News: PSD Spotlights

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.

Anna Gaffney, a fifth-year PhD student in the Biophysical Sciences, studies biological thin sheet mechanics and instabilities. Born and raised in Marysville, Michigan, Anna earned her BS in Biophysics at the University of Michigan. We interviewed Anna about her experiences at UChicago.

Hunter Guo, a first-year master’s student in Applied Data Science, studies communication. “The data scientist’s most important skill is not about building a fancy model,” he says, “but about establishing an executable tool that people can use and explaining the concept in a simple language that everyone can understand.” Born in Lanzhou, China, Hunter studied economics at The Ohio State University and then interned at Wells Fargo’s Risk Control team. We interviewed Hunter about his experiences at UChicago.

Born and raised in the very small, rural town of Bunkie, Louisiana, Associate Director of Academic Affairs Carly Bloss began her higher ed career at Louisiana State University. She now works remotely from her home in Lafayette, Louisiana, and looks forward to her trips to campus. We interviewed Carly about her interests and experiences.

Hannah Fry, Associate Director of Major Gifts, grew up in rural northwestern Indiana on a farm not far from Purdue University. “Controversially, I went to Indiana University, where I studied Nonprofit Management.” Before joining the UChicago team, she worked in major gifts fundraising at Johns Hopkins University and Arizona State University. We interviewed Hannah about her interests and experiences.

Pedram Hassanzadeh is an associate professor in the Department of the Geophysical Sciences and Committee on Computational and Applied Mathematics. He is also the Faculty Director of the AI for Climate (AICE) Initiative and Codirector of the Human-centered Weather Forecasting Initiative. He works on improving the fundamental understanding of the multiscale, nonlinear physics of extreme weather events and developing new tools for predicting the variability of these events across time scales, from days to decades.

Kexin Pei is a Neubauer Family Assistant Professor of Computer Science. His research interest lies at the intersection of security, software engineering, and machine learning.

Sneha Vasudevan, who grew up in Chennai, India, and now lives in the Bay Area, earned her Master’s in Applied Data Science (formerly the Master’s in Analytics) in 2022. She is a Lead Technical Project Manager at Uplight, a technology company that “enables energy providers, ecosystem partners, and consumers to conserve, deploy, manage, and monetize energy resources.” We interviewed Sneha about her experiences at UChicago and her career path since.

Abigail Poteshman, a fifth-year PhD student in the Committee on Computational and Applied Mathematics, conducts research in method development for modeling and characterizing quantum materials, such as ferroelectrics and spin-defects in semiconductors.

Chiza Mwinde, a fifth-year PhD student in the Department of the Geophysical Sciences, focuses on measuring element variations in evaporite minerals, which helps reconstruct factors like the pH and elemental composition of ancient seawater.

Jihee You, a first-year PhD student in Data Science, studies topics related to machine learning—specifically, explainable AI and graph neural networks.

An exchange program between Chicago and Taiwan helps students gain cultural and research experience.

In July 2024, Meghana Ranganathan joined the University of Chicago as an assistant professor in the Department of the Geophysical Sciences. Meghana, who grew up in Dallas, Texas, was previously a NOAA Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellow at the Georgia Institute of Technology, working in their Ice + Climate Group led by Dr. Alexander Robel. The focus of her work was uncovering couplings between brittle and ductile behaviors of ice and their implications for ice sheet change. During that time, she spent three months doing fieldwork in Antarctica. We interviewed Meghana about her interests and experiences.