News: Students

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.
 

Congrats to Abigail Lee, PhD’25 in Astronomy and Astrophysics, who has received a 2025 PhD Prize from the International Astronomical Union (IAU).
 

Are you familiar with pop tubes? Resembling the corrugated section of a bendy straw, they are at the core of PopTuber, an intriguing research project from the Actuated Experience Lab at the University of Chicago.

The Physical Sciences Division has selected four graduate students to receive a William Rainey Harper Dissertation Fellowship for the 2026-2027 academic year.

CSEi’s first essay contest sparks undergraduate engagement on sunlight reflection methods (SRM), awarding $7,000 in prizes.

The “coastline paradox” helped to define fractals, but coastlines themselves turn out to be less fractal than thought. Study led by  CCAM PhD student Matthew Oline.

The work of 2024 PhD Joint Program participant Rajini Wijayawardan, a graduate student in Computer Science working in the lab of Andrew Chien, addresses a question at the forefront of many minds, particularly amidst the rise of AI: how can the environmental impact of data centers be reduced?

PhD Graduate Brennan Schaffner receives ACM SIGCHI special recognition award for his research on dark patterns, subsequent interventions, and influence users. 

Detection by Askaryan Radio Array holds promise for future research into sources, nature of cosmic rays and neutrinos. 

Schmidt AI in Science Fellows mentored twelve interdisciplinary student teams that applied machine learning to advance scientific discovery.

The University of Chicago has announced a new joint-degree program that combines a Doctor of Medicine (MD) from the Pritzker School of Medicine with a Master of Science in Applied Data Science from the Data Science Institute and Physical Sciences Division.

This year, eight PSD instructors and students have been honored for excellence in teaching the next generation of physical and mathematical scientists.

Third-years Arthur Costa, Shelley Fernando, Mason McCormack, and Vincent Wang, all of whom study PSD or joint-PSD subjects, earn the prestigious award for their research.

How UChicago physicists delayed the formation of viscous fingers between fluids.

Physics grad student Nathaniel Alden found that high-energy particle impacts can produce radio flashes from within Antarctic ice.