News: Research

UChicago CS team led by Prof. Nick Feamster receives $1.2M to map the digital divide in Chicago. Grant from data.org to fund ‘moonshot’ to bring high-speed internet accessible to all

As part of its new Pioneers Program, NASA has chosen four small-scale astrophysics missions for further concept development, including PUEO, a balloon mission led by Assoc. Prof. Abigail Vieregg, that will launch from Antarctica and detect signals from ultra-high energy neutrinos.

There were 39 news articles featuring Physical Sciences Division research and accomplishments in December and January. Scientists created the first computational model of the entire virus responsible for COVID-19, pioneered measurements of electricity in cells, and charted the evolution of U.S. energy consumption. Several valued members of PSD were memorialized, including a Nobel lareaute and a graduate student. See highlights below and read the full list.

Chemist Prof. Gregory Voth was interviewed about the first usable computational model of the entire virus that is responsible for COVID-19 on Fox 32 Chicago.

Prof. Benson Farb is among mathematicians resurrecting Hilbert’s 13th Problem. Long considered solved, David Hilbert’s question about seventh-degree polynomials is leading researchers to a new web of mathematical connections.

On January 14, Dark Energy Survey released a catalog of nearly 700 million astronomical objects to the public. The pioneering Fermilab-led survey, directed by Astronomy & Astrophysics Prof. Emeritus Rich Kron, covered 5,000 square degrees of the southern sky

Prof. Gladders's undergrads discover bright lensed galaxy in the early universe

Researchers in chemist Greg Voth’s lab have created the first computational model of the entire virus responsible for COVID-19. The pioneering multiscale model allows researchers to plug in and better understand information as new discoveries are made.

The World War II-era Chicago school of meteorology that decoded weather forecasting

UChicago astrophysicist Jose María Ezquiaga lays out how LIGO gravitational waves could be scrambled, yielding information.

Electricity is a key ingredient in living bodies. We know that voltage differences are important in biological systems; they drive the beating of the heart and allow neurons to communicate with one another. But for decades, it wasn’t possible to measure voltage differences between organelles—the membrane-wrapped structures inside the cell—and the rest of the cell. A pioneering technology created by UChicago scientists, however, allows researchers to peer into cells to see how many different organelles use voltages to carry out functions. 

Amid a tumultuous year in which many pivoted to COVID-19 research, University of Chicago scholars and scientists have also been hard at work continuing to understand the planet and the universe we live in, to improve our lives, and to build a future that’s clean, safe and sustainable.

New study helps pinpoint when Earth’s tectonic plates began—rocks tell story of planet’s transition from alien landscape to continents, oceans and life

Chunxiao Song, PhD'13, co-founded a biotech startup that was recently acquired by Exact Sciences for $410 million. The startup company sequences genetic and epigenetic data to detect early-stage cancer.

In this unprecedented year of news, fifteen PSD-related stories on the UChicago News site garnered over 4,000 views according to Google analytics. The vital role of the PSD response to the pandemic is represented alongside coverage of the University’s appointment of its first woman provost and breakthroughs in field-defining research. Here, ranked by highest readership, are the top stories covering PSD news and research for 2020.