News: Faculty

The Register UK asks when will quantum computers be capable of crypto-cracking, cites new RAND report and CS Prof. Diana Franklin

Astrophysicist and former University of Chicago scientist, Margaret Burbidge, died in San Francisco in April. Burbidge was a giant in the field of astronomy and physics and an expert practitioner of astronomical spectroscopy—the study of the spectra of stars, galaxies, and quasi-stellar objects. She used her international spotlight to champion the representation and inclusion of women in the sciences.
 

UChicago community finds new ways to learn together
Faculty, students, University community connect as Spring Quarter and remote learning begins

Article notes Assoc. Prof. Luca Grandi’s role in the Xenon experiment, an investigation into the nature of dark matter, which has been halted by the pandemic

In Quanta, Prof. Matthew Emerton describes two new papers that reveal fundamental number-theoretic phenomena that overcome the barrier of bridging two continents—a challenge generations of researchers have pursued as “Langland's program,” which seeks to create a grand unified theory of mathematics. These findings may help prove Fermat’s Last Theorem for some number systems beyond the positive whole numbers.

Founding Chair on the Committee of Information Sciences and pioneer in numerical simulations of the formation of structure in the universe and dynamics of galaxies died on Mar. 7

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.

Prof. Margaret Gardel leads effort to donate thousands of pieces of personal protective equipment from UChicago labs.

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.

Prof. Chuan He hopes to begin working on purified viral RNA from collaborators early this week.

Prof. Richard Miller, founding Chair on the Committee of Information Sciences and pioneer in numerical simulations of the formation of structure in the universe and dynamics of galaxies, died Mar. 7 in Chicago.
 
 

With a CDAC Discovery Grant, physicist David Miller and computer scientist Yuxin Chen hope to build a "self-driving" system for selecting and analyzing data from the Large Hadron Collider at CERN

UChicago Medicine’s Emily Landon answers common questions about COVID-19. Assoc. Prof. Landon specializes in infectious disease, and serves as medical director of antimicrobial stewardship and infection control at University of Chicago Medicine.