News

The 2023 unveiling of the Doomsday Clock at a Jan. 24 event in Washington, D.C. showed  hands of the clock at 90 seconds to midnight. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which includes Profs. Holz and Rosner of PSD, cite ‘unprecedented danger’ amid war in Ukraine, concerns over climate change.

A study by UChicago chemists has uncovered a new key step in the process that HIV uses to replicate itself. “The thought is that if we could stop the capsids from forming, or cause them to malform, we could prevent HIV from being infectious and replicating,” said senior author, Prof. Greg Voth, Dept. of Chemistry.

Maria Valdes, a research scientist at UChicago and the Field Museum, is among an international team who can attest to Antarctica’s meteorite-hunter-friendliness: they returned with five new meteorites, including one that weighs 16.7 pounds (7.6 kg).

Prof. Ka Yee C. Lee, Dept. of Chemistry, was named a Fellow of the Biophysical Society in 2023 “for her impactful and creative contributions to our understanding of the structure and stability of lipid membranes and their interactions with proteins.”

Sleep research began at UChicago, when in 1953, Nathaniel Kleitman and Eugene Aserinsky identified REM sleep, the stage when most dreaming occurs. Today, UChicago researchers study sleep’s relationship to body weight, disease, learning, and mood.

Neubauer Professor of Computer Science Heather Zheng was elected as a Fellow of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), the world’s largest and most prestigious society of computing professionals, for her work in wireless networking and mobile computing.

The PSD January Spotlight is Justin Jureller, Chemistry PhD’06, Technical Director of the Materials Preparation & Measurement Laboratory in the James Franck Institute and Materials Research Science and Engineering Center.

The Open Spatial Lab (OSL), a collaboration of the Data Science Institute and the Center for Spatial Data Science, is a new hub for the tools and partnerships essential for maximizing the potential of spatial data science.

Kristian Lum has joined the DSI as a research associate professor after time at Twitter, the Human Rights Data Analysis Group, and in academia examining fairness, accountability and transparency in machine learning and its applications.

Sixteen high school students expanded their view of what computer science is by participating in a “Make Your Own Wearables From Scratch” workshop hosted by the University of Chicago.

An interview with theoretical physicist Prof. Robert Rosner as he becomes the American Physical Society President in 2023.

Chemist and Assoc. Prof. John Anderson comments on the dangerous, reactive residue residents of La Salle are encountering after a chemical plant burned down.

Asst. Prof. Sarah Sebo, Dept. of Computer Science, presented her research on human and robot interactions and their effect on emotions at Northwestern University.

Mandy Chen was born and raised in Guizhou Province, Southwest China. Before coming to UChicago she was studying at the University of Hong Kong, where she got bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics and astronomy. This is her fifth year as a PhD student in astronomy and astrophysics. Her research focuses on observations of the diffuse circumgalactic medium—the outermost envelopes of galaxies.

In this episode of Carry the Two, we hear from NASA lead systems engineer, Mike Menzel, all about designing and testing the solar shield for JWST.