News

This month PSD researchers have been featured for their efforts to capture the first image of the Milky Way's massive black hole, map the digital divide affecting connectivity across the country, and use computer simulations to understand the world's deadliest viruses.

Students in the College, Zihni Baykara and Macallan Maedke, and graduate students, Kaeli Hughes and Rostom Mbarek have been honored by the Enrico Fermi Institute with Nathan Sugarman Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate and Graduate Research. 

The American Astronomical Society has announced that it will present its 2022 George Van Biesbroeck Prize to Donald G. York, the Horace B. Horton Professor Emeritus, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Enrico Fermi Institute, and the College. The award is presented biannually and honors a living individual for long-term extraordinary or unselfish service to astronomy.

A graduate student in the Department of Chemistry, Ian Bongalonta, has been named a winner of the 2022 Wayne C. Booth Prize for Excellence in Teaching, awarded annually to graduate students for outstanding instruction of undergraduates. Additionally, three graduate students have been awarded the Physical Sciences Teaching Prize for 2021-22: Sandrine Legault, Colin Lynch, and Sarah Litwin of the Department of Chemistry.

Chemistry Prof. Giulia Galli and scientists at Argonne National Laboratory and the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago performed quantum simulations of spin defects — impurities in materials that could offer a promising basis for new quantum technologies — and improved the accuracy of calculations on quantum computers.

Ian Bongalonta, an instructor for Honors General Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry, has been awarded the Wayne C. Booth Prize. Trevor Hyde, a Dickson Instructor in the Department of Mathematics who recently taught Algebraic Number Theory, has been awarded a Glenn and Claire Swogger Award. 

Professor and Chair of Chemistry Viresh Rawal has earned the E.C. Taylor Senior Award in Heterocyclic Chemistry. The honor is bestowed once every two years to a true leader in the field. Rawal will deliver an award lecture at the Biennial International Society of Chemistry (ISHC) Congress.

Assoc. Prof. David Schmitz was awarded a 2022 Llewellyn John and Harriet Manchester Quantrell Award. Prof. Chuan He and Prof. Wei Biao Wu were awarded the Faculty Awards for Excellence in Graduate Teaching and Mentoring.

A new study led by geophysical scientist Edwin Kite examines the tracks of Martian rivers to see what they can reveal about the history of the planet’s water and atmosphere.

The PSD May Spotlight is Tess San Juan, senior grants and contracts administrator in the Local Business Center. Tess was born in the Philippines and immigrated to the US when she was nine years old. She grew up in a small Chicago southwest suburb called Oak Forest and is coming up on her 20th year at UChicago.
 
 

The 2022 recipients of the Arthur L. Kelly Faculty Prize for Exceptional Service in the Physical Sciences Division are Young-Kee Kim, Louis Block Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Physics, the Enrico Fermi Institute, and the College, and Edward "Rocky" Kolb, Arthur Holly Compton Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, the David N. Schramm Director of the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, the Enrico Fermi Institute, and the College.

Sweden's Crown Princess Victoria presented the Crafoord Prize in Astronomy to the late Prof. Eugene Parker's son, Eric Parker, during a ceremony at Lund University in April. Prof. Parker was celebrated for discovering the solar wind.

An innovative technique led by Asst. Prof. Sunyoung Park, Dept. of the Geophysical Sciences, uses 3D printing and lasers to help improve our knowledge of what happens during ground shaking, and how different formations and layers beneath the ground lessen or increase damage in earthquakes.

By reviewing large-scale weather conditions and formations before the June 2021 Pacific Northwest heat wave, University of Chicago scientists, including College student first author, Emily Neal, discovered that a cyclone spawned an “anticyclone,” which combined to produce and then trap heat near the surface of the region.

Last week, Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator of NASA Science Mission Directorate, visited the Physical Sciences Division to tour facilities and meet with faculty, students, and UChicago leaders.