News: Faculty

University of Chicago Prof. Rina Foygel Barber, a statistician known for her work in quantifying uncertainty, has been awarded a 2023 MacArthur Fellowship.

AzoQuantum article highlights a computational analysis led by Chemistry Prof. Giulia Galli forecasting the circumstances necessary to produce certain spin defects in silicon carbide.

UChicago chemists create sensors to track potassium, sodium in organelles.

Commenting on the FCC's broadband map in a Scientific American article, Director of the Internet Equity Initiative Alexis Schrubbe says, “The way that data decisions were made in the creation of this map will have ramifications for generations...this map is probably the highest-stakes data product that the federal government has ever created."

In a Wall Street Journal, Robert Rosner comments on today's Nobel Prize in Physics, saying the winners have "basically created a tool that allows you to look at phenomena and timescales that we’ve never been able to explore before."

In a Business Insider article, computer scientist Ben Zhao says the explosion in generative AI has sparked a "race to the bottom" as companies cut expenses and lay off low-level art roles, adding that "there's a lot of actual replacement going on, but many companies are just using generative AI as a way to argue for downsizing, to try to drive down costs and maximize profits."

An Economist article by Prof. David Keith discusses oil company investments into carbon capture technology.

A New Yorker article mentions the work of two UChicago chemists--Stanley Miller and Harold Urey (shown right)--in the 1950s who conducted research on the building blocks of life.

Photo courtesy of the University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center

The National Science Foundation has awarded UChicago’s M-STAR Center of Chemical Innovation program $1.8 million as a Phase 1 Research Center. M-STAR, which is short for MXene Synthesis, Tunability and Reactivity, will be designed as a incubator of MXene study and a major nexus for materials science research.

Department of Energy national labs are laying groundwork for a potential multi-billion dollar initiative to develop artificial intelligence tools for scientific and security applications, leveraging its advanced computing capabilities. Computer scientist and head of Argonne’s Computing, Environment, and Life Sciences Directorate Rick Stevens participated in the Senate-wide briefing.

In a Wired article, GeoSci assoc. prof. Elisabeth Moyer discusses the impact of climate change on precipitation, saying, “the very physics that gives us the greenhouse effect also makes the planet shed more of this energy by evaporation. And because whatever goes up must come down, that means we also get more rain.”

GeoSci associate professor Elisabeth Moyer says "a cheap battery would remove the biggest hurdle to a renewables transition,” adding that the materials availability is also still an issue and the technology does ultimately generate waste.

Please welcome the faculty joining the Physical Sciences Division in the ’23–24 academic year.

UChicago investigators have made progress with the synthesis of novel compounds, hybrid MXenes, that combine organic and inorganic materials, claims a new paper authored by The Talapin Group that was recently published in Nature Chemistry.

JumpMod is a compact, wearable backpack that uses vertical force feedback to create the feeling of perceived jumping and landing. The untethered nature of the device has the potential to scale these full-body sensations for at-home use– a problem currently unsolved.