News: Faculty

Of a moratorium on building nuclear power plants in Illinois coming to an end, Prof. Robert Rosner says in a Chicago Tribune article, "There’s no one waiting here to start building a nuclear power plant as soon as the law changes."

P5 report includes UChicago, Fermilab experiments to study neutrinos, cosmic microwave background.

Jet streams circulate around the world. A new study by GS Prof. Tiffany Shaw and National Center for Atmospheric Research scientist Osamu Miyawaki finds fast jet stream winds (those in dark red in the figure) will get even faster over time as climate change accelerates.

Research by UChicago scientists, including Chemistry Prof. Chuan He, suggests that the nutrient called TVA could have potential as a nutritional supplement to complement clinical treatments for cancer.

Together, a startup co-founded by CS Assoc. Prof. Ce Zhang creating open-source generative AI and AI model development infrastructure, announced that it closed a $102.5 million Series A funding round.

Scientists are fascinated by cosmic rays because they can tell us about space—where they came from and what they encountered along the way—as well as the makeup of the galaxy and the universe. Read the UChicago Explainer Series to learn all about cosmic rays.

Research led by postdoctoral scholar Hojin Kim, Prof. Stuart Rowan in Chemistry and PME, and Prof. Heinrich Jaeger in Physics and JFI on the science behind non-Newtonian fluids could lead to applications ranging from clump-free paint to wearable protective gear.

Dozens of articles feature Astrophysics postdoc Rafael Luque's study describing the discovery of six planets orbiting a bright star in perfect resonance 100 light-years from Earth. Explore a few of those articles sampled here.

In a Forbes article, Astro Prof. John Carlstrom discusses the significance of the international CMB-S4 telescope project being designed to examine and map ancient cosmic microwave background radiation involving 400 scientists from more than 20 countries.

Solar geoengineering technology holds possibilities and pitfalls, says David Keith, professor of Geophysical Sciences and founding director of the Climate Systems Engineering Initiative at UChicago.

In a USA Today article, Assoc. Prof. Marshini Chetty discusses Meta Pixel's tracking efforts on sites required for college applications, saying you could make the argument that these educational sites are “just the same as any other site,” but noting that dealing with kids raises bigger questions about tracking on the web: “Why is there the Meta Pixel? Why are there session recorders?” she said. “What is the place of that on these sites?" Doctoral Candidate Jake Chanenson says, “Some sort of comprehensive federal privacy regulation would be helpful...the last privacy act we had was in the ‘90s"
 

Scientists, including Rafael Luque and Jacob Bean, have discovered a rare sight in a nearby star system: Six planets orbiting their central star in a rhythmic beat. The planets move in an orbital waltz that repeats itself so precisely it can be readily set to music. A rare case of an “in sync” gravitational lockstep, the system could offer deep insight into planet formation and evolution.

Image by Roger Thibaut (NCCR PlanetS)

As upgrades enable the LHC to produce more and more particle collisions, physicists are using machine learning to keep up with the growing task of sorting through everything. David Miller, an associate professor of Physics and a member of the ATLAS experiment, weighs in.

KICP Fellow Patricio Gallardo discusses in a U.S. Sun article his doubts over a claim that a sphere found in the Pacific Ocean is of extraterrestrial origin.

In a NewScientist article, CS Prof. Heather Zheng discusses AI's ability to figure out what someone is typing in VR meetings, saying, "You don't even need to know the person. As long as you can get in the same VR room as them, they're done."