News: Awards

CDAC’s new AI + Science grants fund projects and workshops in chemistry, physics, and CS Education

Physics student, Jan Offermann, among 62 selected by DOE for high energy physics research at Argonne

Two UChicago scientists, Matthew Ackerman and Pranav Gokhale, selected for entrepreneurship program to develop quantum tech

Sidney Nagel, the Stein-Freiler Distinguished Service Professor of Physics, among three UChicago scholars elected to American Philosophical Society. He is a pioneer in studying non-linear and far-from-equilibrium behavior in disordered systems.

Asst. Prof. Suri Vaikuntanathan has been awarded a 2020 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award in the chemical sciences. The prize of $100,000 will support his research on “Controlling Organization, Self-Assembly, and Dynamics in Complex Non-Equilibrium Systems.”

Chemistry Prof. Guilia Galli one of two UChicago scholars elected to National Academy of Sciences

Six UChicago scholars elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

This month PSD researchers have been featured for their efforts to discover how to best decontaminate N95 masks, develop probes made of DNA to track molecular secrets, and find a math bridge that extends beyond Fermat's Last Theorem.

Three undergraduates awarded Goldwater Scholarships to support STEM education: third-years Spencer Dembner, Vennela Mannava and Thomas Propson honored

Congratulations to UChicago PSD’s five 2020 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program recipients, David Zegeye and Cory Cotter in astronomy, LeeAnn Marie Sager in chemistry, and Jordan T Kemp and Amanda Mirna Farah in physics.

Prof. Foygel Barber wins Hall Award “for outstanding
contributions to the development of methodology and theory for structured
high-dimensional data problems such as sparse regression, sparse
nonparametric models, and low-rank models, as well as scalable
optimization techniques for nonconvex problems.”

This month PSD researchers have been featured for the efforts of chemists to decode RNA of the new coronavirus, using AI to decode cuneiform tablets, and predicting a new state of matter.

Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry Mark Levin was awarded the Cancer Research Foundation Young Investigators Prize for his proposal to find a new way to create a synthetic tracer compound which will significantly improve the effectiveness of current PET scan technology. If he is successful, his technology will open the door to a whole new class of more effective imaging compounds.

Margaret Gardel, Professor in the Department of Physics and Director of the Material Research Science and Engineering Center, was awarded $25,000 for work on how cells sense mechanical forces and respond to those forces with chemical activity.

American Astronomical Society has announced their new Fellows program, kicking it off with an initial group of 200 Legacy Fellows. Astronomy Professors John Carlstrom, Wendy Freedman, and Michael Turner were among those named Legacy Fellows.