News: Awards

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.

Congratulations to Michael Rust, who has been selected as a 2025 Innovation Fund Investigator.

In 2025, the Physical Sciences Division at the University of Chicago continued its enduring legacy of scientific discovery, translating innovation into bold impact in service of a better world. We’re thrilled to share a few of our proudest achievements.

University of Chicago students Logan Hanssler and Elijah Jenkins, both fourth-years in the College, have been selected as 2026 Marshall Scholars. Each will be provided the opportunity to study in their chosen fields for two years at any university in the United Kingdom. Logan Hanssler (Astrophysics; Molecular Engineering) intends to study Optics and Photonics at Imperial College London and pursue a degree by research in Physics at Durham University.

Sixth annual workshop celebrates and supports early-career data scientists.