News: Students

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.

Graduate student Sam Marsden is working on creating a new form of polymer that will be as strong as polyethylene but as recyclable as PET. Mardsen is currently part of the Rowan Group, which focuses on supramolecular chemistry research.

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

At the 2024 South Side Science Festival, UChicago researchers bring their work out from behind the scenes for the public to experience. Through demos, the hope is to spark interest in young minds to pursue work in science, technology, engineering, and math.

Zewei Liao, Michael Rosenbaum, Brennan Schaffner, Lennart Maximilian Seifert, and Shawn Shan were selected to the prestigious program’s Class of 2025.

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.
 

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 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. 

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. 

University of Chicago astrophysics undergrad Zewei Wu has spent his summer near Munich, Germany in “Science City,” conducting research to help unravel the story of how galaxies form and evolve. At his internship at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics he has been running simulations of astrophysical plasma—the gas that composes more than half of all visible matter in galaxies, including stars and solar systems.

UChicago research scientist Arjun Bhagoji and 5th year PhD student Brennan Schaffner collaborate to study content moderation across the top 43 online platforms.

UChicago PhD student Edgar Marrufo Villalpando journeyed from Mexico to the United States and transitioned from computational physics to astronomical instrumentation to pursue his childhood dream of becoming a physicist. In this article, Villalpando reflects on his personal and academic journey toward becoming a scientist.

A new study led by researchers from the University of Chicago and the University of Pittsburgh introduced new method for altering vinyl systems, important in drug and materials science.