News: Awards

Profs. Yu Deng and Tomer Schlank have received 2026 Clay Research Awards from the Clay Mathematics Institute. Tomer Schlank is recognized (with collaborators) for groundbreaking work on Ravenel’s Telescope Conjecture, and Yu Deng is recognized (with Zaher Hani) for major advances on the derivation of the Boltzmann equation from particle systems.
 

The UChicago Alumni Association and Alumni Board honor Marc Kamionkowski, PhD’91, with the Professional Achievement Award. Kamionkowski is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins University, where he has taught since 2011. He is a theoretical physicist who has worked on a broad range of topics in theoretical astrophysics, cosmology and particle theory. 

Congratulations to Guangbin Dong, who has received the 2026 Janssen Prize. This award recognizes his groundbreaking contributions in a broad range of topics including activation of inert Carbon-Carbon and Caron-Hydrogen bonds, total synthesis of bioactive natural products, development of novel boron chemistry methods, and syntheses of specific graphene nanoribbons.​​

The largest neutrino experiment in the United States was named the Project of the Year by the Underground Construction Association for completing a significant and challenging underground construction project with little or no issues.

Prakapenka was selected for developing the GeoSoilEnviroCARS beamline into a hotspot for high-pressure science.

Physicist Clay Córdova has been named a recipient of the 2026 New Horizons in Physics Prize for his work in quantum field theory.
The New Horizons prize, which is given to early-career scientists and mathematicians who have already made a substantial impact on their fields, includes an award of $100,000.

The University of Chicago Data Science Institute faculty, affiliated faculty, and partners win seed funding to advance actionable AI weather forecasting in developing economies in Africa and Asia.

Congratulations to Alexandra Worden, professor of Geophysical Sciences and senior scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory, who has received a Guggenheim Fellowship. She joins a group of distinguished artists, scientists, and scholars in the 101st class of Guggenheim Fellows honored for “prior career achievement and exceptional promise.”

Back-to-back successes cap a championship run for team “pocpocpoc”, consisting of undergraduates Bach Tran, Hung Pham, and Long Nguyen.
 

Congratulations to Physics alum and grand-prize winner Takumi Matsuzawa, PhD’23, for “Yin and Yang: Harmony in Chaos.” Now in its 5th installment, a PSD science-artist has won grand prize every year, from Physics, Geophysical Sciences, Computer Science, and Chemistry!

Piaulet-Ghorayeb will blend atmospheric observations and theory to reveal the nature of sub-Neptunes, the galaxy's most common worlds.

UChicago scientists team up with Chicago Public Schools to test if robots need fictional personalities to teach effectively.

Congratulations to Vincenzo Vitelli and Carlos E.M. Wagner, who were named 2025 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for their distinguished contributions to the sciences. 

Congratulations to Chemistry alum Di Wang, PhD'25, who has been named a 2026 Schmidt Science Fellow! He aims to improve the production of nanomaterials by overcoming their biological limitations.

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.