News: Awards

Angela V. Olinto, Dean of the Physical Sciences and the Albert A. Michelson Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Enrico Fermi Institute, and the College, was elected as Corresponding Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences by their General Assembly on December 2, 2021. She will be admitted on January 1, 2022.
 

Prof. Yau W. Wah from the Dept. of Physics was one of three UChicago professors inducted into the American Physical Society (APS) this October for his notable contributions to the fields of quantum and particle physics. The Chicago Maroon interviewed him about his research and academic career.

A new wearable technology designed by researchers in the Human Computer Integration laboratory at UChicago Computer Science can fool fingertips, changing the user’s perception of an object’s softness. The research describing the project, led by predoctoral student Yujie Tao, received a Best Paper Award at the 2021 ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology and the Best Demo Award from the UIST Jury.

Eight current University of Chicago Physical Science Division faculty were named in Web of Science's 2021 report of highly cited researchers. Researchers on the list have demonstrated significant and broad influence in the past decade, with highly cited papers ranking in the top 1% by citation for a chosen field or fields.

With a $5 million LARGE grant from NSF, computer science professors Haryadi Gunawi, Shan Lu, and Hank Hoffmann will lead a group of researchers to develop a new pipeline of tools, software, and systems that allow software developers to write robust new software for massive clusters, even without direct access to these expensive systems, thus building foundations for correctness checkability and performance predictability at scale.

This month PSD researchers have been featured for their efforts to invent chemical haptics, to detect internet censorship in real time, and to extract water from the air of even the driest deserts.

On Tuesday, November 16, members of the University of Chicago Physical Sciences Division attended the Second Annual PSD Staff Awards. The virtual gathering honored staff members nominated by their divisional peers, colleagues, students, and supervisors for their dedication, hard work, and commitment to the PSD. Winners included Mat Wimberly, Dept. of Mathematics, Out of the Box Award; Sierra Sterling, Dean of Students Office, Bridgebuilder Award; and Karin Czaplewski, Dept. of Computer Science, Keystone Award.

University of Chicago Professor Emeritus Eugene Parker accepted the Crafoord Prize in Astronomy on Nov. 9 at a small reception at his home. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the prestigious prize in 2020 for Parker's "pioneering and fundamental studies of the solar wind and magnetic fields from stellar to galactic scales."

Neubauer Family Assistant Professor Sarah King, Dept. of Chemistry, is among 36 researchers receiving Air Force Office of Scientific Research Awards. A three-year grant of $450,000 will support her project, “Enhancing MXene catalysis on the nanoscale.”

Two physical scientists will be among the four scholars awarded honorary degrees at the University of Chicago 2022 convocation. Katherine H. Freeman, an organic biogeochemist, developed the paleo-carbon dioxide proxy record that has contributed to the study of climate change. Nergis Mavalvala, a leading astrophysicist and LIGO collaborator, is notable for her work on the discovery of gravitational waves and for developing precision quantum optomechanics.

Laura Gagliardi, the Richard and Kathy Leventhal Professor in the Department of Chemistry, has been elected Foreign Member of the Italian National Academy, called Academia Nazionale Dei Lincei. This is an august body of scholars, whose Vice-President is Giorgio Parisi, recipient of the recent Nobel in physics.

This month PSD researchers have been featured for their efforts to create materials that can move and block heat, use a massive accelerator to analyze dust from an asteroid, and build wearable devices for signing ASL and playing piano.

Two members of the Physical Sciences Division are among those who will be honored in the American Physical Society’s Spring 2022 Prizes and Awards. IMSI Director Phillip (Bo) Hammer was recognized as part of the TEAM-UP Task Force for the 2022 Excellence in Physics Education Award. Prof. Giulia Galli of molecular engineering and chemistry was recognized with the 2022 Aneesur Rahman Prize for Computational Physics.

Philip (Bo) Hammer, Executive Director of IMSI, has been awarded the 2022 Excellence in Physics Education Award from APS. Hammer was cited for his work creating a national task force on the underrepresentation of African Americans in physics & astronomy.

Assistant Prof. Mark Levin of the Dept. of Chemistry has received a 2021 Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering. Levin is one of 20 early-career scientists and engineers nationwide to receive the fellowship, providing $875,000 over five years to support his research into inventing a new chemical reaction that can “live-edit” molecules down to the level of single-atom precision.