News: PSD Spotlights

Joylyn Yu '26 came to the University of Chicago as a licensed forester from the Philippines. Her motivation for the field came partly from where she grew up — a country highly affected by climate change, where she lived through typhoons. That experience pushed her toward forestry as an undergraduate. After completing her degree, she earned her forester license in her home country. But by the time she finished studying for that exam, she knew forestry alone wasn't enough.
 

Joshua Frank '26 came to the University of Chicago’s MS in Environmental Science with the intention of finishing his one-year degree, finding a job, and putting his analytical training to work on problems he cared about. Three quarters in, while he's still applying for jobs, he's also looking into PhD programs. Not because the original plan was wrong, but because the program kept opening doors he didn't know existed.
 

Xinyuan Zhou ‘26 isn't your typical science student. Then again, she is exactly the kind of student that University of Chicago’s MS in Environmental Science attracts: someone who wants to use the degree to scale meaningful change and advance sustainability practices.
 

Senior Pre-Award Lead Administrator Bruxanne El-Kammash, Senior Pre-Award Lead Administrator in PSD’s Local Business Center, joined the PSD in April 2025. We interviewed Bruxanne about her interests and experiences.

Bonnie Fleming has joined UChicago as professor of physics, effective March 10. Previously, Fleming served as Fermilab’s Deputy Director for Science and Technology and Chief Research Officer and a part-time University of Chicago faculty member with appointments in the Physics Department and the Enrico Fermi Institute. Read a Q&A with our newest full-time physics professor.

Yuelong Li, in his second year of the Master's Program in Computational and Applied Mathematics, focuses on the mathematics of topological insulators. We interviewed him about his experiences at UChicago.

Arnab Bose, associate senior instructional professor in UChicago’s Data Science Institute and program director of the MS in Applied Data Science Online program aims to produce career-ready graduates who can marry practical skills in building machine learning models with the ability to operationalize a model to best fit an organization’s needs.

Currently a postdoctoral researcher at JILA, Kai Li received his PhD in physics in 2023 under the mentorship of Professor Linda Young. Li has been awarded the 2026 EuXFEL Young Scientist Award, which aims to recognize outstanding contributions to research at the European X-ray Free Electron Laser by young researchers in the early stages of their career. We interviewed him about his research and his time at UChicago.

Apoorva Gupta, a second-year student in the MS in Applied Data Science program, has been learning how data science is already used in the real world in ways he never realized. We interviewed Apoorva about his experiences here.

Ava Polzin, a fourth-year PhD student in Astronomy and Astrophysics, focuses on the physical and chemical mechanisms that regulate star formation in the smallest galaxies. This sort of research provides an avenue to better understand how generations of stars like our sun formed in galaxies like the Milky Way. We interviewed her about her experiences at UChicago.

Isabel Krogh, who will graduate from the Master of Science in Financial Mathematics (MSFM) program this year, studies quantitative finance. Born in Grand Forks, North Dakota, Isabel attended Bowdoin College in Maine before working as a research analyst for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. We interviewed her about her experiences at UChicago.

Soumyabrata Kundu, a sixth-year PhD student in Statistics, develops methods for applications in computer vision, with a focus on biomedical imaging. Born and raised in Burdwan, a small town in West Bengal, India, Soumyabrata earned his undergraduate degree from Indian Statistical Institute, Bangalore Center. We interviewed him about his experiences at UChicago.

Roy Zhao, a second-year PhD student in Physics and the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, studies AI application in cosmology and galaxy formation across cosmic time. Born in Beijing, China, Roy spent much of his adolescent years in Vancouver, British Columbia. He earned undergraduate degrees from UCLA and then worked as a staff scientist at UCLA Astronomy before joining the University of Chicago. We interviewed Roy about his experiences here.

Li Ma, AB’06, SM’06, is a professor of Statistics and Data Science at the University of Chicago. His research focuses on generative models, Bayesian modeling and computation, nonparametric inference, tree-based methods, and their applications in biomedical science. Prior to joining UChicago, he was a faculty member in the Department of Statistical Science at Duke University from 2011 to 2025. He is a Fellow of the International Society for Bayesian Analysis and a Fellow of the American Statistical Association.

Please welcome the faculty joining the Physical Sciences Division in the ’25–26 academic year.