News: Awards

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.

Currently a postdoctoral researcher at JILA, Kai Li received his PhD in physics in 2023 under the mentorship of Professor Linda Young. Li has been awarded the 2026 EuXFEL Young Scientist Award, which aims to recognize outstanding contributions to research at the European X-ray Free Electron Laser by young researchers in the early stages of their career. We interviewed him about his research and his time at UChicago.

In December, undergraduate Ranya Sharma was honored with a 2025 CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award—one of the highest recognitions for early-career computing research in North America. The award, presented by the Computing Research Association, acknowledges Ranya’s standout contributions to understanding how digital infrastructure shapes privacy, performance, and equity across the Internet.

Congratulations to Carlos Kenig, who has won a King Faisal Prize for helping to revolutionize the understanding of nonlinear partial differential equations.

Thirty-two members of the University of Chicago faculty, including five from the Physical Sciences Division, have received distinguished service professorships or named professorships, effective Jan. 1.

Recommendations from UChicago award winners, including CS alum Polly Ren, SB’25, College Undergraduate Student Prize in Undergraduate Teaching winner.