News

2019

Students envision future of tech—from AI to computer programming

October 22, 2019

Student in green shirt looking at computer screens

The DOE partnered with the University of Chicago and its affiliated laboratories, Argonne National Laboratory and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory on a recent event to teach and inspire middle and high school students to consider a future in developing AI technology.


2018 Nobel laureate in Physics, Prof. Donna Strickland, to speak at UChicago

October 17, 2019

Donna Strickland, 2018 Nobel laureate

On October 24, the Maria Goeppert-Mayer Lectures at the University of Chicago—named in honor of the second woman to win a Nobel Prize in Physics—will feature the third woman to win, 2018 Nobel laureate Prof. Donna Strickland.


UChicago STEM Education Partners with Activate Learning on New K-5 Science Curriculum

October 16, 2019

Teacher shows student an acorn

UChicago STEM Education at The University of Chicago and Activate Learning today announced an exciting partnership to publish Activate Learning PRIME™, a K-5 investigation-centered science curriculum.


​Astronomers use giant galaxy cluster as X-ray magnifying lens

October 16, 2019

Picture of Magellan Telescopes at Las Campanas Observatory, Chile at night with the night sky full of stars.

Astronomers at the University of Chicago, MIT and elsewhere have used a massive cluster of galaxies as an X-ray magnifying glass to peer back in time, to nearly 9.4 billion years ago. In the process, they spotted a tiny dwarf galaxy in its very first, high-energy stages of star formation


UChicago and Argonne scientist Ian Foster awarded $1 million by DOE Office of Science

October 16, 2019

Ian Foster

The Department of Energy has awarded University of Chicago and Argonne scientist Ian Foster $1 million over three years as part of the inaugural Office of Science Distinguished Scientist Fellowship program.


UChicago and Fermilab scientist Josh Frieman awarded $1 million by DOE Office of Science

October 16, 2019

Josh Frieman

The Department of Energy has awarded University of Chicago and Fermilab scientist Josh Frieman $1 million over three years as part of the inaugural Office of Science Distinguished Scientist Fellowship program.


​Chicago Quantum Summit to gather international experts

October 14, 2019

Illustration of unspecified photons

Top experts in quantum technology from around the globe will gather at the University of Chicago on Oct. 25 to discuss the future of quantum information science and strategies to build a quantum workforce. 

 


Heising-Simons Foundation to Support Lectures by Women in Physics

October 14, 2019

Physical Sciences data map logo

The Heising-Simons Foundation has granted $300,000 for an endowment to support the Maria Goeppert-Mayer Lecture Series at the University of Chicago. The annual lectures are given by outstanding women physicists in honor of Maria Goeppert-Mayer, who won the 1963 Nobel Prize in physics for developing the nuclear shell model while at UChicago and Argonne National Laboratory.


Alternate reality game to encourage students to think critically about climate change

October 10, 2019

UChicago faculty designed an alternate reality game, Terrarium, to help students develop innovative proposals about climate change and practice the kind of rigorous inquiry at the heart of UChicago's core values.  


​Researchers develop blood tests to detect diabetic complications and cancer

October 7, 2019

Gloved hand holding two full vials of blood samples

University of Chicago Prof. Chuan He partnered with Northwestern Assoc. Prof. Wei Zhang to develop a simple blood test that accurately detects whether patients with diabetes have developed vascular complications, which are responsible for about two-thirds of diabetes deaths. 


​Nearly a decade in the making, exoplanet-hunting instrument installed in Hawaii

October 4, 2019

MAROON-X team members wearing and Gemini Observatory staff wearing helmets standing in front of the Gemini North telescope with the MAROON-X unit.

Jacob Bean, associate professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Chicago, led a project to build and install an innovative instrument that will scan the skies for new exoplanets—worlds in other solar systems that could potentially host life. Over the past eight years, Bean and his team had designed and built the instrument, called MAROON-X; this summer they finally attached it to a telescope at the Gemini Observatory at the top of Mauna Kea, Hawaii. 


Researchers at the University of Chicago seek to shape emerging field of AI

October 2, 2019

Prof. Willet presenting slides on AI and data science foundations in front of audience

AI technology is increasingly used to open up new horizons for scientists and researchers. At the University of Chicago, researchers are using it for everything from scanning the skies for supernovae to finding new drugs from millions of potential combinations and developing a deeper understanding of the complex phenomena underlying the Earth’s climate. 

 


PSD in the News - September 2019

September 26, 2019

Illustration of an asteroid collision

This month, PSD researchers have been featured for researching wearable tech that uses electrical stimulation to help a user's muscles perform tasks, extraterrestrial dust that hints at our past, and revolutionary pacemaker technology.


​Five UChicago CS Students honored as 2020 Siebel Scholars

September 25, 2019

Individual Headshots of Camilo Arias Martelo, Mingzhe Hao, Jonathan Tan, Kevin Yuanshun Yao, and Yuliana Zamora

Three UChicago CS PhD students and two students from the MS in Computational Analysis and Public Policy (CAPP) program were named to the 2020 class of Siebel Scholars, the Thomas and Stacey Siebel Foundation announced. They are 5 of this year’s cohort of 93 Siebel Scholars, who are chosen from a select group of graduate schools for business, computer science, energy science and bioengineering.


​Ambitious project to map the Big Bang’s afterglow earns NSF funding

September 25, 2019

A Supply plane in the air, leaving the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station below. The station below has three people in jackets outside in the snow.

The National Science Foundation has awarded $4 million to the University of Chicago to host the development of an ambitious multi-institutional program to map the leftover light from the Big Bang in greater detail than ever before.