News

On Tuesday, November 16, members of the University of Chicago Physical Sciences Division attended the Second Annual PSD Staff Awards. The virtual gathering honored staff members nominated by their divisional peers, colleagues, students, and supervisors for their dedication, hard work, and commitment to the PSD. Winners included Mat Wimberly, Dept. of Mathematics, Out of the Box Award; Sierra Sterling, Dean of Students Office, Bridgebuilder Award; and Karin Czaplewski, Dept. of Computer Science, Keystone Award.

A new study by University of Chicago chemists offers a more efficient way to let researchers rearrange the components of a molecule—in particular, a key component called carbonyl groups that appears in many pharmaceutical drugs and other useful chemicals.

Scientists including Joel Cohen, a visiting professor in the Department of Statistics, have announced a new way to tease out information about events that are rare, but highly consequential—such as pandemics and insurance payouts.

An ultraporous humidity sponge could provide 300 gallons of fresh water a day. UChicago computational chemist Prof. Laura Gagliardi is using molecular simulations and precise experimental measurements to figure out how this material might capture even more water even more easily.

Planetary scientist Asst. Prof. Edwin Kite comments on the NASA Curiosity Mars rover landing site, Gale Crater, and the question of whether it was once a massive and long-lasting lake or only a series of smaller, transient puddles.

A group of scientists announced they had detected the gamma rays from a phenomenon known as an ultra-fast outflow—a powerful wind launched from very near a supermassive black hole—for the first time. Scientists believe these outflows play an important role in regulating the growth of the black hole itself and its host galaxy.

PSD’s November spotlight is Aleksandra “Aleks” Ninova-Parris, Director of Student Engagement and Belonging for the Physical Sciences Division since November 2021. Read about her interests, experiences, and thoughts on diverstiy and inclusion.
 

In this introduction to why quantum computing will transform the digital world as we know it, the Chicagoland region is featured for leading the charge with the Chicago Quantum Exchange—which “draws on the expertise and vision of world-class universities, exceptional government laboratories and visionary industry leaders to advance research and development of quantum technologies.”

A team of scientists that includes Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics Hubble Fellow Michael Zevin may have solved the mystery of how most massive black holes are formed. The team proposes that black holes with masses that were previously unexplainable could be growing hand-in-hand with the accelerating expansion of the Universe. The phenomenon could be an example of what the team calls "cosmological coupling."

The University remembers the recent PSD graduate, Shaoxiong ‘Dennis’ Zheng, SM’21, devoted scholar and friend, 1997-2021, who was killed on November 9. The University will hold a memorial service on Thursday, November 18 at 3:00 pm CT at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel.

Carlos Sierra was born in Santa Ana, California, and grew up in the nearby city of Anaheim. Before coming to the University of Chicago, he attended Fullerton College, a community college in Southern California, and transferred to UC Berkeley, where he received his bachelor’s degree in physics. Afterwards, he started a doctoral program in applied physics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. After three years he moved with the McMahon group to UChicago, where he will complete his doctoral research in the Department of Physics. He is currently in his fifth year and conducting research in experimental cosmology. He develops and tests instruments for the Simons Observatory, a series of telescopes that will soon be making precise measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) from high atop the Atacama Desert in Chile.
 

Researchers from the Human Computer Integration Lab have developed an entirely new approach called chemical haptics, which directly triggers receptors in human skin in different ways.

Quanta Magazine coverage of UChicago condensed matter physicists Prof. Vincenzo Vitelli, postdoc Ryo Hanai, and Prof. Peter Littlewood, who study the mathematical objects called exceptional points that have been found to control phase transitions in nonreciprocal systems.

A new result is stirring the debate around WIMPs, or Weakly Interacting Massive Particles. Astrophysicist Dan Hooper comments on the search for WIMPs underground, suggesting the COSINE-100 experiment “is the nail in the coffin” of dark matter interpretations from the DAMA/LIBRA, which claimed to have spotted the elusive dark matter particle in 2017.

University of Chicago Professor Emeritus Eugene Parker accepted the Crafoord Prize in Astronomy on Nov. 9 at a small reception at his home. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the prestigious prize in 2020 for Parker's "pioneering and fundamental studies of the solar wind and magnetic fields from stellar to galactic scales."