News

Astrophysicist and University of Chicago graduate student Abigail Lee is the lead author on a new paper that analyzed observations of light from a nearby galaxy to validate the JAGB method for measuring cosmological distances. This novel technique will allow future independent distance measurements that can help answer one of the biggest outstanding questions in cosmology: how fast is the universe expanding?
 

Each winter, the UChicago Computer Science student group compileHer gathers middle school girls from around the city to campus for a unique all-day hackathon experience. This year the group took their endeavor virtual (and to space).

This month, PSD community members have been featured for their work discovering new metamaterials to improve optics for telescopes, designing patterns in self-propelling liquid crystals, and meauring ceramic chips in meteorites to study the early solar system, and more. In case you missed it, review our news headlines from February 2021.

The University of Chicago Library continues to look to the sky in an ongoing collaboration with Professor Rich Kron, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, exploring the use of data obtained from historical astronomical glass plates to drive new astronomical discovery.

Prof. Guilia Galli, a leader in solar fuels, released a new design to optimize photoelectrodes for producing solar fuels. The research could boost a solar-powered fuel made by splitting water.
 

New research shows that the movement in liquid crystals can be harnessed and directed, a step toward developing autonomous materials that can sense inputs, amplify signals, and even compute information.

Prof. Marianna Csörnyei has been named the Association for Women in Mathematics and the American Mathematical Society 2022 Noether Lecturer. The honor acknowledges Csörnyei’s significant contributions to several areas of mathematical analysis, including geometric measure theory, functional analysis and real analysis.

UChicago Provost and Professor of Chemistry, Ka Yee C. Lee is named one of Chicago Magazine's "New Power 30," a list of Chicagoans who have “stepped up in a big way, wielding newfound clout and making change happen”

Prof. Daniel Holz comments on new recalculation of Cygnus X-1’s mass in New York Times

The Chambliss Astronomy Achievement Student Awards are given to recognize exemplary research by undergraduate and graduate students who present at one of the poster sessions at the meetings of the AAS. Awardees are honored with a Chambliss medal or, in the case of honorable mention, a certificate. Five graduate and undergraduate students from the Astronomy & Astrophysics Department won awards or honorable mentions.

Asst. Prof. Edwin Kite discusses challenges the Perseverance Rover must overcome to land on Mars on FOX 32.

Yuanyuan Zhang, an astrophysicist with the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, led a study with Dark Energy Survey data of how light from inside galaxy clusters may be linked with dark matter.

Experimental cosmologist and Assoc. Prof. McMahon and his students developed a new metamaterials-based antireflection coating for the silicon lenses used in cameras that capture the oldest light in the universe.

New Scientist filmed an interview with Dan Hooper: What happened at the big bang? The search for dark matter, cosmic inflation, and other mysteries from the beginning of time.

Random twists of place: How quiet is quantum space-time at the Planck scale? Prof. Craig Hogan shares an update on the reconfigured Fermilab Holometer.