News: Awards

On Thursday, July 23, mathematics professor Yu Deng was awarded the Fields Medal—the highest honor in mathematics. Deng, together with fellow honoree Hong Wang, became the first citizens of the People’s Republic of China to receive the award in its 90-year history. Read more about this historic win.

Watch Yu Deng accept the Fields Medal and a video featuring his life and work.

Before he won a Fields Medal for his pioneering work balancing randomness and order, Yu Deng had to achieve equilibrium in his own life.

Dr. Deng, a mathematics professor at the University of Chicago, received a Fields Medal for his work on an equation describing fluid mechanics.

University mathematician recognized for cracking 125-year-old challenge to ground physics in mathematics.
 

W. M. Keck Foundation awarded UChicago $1.3M for the project, “Non-Reciprocal Matter,” led by Heinrich Jaeger, the Sewell Avery Distinguished Service Professor in Physics, the James Franck Institute, and the College.

Thirteen members of the University of Chicago faculty, including three from the Physical Sciences Division, have received distinguished service professorships or named professorships, effective July 1.

After graduating from the University of Chicago’s MS in Applied Data Science program, Kyler Rosen found himself at the intersection of AI, healthcare, and entrepreneurship as founding engineer at Slideflow Labs, a healthcare AI startup focused on rapid cancer diagnostics.

Congrats to Abigail Lee, PhD’25 in Astronomy and Astrophysics, who has received a 2025 PhD Prize from the International Astronomical Union (IAU).
 

The Physical Sciences Division has selected four graduate students to receive a William Rainey Harper Dissertation Fellowship for the 2026-2027 academic year.

CSEi’s first essay contest sparks undergraduate engagement on sunlight reflection methods (SRM), awarding $7,000 in prizes.

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.
 

UChicago’s Alex Kale receives the Early CAREER Award for advancing ethical and practical standards in data visualization, empowering creators and audiences to better interpret what charts reveal and what they conceal.

Frank Calegari, professor and associate chair of the Department of Mathematics, and Young-Kee Kim, the Albert A. Michelson Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Physics and the Enrico Fermi Institute, have been elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of sciences.

PhD Graduate Brennan Schaffner receives ACM SIGCHI special recognition award for his research on dark patterns, subsequent interventions, and influence users.