News

John Frederick, professor emeritus in the Department of Geophysical Sciences died Jan. 30. He was 69.

The University of Chicago has named Edward 'Rocky' W. Kolb as director of its Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, a leading center dedicated to deepening our understanding of the origin and evolution of the universe and the laws that govern it.

‘finEDge’ is a research-based program that teaches students critical financial decision-making skills, helping them navigate a complex, ever-changing marketplace.

This April, labs in the Department of Chemistry and the Institute for Molecular Engineering (IME) are invited to join a competition to be the Safest Lab of 2019. The premise? The Joint Research Safety Initiative (JRSI), a student and postdoc-run group, will train volunteers to walk through participating labs “looking both for safety mishaps and clever ingenuity.” The winning labs earn not only the title but also a grand prize of $500 or two runner-up prizes of $250 to be used for a lab outing. 

As Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Director, Neli creates, leads and coordinates institutionalized equity, diversity and inclusion programs for all PSD constituents. She builds strategy, provides guidance and develops resources to support diversity and inclusion practices for staff, students, postdocs and faculty. We interviewed her about her past professional experiences and plans for the division.

All around us in the universe, black holes are smashing into each other with tremendous force. These events are so powerful that they cause ripples in the fabric of space-time—and these ripples, called gravitational waves, travel hundreds of millions of light-years across the universe.

For the nearly four decades that Prof. Arūnas Leonardas Liulevičius taught mathematics to undergraduates at the University of Chicago, he was regularly approached by former students telling him he had inspired them to pursue majors or careers in the field after taking his classes.

Gregory Lawler, the George Wells Beadle Distinguished Service Professor of Mathematics and Statistics, has earned the prestigious Wolf Prize for his contributions to research on stochastic processes.

Naomi Sweeting, a fourth-year in the College, has been awarded the Alice T. Schafer Mathematics Prize, given annually by the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) to an undergraduate woman for excellence in mathematics.

Donald York, the Horace B. Horton Professor Emeritus in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, won this year’s Royal Astronomical Society Service Award for his lifetime contribution to astronomy.

Although NASA's Kepler space telescope ran out of fuel and ended its mission in 2018, citizen scientists, including UChicago graduate student Adina Feinstein, have used its data to discover an exoplanet 226 light-years away in the Taurus constellation.

Nancy Grace Roman, NASA's first chief of astronomy and one of the first women executives for the agency, died at the age of 93.

Gabriel Vargas grew up in San José, Costa Rica. He received a Licenciatura (Bachelor’s plus professional degree) in microbiology and clinical chemistry and a Master’s degree in microbiology from the University of Costa Rica. He is now pursuing a PhD in geophysical sciences with a concentration on microbiology. We interviewed him about his experiences at the University of Chicago.

Margaret Nichols grew up in Minneapolis, MN. She received her BA in math with a minor in computer science from Oberlin College. She is now pursuing her PhD in mathematics with a focus on geometric topology and the study of 3-manifolds. We interviewed her about her experience at the University of Chicago.

This past year brought us the launch of NASA's Parker Solar Probe, named after Prof. Emeritus Eugene Parker, the next generation South Pole Telescope, metal-organic nanoflowers to treat cancer, and more. Here is a look back at ten highlights in research and innovation in the PSD.