2025
Six UChicago scientists awarded prestigious Sloan Fellowships in 2025
February 18, 2025

Early-career scholars recognized for pioneering work in statistics, physics, chemistry, astrophysics, and computer science.
Robert Wald awarded 2025 Albert Einstein Medal
February 13, 2025

The prestigious Einstein Medal, established in 1979, honors individuals who have contributed significant scientific findings, works, or publications related to Albert Einstein.
Yamuna Krishnan receives 2025 Marian and Stuart Rice Research Award
January 24, 2025

Yamuna Krishnan, the Louis Block Professor of Chemistry and the College, has received the 2025 Marian and Stuart Rice Research Award. The Divisional honor provides unrestricted seed funds for intellectually exciting and innovative research ventures that enable new research directions.
Krishnan has pioneered the application of DNA nanotechnology to cell biology, deploying nanodevices as fluorescent reporters, thereby revealing the chemistry within sub-compartments of cells called organelles.
Prof. Wendy Freedman awarded National Medal of Science
January 7, 2025

Prof. Wendy Freedman, one of world’s leading cosmologists, has been awarded the National Medal of Science, the country’s highest scientific honor. She was recognized for her pioneering contributions to cosmology, including the measurement of the expansion and evolution of the universe.
Photo by Ryan K. Morris, courtesy of the National Science & Technology Medals Foundation
Thirty-one UChicago faculty members receive named, distinguished service professorships in 2025
January 6, 2025

Two PSD faculty members have received named professorships. Hening Lin has been named the James and Karen Frank Family Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Chemistry and the College, and Rebecca Willett has been named the first Worah Family Professor in the Wallman Society of Fellows in the Departments of Statistics and Computer Science and the College.
2024
What to read and watch over winter break 2024
December 24, 2024

UChicago award winners share their selections for the holidays.
Looking back at 2024 at the University of Chicago
December 24, 2024

UChicago retrospective article features PSD breakthroughs and accolades.
How an ‘accidental chemist’ honed his approach at UChicago on the way to a Nobel Prize
December 24, 2024

UChicago alumnus John Jumper was awarded a share of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his contributions to the AlphaFold project, which uses AI to predict protein structures. Learn more about Jumper's academic and scientific journey.
2024 Nobel Prize lectures in chemistry | David Baker, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper
December 11, 2024

John Jumper, SM’12, PhD’17, currently with Google’s DeepMind, received the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Dec. 10 in Stockholm, Sweden. Watch his Nobel lecture, "Building chemical and biological intuition into protein structure prediction." His talk begins at 1:09:38.
UChicago cosmologist one of Nature’s 10 people who helped shape science in 2024
December 9, 2024

Congratulations to Wendy Freedman for being named one of Nature’s 10! She is recognized for her pioneering work on Hubble constant measurements.
Forbes 30 Under 30 North America 2025
December 4, 2024

Congratulations to Chemistry Department alumni Jiuyun Shi, PhD’23 (Bozhi Tian Group), and Nan Li, PhD’23 (Sihong Wang Group), for being named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list!
Six PSD members named Highly Cited Researchers
November 27, 2024

Six University of Chicago Physical Sciences Division scientists were named in Web of Science's 2024 report of highly cited researchers. According to Web of Science, researchers on the list have demonstrated significant and broad influence in their fields.
Professor Emeritus James Norris to receive inaugural “Spin Chemistry Lifetime Achievement Award” at the RSC ESR Conference 2025
November 13, 2024

Professor Emeritus James Norris received the inaugural "Spin Chemistry Lifetime Achievement Award" from the ESR Spectroscopy group of the Royal Society of Chemistry. This award is designed to honor scientists who have made groundbreaking contributions to the field of spectroscopy.
Rebecca Willett receives the SIAM Activity Group on Data Science Career Prize
November 9, 2024

UChicago Professor of Computer Science Rebecca Willett is the 2024 recipient of the SIAM Activity Group on Data Science Career Prize, for “her work in physics-informed machine learning and data science and for her service and leadership in the data science community.”
How AI protein structure prediction and design won the Nobel prize
November 9, 2024

David Baker, Demis Hassabis, and John Jumper won this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Jumper attended grad school at UChicago, where he worked alongside biochemist Tobin Sosnick and theoretical chemist Karl Freed.