News: Faculty

The incoming faculty members bring expertise and experience in networking, privacy, human-computer interaction, machine learning, quantum computing, data discovery, research data management and many other topics. 

Prof. Freedman and her team announced a new measurement of the Hubble constant using a kind of star known as a red giant. Their observations, made with NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, indicate that the expansion rate for our corner of the universe is just under 70 kilometers per second per megaparsec—slightly smaller than their previous measurement.

Geophysical Sciences Prof. David Jablonski and statistician Tingran Gao lead an interdisciplinary initiative to create a 3-D image database of more than 3,000 shells of the bivalve class from around the world. Funded by a seed grant from UChicago’s Center for Data and Computing, this growing database will allow scientists to ask deeper questions about biodiversity both between and within species, and how climate change might affect the survival, distribution, and shape of organisms with ecological, economic and dietary importance.  

Prof Zhao explains “deepfake” technology, a product of AI and machine learning that produces fake yet realistic videos, and discusses consumers' susceptibility to this sort of manipulation.  

In its list of Tech50, Crain's Chicago features Prof. David Awshchalom for research in the field of quantum computing, Prof. Mike Franklin for his work in cloud computing and data handling, and Prof. Rick Stevens for his supercomputer expertise. 

Assoc. Prof. of Math Maryanthe Malliaris joins other Quantrell and Graduate Teaching award winners to share summer reading recommendations. Malliaris suggests reading Barry Mazur's Imagining Numbers for its well-written and thought-provoking content.  

David Awschalom, Liew Family Professor of Molecular Engineering and Professor in the Department of Physics, states that the new Chicago Quantum Exchange partnerships with Boeing, Applied Materials Inc., ColdQuanta Inc., HRL Laboratories LLC, and Quantum Opus LLC "will help both academia and industry leverage each other's knowledge at the leading edge of quantum computing. " 

By shaking electrons with lasers, researchers led by Assoc. Prof. Jonathan Simon were able to create electrons with 'doppelganger' features. Simon's published work could one day help create more powerful computers or virtually "unhackable" quantum communications.

The Chicago Tribune features Asst. Prof. Maureen Coleman's research, which seeks to better understand  what microbes are present in the Great Lakes and what role they play in the environment.

Assoc. Prof. of Computer Science Henry Hoffman and Assoc. Prof. of Physics Abigail Vieregg are among the winners of the 2019 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. 

László Babai has been named the Bruce V. and Diana M. Rauner Distinguished Service Professor in the Departments of Computer Science, Mathematics, and the College. His work is centered on theoretical computer science and discrete mathematics. Nick Feamster, who joins UChicago this summer, has been named the Neubauer Professor in the Department of Computer Science and the College. His work focuses on experimental networked systems and security. 

Clemens C.J. Roothaan, Louis Block Professor Emeritus of Physics and Chemistry, died June 17 at age 100. Roothan's research focused on the electronic structure of atoms and molecules with some of his structure models still being used today. Prof. Emeritus R. Stephen Berry lauds Roothaan as "the person who most deserved, but never received the Nobel Prize."  

University of Chicago astrophysicist, Irina Zhuravleva, led a study that provides a brand-new glimpse of the small-scale physics of intergalactic plasma. Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, scientists took a detailed look at the plasma in a distant galaxy cluster and discovered the flow of plasma is much less viscous than expected and, therefore, turbulence occurs on relatively small scales—an important finding for our numerical models of the largest objects in the universe. 

 

A team of physicists at the University of Chicago has built a quantum system to simulate the physics of Unruh radiation. The breakthrough advances our understanding of these complex physics—and could ultimately help us explain how the largest and smallest phenomena in the universe fit together. 

Quanta Magazine spoke with Wilkinson about the emotional dimensions of mathematical discovery, bizarre examples of dynamical systems that she’s found, and the idea of a “safe space” in mathematics.