News: Faculty

2022

NASA’s new flagship telescope just released its beautiful first images of the universe

July 12, 2022

cosmic cloud captured by James Webb Space Telescope

Nebulas and galaxy clusters are among the first batch of images from James Webb Space Telescope, the successor to Hubble. “These are some of the sharpest images of the universe ever taken by humanity,” said University of Chicago astrophysicist Michael Gladders.


Cryptography solutions selected to fight cyberattacks from quantum computers

July 11, 2022

Illustration of quantum infrastructure for computing

Assistant Professor Bill Fefferman, Department of Computer Science, comments on the four new US standards to fight cyberattacks from quantum computers and the imperative that they be implemented quickly.


Summer reading recommendations from UChicago faculty

July 11, 2022

A woman is peering at a shelf of books in a library

Teaching award winners select books that explore climate change, colonialism and more—including physics professor David Schmitz recommending The Last Man Who Knew Everything: The Life and Times of Enrico Fermi, Father of the Nuclear Age by David Schwartz.


BigBrains Podcast: Extreme heat waves: Why are they surging? with Noboru Nakamura

July 8, 2022

Noboru Nakamura

Paul Rand interviewed Prof. Noboru Nakamura of the Department of the Geophysical Sciences about extreme heat waves for the UChicago BigBrains podcast.


UChicago scientists invent ‘quantum flute’ that can make particles of light move together

July 8, 2022

A metal quantum device with holes snaking in a line, known as a quantum flute

A new “quantum flute” experiment by University of Chicago physicists could point the way towards new quantum technology. The holes create different wavelengths, akin to ‘notes’ on a flute, that can be used to encode quantum information.


Scientists announced the discovery of the Higgs boson 10 years ago. What’s next?

July 8, 2022

Large Hadron Collider

University of Chicago scientists helped built parts of the calorimeter at the Large Hadron Collider's ATLAS experiment. Ten years later after the experiment detected the Higgs boson, physicists reflect on what there is still to learn about and from the Higgs particle.


Robert J. Zimmer steps down from position as University of Chicago chancellor

July 8, 2022

Robert Zimmer

The University of Chicago announced that Robert J. Zimmer will step down from his role as chancellor to focus on his health. A visionary leader in mathematics and higher education, he is the Betty L. Bergman Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Mathematics and the College and former Chairman of Mathematics.


CERN’s Large Hadron Collider scientists reveal new particle discovery as accelerator research resumes

July 6, 2022

Scientists in CERN's facilities

Upgrades to CERN’s Large Hadron Collider could help scientists discover more new particles and gain better understanding of dark matter.


Lee C. Teng, eminent physicist, 1926-2022

July 1, 2022

Lee Chang-Li Teng, a theoretical physicist who contributed to and designed many particle-accelerator-based projects around the globe, and University of Chicago alumnus, died June 24.


Direct photo-oxidation of methane to methanol over a mono-iron hydroxyl site

July 1, 2022

Wenbin Lin

Prof. Wenbin Lin and researcher Zhe Li co-authored new research identifying a path to drive the direct photosynthesis of methanol.


PSD in the News - June 22

June 30, 2022

PSD against a white and turquoise background

This month PSD researchers have been featured for their efforts to understand why Mars dried out, expand and activate the Chicagoland quantum network, and analyze samples from asteroid Ryugu collected by Hayabusa2.


Booth podcast with Prof. Ben Zhao, What are the ethics of facial recognition technology?

June 27, 2022

Ben Zhao

In an interdisciplinary discussion hosted by Chicago Booth Review, UChicago scholars Wilma A. Bainbridge and Alexander Todorov join Prof. Ben Zhao of computer science to discuss biases relating to faces and the implications of facial recognition technology.


Prof. Yanjing Li receives Under-40 Innovators Award from DAC

June 23, 2022

Yanjing Li

Asst. Prof. Yanjing Li of the Dept. of Computer Science will be one of four researchers to receive the 2022 Under-40 Innovators Award from the annual Design Automation Conference in July in San Francisco, an industry event focused on the automation of electronic chips to systems.


Computer Science professors Bill Fefferman and Chenhao Tan receive Google Research Scholar Awards

June 23, 2022

Bill Fefferman and Chenhao Tan

Computer Science faculty Bill Fefferman and Chenhao Tan received 
Google Research Scholar Awards for projects in quantum computing and AI text models.


Computer Science Chair Michael Franklin part of SIGMOD Award-winning team

June 23, 2022

Mike Franklin

Liew Family Chair of Computer Science Michael Franklin was one of a large group of researchers and open source developers who received the 2022 ACM SIGMOD Systems Award for their work on the popular Apache Spark system.