News: Newsclips

Please welcome the faculty joining the Physical Sciences Division in the ’24–25 academic year.

A new master’s program in environmental science at the University of Chicago will provide students with the foundational quantitative and data science skills needed across a wide range of environmental science disciplines, as well as the opportunity to specialize in areas such as climate science, biogeochemistry, ecology, and oceanography.
 

SkAI Institute will develop AI tools and accelerate astronomy’s data-driven revolution.

A new $75 million investment in geoengineering research will analyze the efficacy of plans to artificially cool the planet. This initiative relates to the work and advocacy of UChicago Prof. David Keith, a leading figure in the field.

Shawn Shan, a PhD student in computer science, was named one of MIT Technology Review’s 2024 Innovators Under 35. Shan helped create Glaze and Nightshade, tools that allow artists to protect their work from AI scraping.

In a new video, the Beckman Foundation highlights the research of UChicago Asst. Professor Sarah King in dynamic spectroscopy. King was a recipient of the 2020 Beckman Foundation Young Investigator Program award.

This October marks the return of  UChicago’s South Side Science Festival, fostering community between campus and South Side communities and expanding scientific engagement. The annual event is co-organized by the University’s Biological Sciences Division, Physical Sciences Division, Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, and Office of Civic Engagement.

The second edition of TIME100 AI showcases some of the most influential new leaders in AI research and technology. Featured in this year's list is UChicago's Computer Science professor Ben Zhao, the inventor of Nightshade, a program that helps protect artists' work from AI scraping.

Scientists' understanding of the universe is ever-evolving, and recent research has tackled some of the biggest questions in cosmology. Professor Wendy Freedman's work is among these landmark developments, using data from the James Webb Space Telescope to challenge the existence of the Hubble tension.
 

A long-awaited study of the cosmic expansion rate suggests that when it comes to the Hubble tension, cosmologists are still missing something. The results of UChicago Prof. Wendy Freedman's new measurements of the cosmic expansion rate might reveal that the Hubble tension is not real.
 

UChicago President Paul Alivisatos was honored this week in Norway as one of the winners of the 2024 Kavli Prize in Nanoscience. He shared the award with Prof. Chad Mirkin of Northwestern and Prof. Robert Langer of MIT.

In a new paper, a UChicago PME-led team of researchers from UChicago, Argonne National Laboratory, and University of Illinois Chicago used defect-embedded colloidal nanocrystals to create a perfect mixture of tiny solids in solution, which presents a better way to integrate quantum technologies. 

On August 16, stakeholders from academia, national labs, and industry—ranging from major corporations to startups—gathered for the soft launch of the Energy Transition Network, a new collaboration aimed at shifting the world away from fossil fuels in a safe, rapid, and cost-effective manner. Led by Professors Shirley Meng and Laura Gagliardi, the project will leverage Chicago’s existing resources to transform the region into a central hub of education, innovation, and startups focused on environmental issues.

Tong Lan, a graduate student with the Bryan Dickinson lab, is first author of a new paper published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society that presents breakthrough research on covalent macrocyclic peptides. This work is essential for the development of more effective and targeted cancer treatments. 

In an exciting development for quantum computing, researchers from the Department of Computer Science, Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, and Argonne National Laboratory have introduced a groundbreaking classical algorithm that simulates Gaussian boson sampling (GBS) experiments.