350,000 in seed funding from the Dr. Ralph and Marian Falk Medical Research Trust’s Catalyst Award program for a project called “Development of targeted translational activating oligos to treat SYNGAP1 deficiency-related neurological disorders,” 10/26/23. Dickinson was one of two UChicago nominees (the maximum number allowed), and both won.

Computer Science

• Department Chair Hank Hoffmann and Neubauer Professor Nick Feamster (along with students and an alum) were inducted into the Samsung Hall of Fame for identifying vulnerability in SmartTVs, 10/30/23

Physics

• Bonnie Fleming was one of 80 projects in high energy physics that received a total of $137 million in funding from the Department of Energy, 10/19/23
• David DeMille received the American Physical Society’s 2024 Norman F. Ramsey Prize in Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics, and in Precision Tests of Fundamental Laws and Symmetries, 10/24/23

Statistics

• Rina Foygel Barber was named a 2023 MacArthur Fellow, 10/04/23

Data Science Institute

• Data Science Institute awarded $520k by 11th Hour Project to continue funding ongoing community-based data science projects, 10/23

Astronomy & Astrophysics

• Marcela Carena (Physics), Wendy Freedman, and Angela Olinto were named Notable Women in STEM by Crain's Chicago Business, 9/6/23

Chemistry

• ACS awards, 9/7/23
  • Viresh Rawal received the ACS Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry
  • Guangbin Dong received the Elias J. Corey Award for Outstanding Original Contribution in Organic Synthesis by a Young Investigator 
  • Mark Levin received the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award
• Chuan He selected as first laureate for Science Breakthrough award by Falling Walls, in Life Sciences, 9/13/2023
• Dmitri Talapin and John Anderson awarded $1.8M by NSF for M-STAR (MXene Synthesis, Tunability and Reactivity) Center of Chemical Innovation program as a Phase 1 Research Center, 9/27/23

Computer Science

• USENIX Security Symposium awards, 9/5/23
  • Ben Zhao and Heather Zheng’s Glaze Project was chosen for both the Internet Defense Prize and a Distinguished Paper Award for its ability to protect artist’s work from being replicated
  • A paper by Blase Ur’s SUPERgroup received the Distinguished Paper Award for research on the vulnerability of the university’s passwords to attacks leveraging password reuse
• Rick Stevens testified in Congress about a major report he co-authored called AI for Science, Energy, and Security, 9/7/23

Geophysical Sciences

• NSF has awarded UChicago a $35 million contract to operate a new facility specializing in the application of a cyclic particle accelerator called Synchrotron for Earth and Environmental Science, with Andy Campbell as PI, 9/1/23
• Tiffany Shaw has been awarded $573,328 from NOAA for a 3-year project to study whether climate change observations are consistent with climate change predictions from the past 40 years, 9/1/23

Physics

• See Notable Women in STEM Award in Astronomy & Astrophysics
• Margaret Gardel and Arvind Murugan awarded $15.5M by NSF to establish Center of Living Systems, 9/12/23
• See National Institute for Theory and Mathematics in Biology award in Statistics

Statistics

• Rebecca Willett (Stats/CS/DSI), Margaret Gardel (Physics), Stephanie Palmer (Physics), and Mary Silber (Stats) receive $50 million to establish the National Institute for Theory and Mathematics in Biology jointly with NU, 9/14/23
  • Rebecca Willett named Deputy Director of new NSF National Institute for Theory and Mathematics in Biology, 9/14/23

Data Science Institute

• The Data Science Institute, in partnership with Truman Community College, awarded $1M from NSF for educational training program
• David Uminsky presented on “Training the Impact Data Scientists of Tomorrow” at the Impact Data Science Summit in New York, 9/22/23
• See National Institute for Theory and Mathematics in Biology award in Statistics
• The DSI’s Open Spatial Lab was awarded $1.7 million by the US Forest Service as a collaborating partner with Groundwork Bridgeport, part of the Groundwork USA network of community trusts, to innovate new data collection, monitoring, and assessment tools for a major tree planting initiative in urban Bridgeport, CT, 9/21/23
• The DSI’s Open Spatial Lab was awarded $250k by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation- Urban Institute for work using local data to address structural racism, 9/1/23
• The Internet Equity Initiative’s Chicagoland Broadband Equity and Inclusion Summit was featured as an event on Politico’s Illinois Playbook, 9/27/23