News: Faculty

By examining fossilized clams scientists including David Jablonski, the William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Service Professor of Geophysical Sciences, and postdoctoral researcher, Nick Crouch, found that a commonly used protocol hides the true extent of how species live and die through major extinctions. Clams previously assumed to originate before the last great extinction actually originated in a burst of diversification in the aftermath.

A new wearable technology designed by researchers in the Human Computer Integration laboratory at UChicago Computer Science can fool fingertips, changing the user’s perception of an object’s softness. The research describing the project, led by predoctoral student Yujie Tao, received a Best Paper Award at the 2021 ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology and the Best Demo Award from the UIST Jury.

Marcela Carena is a professor of physics at the University of Chicago and a member of the Enrico Fermi Institute and the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics. On Oct. 26, she delivered the virtual Harper Lecture, “The Unseen Universe: How It Impacts the World We See,” with introductions from Dean Angela V. Olinto.

With a $5 million LARGE grant from NSF, computer science professors Haryadi Gunawi, Shan Lu, and Hank Hoffmann will lead a group of researchers to develop a new pipeline of tools, software, and systems that allow software developers to write robust new software for massive clusters, even without direct access to these expensive systems, thus building foundations for correctness checkability and performance predictability at scale.

This month PSD researchers have been featured for their efforts to invent chemical haptics, to detect internet censorship in real time, and to extract water from the air of even the driest deserts.

A new study by University of Chicago chemists offers a more efficient way to let researchers rearrange the components of a molecule—in particular, a key component called carbonyl groups that appears in many pharmaceutical drugs and other useful chemicals.

Scientists including Joel Cohen, a visiting professor in the Department of Statistics, have announced a new way to tease out information about events that are rare, but highly consequential—such as pandemics and insurance payouts.

An ultraporous humidity sponge could provide 300 gallons of fresh water a day. UChicago computational chemist Prof. Laura Gagliardi is using molecular simulations and precise experimental measurements to figure out how this material might capture even more water even more easily.

Planetary scientist Asst. Prof. Edwin Kite comments on the NASA Curiosity Mars rover landing site, Gale Crater, and the question of whether it was once a massive and long-lasting lake or only a series of smaller, transient puddles.

A group of scientists announced they had detected the gamma rays from a phenomenon known as an ultra-fast outflow—a powerful wind launched from very near a supermassive black hole—for the first time. Scientists believe these outflows play an important role in regulating the growth of the black hole itself and its host galaxy.

Researchers from the Human Computer Integration Lab have developed an entirely new approach called chemical haptics, which directly triggers receptors in human skin in different ways.

Quanta Magazine coverage of UChicago condensed matter physicists Prof. Vincenzo Vitelli, postdoc Ryo Hanai, and Prof. Peter Littlewood, who study the mathematical objects called exceptional points that have been found to control phase transitions in nonreciprocal systems.

A new result is stirring the debate around WIMPs, or Weakly Interacting Massive Particles. Astrophysicist Dan Hooper comments on the search for WIMPs underground, suggesting the COSINE-100 experiment “is the nail in the coffin” of dark matter interpretations from the DAMA/LIBRA, which claimed to have spotted the elusive dark matter particle in 2017.

University of Chicago Professor Emeritus Eugene Parker accepted the Crafoord Prize in Astronomy on Nov. 9 at a small reception at his home. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the prestigious prize in 2020 for Parker's "pioneering and fundamental studies of the solar wind and magnetic fields from stellar to galactic scales."

Neubauer Family Assistant Professor Sarah King, Dept. of Chemistry, is among 36 researchers receiving Air Force Office of Scientific Research Awards. A three-year grant of $450,000 will support her project, “Enhancing MXene catalysis on the nanoscale.”