News: Faculty

Artificial intelligence-powered robotics are reshaping how experiments are designed, run and refined.

What University of Chicago scientists call an artificial leaf that mimics photosynthesis could be useful for wireless medical implants and other technologies.

The search for exoplanets—or worlds orbiting other stars—is astronomy’s great Easter egg hunt. For astronomers looking for extraterrestrial life, the true jackpot planet would be Earth-like: smallish and rocky, with an atmosphere, orbiting its parent star in the so-called habitable zone, that sweet thermal spot that is not too hot and not too cold, allowing water to exist in liquid form. In the 34 years exoplanets have been studied, no world that checks all of those boxes has ever been spotted—until now. 

Scientists say marine cloud brightening could weaken El Niño by cooling key Pacific waters, but major questions remain about feasibility, risks, and global oversight.

New benchmark shows specialized guardrails score near-random when content policies change.

Could the James Webb Space Telescope be missing hidden water on distant worlds? A new study suggests the answer may be yes.

An international group of Nobel Prize winners issued a pointed warning on emerging nuclear risks in an era of rapidly developing AI technology. The group’s declaration followed two days of meetings among the Nobel laureates, top scientific and policy experts, and religious leaders in the Papal Villas of Castel Gandolfo, a summer retreat for popes since the 1600s.

Watch Yu Deng accept the Fields Medal and a video featuring his life and work.

Before he won a Fields Medal for his pioneering work balancing randomness and order, Yu Deng had to achieve equilibrium in his own life.

Dr. Deng, a mathematics professor at the University of Chicago, received a Fields Medal for his work on an equation describing fluid mechanics.

University mathematician recognized for cracking 125-year-old challenge to ground physics in mathematics.
 

Integrating artificial intelligence of varying capacities may outshine investing in the most powerful models. Op-ed co-authored by Robert Grossman, the Frederick H. Rawson Distinguished Service Professor in Medicine and Computer Science and the Jim and Karen Frank Director of the Center for Translational Data Science at the University of Chicago.

The frequency of extreme weather events can be predicted more accurately than presently possible by combining artificial intelligence (AI) with physical climate modelling, using a protocol called rare-event sampling. Researchers used the approach to model extreme heat events such as the one currently roasting Europe, but they believe it could also be applicable to many other extreme events in climate science.

A few million years after the Big Bang, a nearly pure star formed within the ancient gas clouds of the Large Magellanic Cloud. This satellite galaxy currently orbits the Milky Way. The star formed primarily from primordial hydrogen and helium gas before early supernova explosions could enrich the local universe with heavier metallic elements. Billions of years later, ten undergraduate students at the University of Chicago identified the rare celestial object within an astronomical data archive.

Stuart Rowan, the Director of UChicago PME’s Institute for Materials and Sustainability (IMS), the Barry L. MacLean Professor for Molecular Engineering Innovation and Enterprise, and Professor of Chemistry, has been named Interim Dean of UChicago PME.