News: Awards

Shankar Balasubramanian, the Herchel Smith Professor of Medicinal Chemistry in the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge, will receive the honorary degree of Doctor of Science.

Kamionkowski is known for his early work on the possibility that dark matter could be composed of elementary particles and his more recent work on the hypothesis of dark matter being made up of black holes.

Prestigious award, recognizing outstanding contributions by early career researchers, honors physics department alumni Kai Li. 

Fourth-year PhD student Riki Otaki receives the prestigious MongoDB PhD Fellowship for his work making data systems more efficient and scalable.

University of Chicago researcher Chuan He has been recognized for the potential real-world impact of his work – including a method to dramatically increase crop yields and an innovative liquid biopsy test that can detect early-stage cancer.

Congratulations to the PSD faculty members who have received NSF CAREER Awards. According to the NSF, the prestigious CAREER award supports early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.
 

University Communications invites all members of the UChicago community to submit images from their scientific research for the fifth annual Science as Art contest. The winner will receive $300. A “fan favorite,” judged by the public on UChicago’s social media feeds, will also receive $150. The images will be displayed on the UChicago main website, the UChicago Intranet, social media, and in exhibitions around campus. The deadline to enter is Friday, March 13.

Congratulations to Chemistry postdoc Byungjun Kim and Physics postdocs Arushi Bodas and Thomas Wester, who have received fellowship funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

Congratulations to early-career scholars Aloni Cohen (Computer Science and DSI), Anna Wuttig (Chemistry), and Zoe Yan (Physics), recognized for their potential to make substantial contributions to their fields.

Associate Professor Marshini Chetty collaborates with law professors Lior Strahilevitz and Matthew Kugler to demonstrate that dark patterns manipulate users despite explicit instructions to protect privacy, research that was honored with a Future of Privacy Forum’s 2026 Privacy Papers for Policymakers Award.

Chemistry professor Bozhi Tian has received the 2026 Marian and Stuart Rice Research Award. The Divisional honor provides $100,000 for intellectually exciting and innovative research ventures that enable new research directions.

Congratulations to Lindsay House, a SkAI Data Science Preceptor, Named a Science Communication Fellow by the Museum of Science.
 

Recognized with a 2025 CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award, Ranya Sharma’s work explores how network security and Internet infrastructure shape real-world experiences of privacy, performance, and access.

FIfth year PhD student Soumik Ghosh was awarded the International Business Machines (IBM) PhD fellowship. The following is a Q&A that shares his background, academic journey, and what comes next for his research. 

Congratulations to Caroline Piaulet-Ghorayeb and Donald Stull, who have been named recipients of the 2025–2026 Suzuki Postdoctoral Fellowship Award. Yuji Suzuki, SM’70, a longtime supporter and former Council member of the Physical Sciences Division, established the Yuji and Lorraine Suzuki Postdoctoral Research Fund in 2016 to recognize outstanding postdoctoral researchers.