News: Research

The University of Chicago’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and Data Science Institute today announced the launch of Transform, a new accelerator for startup companies focused on the breakthrough technologies of data science and artificial intelligence.

The 2023 unveiling of the Doomsday Clock at a Jan. 24 event in Washington, D.C. showed  hands of the clock at 90 seconds to midnight. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which includes Profs. Holz and Rosner of PSD, cite ‘unprecedented danger’ amid war in Ukraine, concerns over climate change.

A study by UChicago chemists has uncovered a new key step in the process that HIV uses to replicate itself. “The thought is that if we could stop the capsids from forming, or cause them to malform, we could prevent HIV from being infectious and replicating,” said senior author, Prof. Greg Voth, Dept. of Chemistry.

Maria Valdes, a research scientist at UChicago and the Field Museum, is among an international team who can attest to Antarctica’s meteorite-hunter-friendliness: they returned with five new meteorites, including one that weighs 16.7 pounds (7.6 kg).

Prof. Ka Yee C. Lee, Dept. of Chemistry, was named a Fellow of the Biophysical Society in 2023 “for her impactful and creative contributions to our understanding of the structure and stability of lipid membranes and their interactions with proteins.”

Sleep research began at UChicago, when in 1953, Nathaniel Kleitman and Eugene Aserinsky identified REM sleep, the stage when most dreaming occurs. Today, UChicago researchers study sleep’s relationship to body weight, disease, learning, and mood.

Neubauer Professor of Computer Science Heather Zheng was elected as a Fellow of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), the world’s largest and most prestigious society of computing professionals, for her work in wireless networking and mobile computing.

The Open Spatial Lab (OSL), a collaboration of the Data Science Institute and the Center for Spatial Data Science, is a new hub for the tools and partnerships essential for maximizing the potential of spatial data science.

Kristian Lum has joined the DSI as a research associate professor after time at Twitter, the Human Rights Data Analysis Group, and in academia examining fairness, accountability and transparency in machine learning and its applications.

Asst. Prof. Sarah Sebo, Dept. of Computer Science, presented her research on human and robot interactions and their effect on emotions at Northwestern University.

In this episode of Carry the Two, we hear from NASA lead systems engineer, Mike Menzel, all about designing and testing the solar shield for JWST.

UChicago unveiled Polsky Deep Tech Ventures, a new $20m initiative offering accelerators, entrepreneurial training, and funding dedicated to supporting startups that bring world-changing science and technology to market.

The fifth annual Chicago Quantum Summit brought together over 220 members of the quantum information science and technology community from across the nation and around the world. Read the recap.

A collaboration between the University of Chicago, University of San Francisco, and University of Cambridge gathers and analyzes data on the funding, location, and research status for more than 230 GMO crop varieties in Africa.

PSD news and honors were among the University of Chicago’s historic 2022 highlights. Read more about Eugene Parker (1927-2022), addressing digital disparities, expanding the Chicago quantum network, and the first inaugural South Side Science Festival.