News: Awards

Congratulations to Prof. Marcela Carena, Prof. Wendy Freedman, and Dean of the Physical Sciences Division Angela Olinto! The three PSD scientists have been named Notable Women in STEM by Crain's Chicago Business.

Elsevier and the Board of Executive Editors of Elsevier’s Tetrahedron journal series are pleased to announce that the 2023 Tetrahedron Prize for Creativity in Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry has been awarded to Professor Chuan He, Department of Chemistry, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Photo by Jason Smith

Congratulations to UChicago chemist Chuan He for his inclusion on the shortlist for the Falling Walls Foundation Science Breakthrough of the Year 2023. He is recognized for “Breaking the Wall of Food Insecurity.” 

To learn more about He's work, read his interview with Falling Walls.

UChicago paleontologist David Jablonski receives Darwin-Wallace Medal for unique approach to evolution, extinction studies.

Photo by Jean Lachat

Congratulations to Jeffrey Harvey, the Enrico Fermi Distinguished Service Professor of Physics, for winning a 2023 Dirac Medal. The award recognizes wide-ranging contributions to string theory, a mathematical framework in fundamental physics that aims to describe the entirety of the whole universe.  

Congratulations to Assistant Professor of Physics Zoe Yan for being named the 2023 laureate in the Physical Sciences & Engineering category. She is recognized for developing the first quantum gas microscope on single, ultracold molecules and applying this technique to explore important phenomena relevant to high-temperature superconductors and other quantum materials. 

Congratulations to Associate Professor of Chemistry Mark Levin for winning the 2023 Bristol-Myers Squibb Unrestricted Grantee Award and Jisoo Woo, who works as part of the Levin Group, for winning the 2023 BMS Graduate Fellowship for his achievements in Synthetic Organic Chemistry.

Two scientists with the University of Chicago, including assistant professor of physics Clay Córdova, have been selected for the U.S. Department of Energy’s 2023 Early Career Research Program. The awardees will receive five-year grants to investigate quantum field theory and electrochemical energy storage.

Congratulations to Chemistry professor Greg Engel, who is one of 42 new people honored as an ACS fellow for 2023. This program of the American Chemical Society recognizes ACS members who have made exceptional contributions to science, the profession, and the ACS community.

The American Physical Society has designated the Chicago Pile “Site A” and Stagg Field at the University of Chicago as Historic Sites to recognize the world’s first self-sustaining, controlled nuclear chain reaction. Each site will receive a plaque, acknowledging its exemplary contributions to physics.

Photo courtesy of the University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center

The 2023 Alice W. Chandler Staff Service Recognition Ceremony was held June 22. Meet some of the staff members who are celebrating this year the longest tenures at the University.

Mitzi Nakatsuka celebrates year 45 at UChicago. She started at the University as a secretary in the Statistics Department, later moved into Web Services, before eventually returning to the department she started in as a web developer.

University of Chicago chemist and professor Laura Gagliardi has been selected as the recipient of the 2023 Linus Pauling Medal Award for outstanding achievements in Chemistry. Gagliardi is honored for the development of groundbreaking electronic structure theories and combined classical/quantum methodologies that have accelerated the design of new materials, including reticular frameworks.
 

The Physical Sciences Division has selected four graduate students to receive a William Rainey Harper Dissertation Fellowship for the 2023-2024 academic year.

UChicago teaching award winners, including chemist Bozhi Tian, share their selections.

Photo by Jean Lachat

Vladimir Drinfeld, Harry Pratt Judson Distinguished Service Professor of Mathematics at the University of Chicago, wins 2023 Shaw Prize in the Mathematical Sciences for his contributions related to mathematical physics and to arithmetic geometry.