News: Students

2021

In unique year, UChicago students find togetherness—apart

May 6, 2021

Image of Gather Town screen with UChicago students

In a unique year, UChicago students find togetherness—apart. Students across majors joined astro professor Daniel Holz for “Are We Doomed?,” a class that uses readings and guest experts to inform different apocalyptic scenarios: nuclear war, climate change, artificial intelligence, and of course, pandemics and related biological issues.


Physics students selected for DOE national lab research program

April 29, 2021

Edgar Marrufo and Aurora Ireland

Edgar Marrufo and Aurora Ireland, graduate students in the Department of Physics, are among 78 outstanding U.S. graduate students who have been selected by The Department of Energy Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) Program to perform research in national laboratories.


PSD in the News - April 2021

April 29, 2021

PSD against a white and turquoise background

This month PSD researchers have been featured for their efforts to build a quantum bit that can search for dark matter, use muscle response for digital authentication, design 'nanotraps' to catch and clear coronavirus from tissue, and harness molecules into a single quantum state. 


John C. Martin, 69, PhD’77 in Chemistry, led Gilead Sciences to breakthroughs in HIV and hepatitis C treatment

April 28, 2021

John C. Martin

The PSD remembers organic chemist John C. Martin, PhD’77, who became a billionaire by developing and marketing a daily single-dose pill that transformed HIV into a manageable disease and who popularized another drug that cures hepatitis C. He died on March 30 at age 69.


In long-awaited breakthrough, physicists harness molecules into single quantum state

April 28, 2021

Prof. Cheng Chin in his laboratory at the University of Chicago, where his lab announced a breakthrough in bringing multiple molecules at once into a single quantum state—one of the most important goals in quantum physics.

In a long-awaited breakthrough, Prof. Cheng Chin and graduate students in the Department of Physics have harnessed molecules into a single quantum state —one of the most important goals in quantum physics.


Meet MS-PSD student, Fernando Bañales Mejia

April 27, 2021

Fernando Bañales Mejia

Fernando Bañales Mejia was born and raised in Riverside, California. After graduating from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in New York, in 2017, he attended the University of Chicago for two years as a PSD Pathway scholar in the Master of Science in the Physical Sciences Division (MSPSD) program. He completed the program in 2020, during the pandemic.


PSD climate grants foster belonging while socially distanced

April 13, 2021

PSD Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion logo on maroon background

The Physical Sciences Division funded creative efforts to impact climate and foster belonging with the Inclusive Climate Grants program administered by the EDI Office. Four winning projects found innovative ways to further the values of equity, diversity, and inclusion on campus during the pandemic.


2021 NSF Graduate Research Fellowships

April 2, 2021

four portraits in two rows: Antares Chen, Jasmine Jefferson, Lauren Weiss, and Melissa Adrian, against a maroon background with a UChicago shield

Four Physical Sciences Division students have been awarded 2021 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships: Jazmine Jefferson in astronomy, Antares Chen in computer science, Lauren Weiss in physics, and Melissa Adrian in statistics. Honorable mentions were awarded to Patrick Kelly in chemistry and George Iskander in physics. Each fellowship provides three years of support during a five-year fellowship period. For each of the three years of support, NSF provides a $34,000 stipend and $12,000 cost of education allowance to the University.


Astrophysicists get buzz for April 1 Python algorithm to detect emotional trends in Taylor Swift

April 2, 2021

Taylor Swift publicity photo

Postdoctoral fellow Darryl Seligman and student, Megan Mansfield, of the Department of the Geophysical Sciences, published an April Fools paper on arXiv that uses a Python algoritm to detect "emotional trends in the repertoire of Taylor Swift" and are receiving national attention, including mentions in Business Insider and The New York Post.


PSD in the news - March 2021

March 29, 2021

PSD against a white and turquoise background

This month, PSD community members have been featured for their work to confirm the third-nearest star with a planet, prove that bacteria know how to exploit quantum mechanics, and recreate how magnetic fields grow in clusters of galaxies. In case you missed it, review our news headlines from March 2021.


Method for determining electron beam properties could help future ultraviolet, X-ray synchrotron light sources

March 18, 2021

The Integrable Optics Test Accelerator ring at the Fermilab used for high energy physics experiments

Fermilab user and University of Chicago physics student Ihar Lobach explains how his team used Fermilab’s IOTA electron storage ring to glean insights that can be difficult to obtain on an electron beam and how this proof of principle could benefit the Advanced Photon Source Upgrade at Argonne National Laboratory.


Meet statistics student, Ahmed Bou-Rabee

March 9, 2021

Ahmed Bou-Rabee

Ahmed Bou-Rabee was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and spent the first half of his life in Kuwait and the second in the United States, mostly in California. Before coming to the University of Chicago, he received an undergraduate degree in math and a master’s degree in statistics from Stanford. He has been at UChicago for five years as a doctoral student in the statistics program. Ahmed studies probability and partial differential equations.


Aging stars provide a new cosmological yardstick

February 26, 2021

R Leporis, the bright orange-red star captured here, is an example of the type of carbon stars located in the J-region Asymptotic Giant Branch. The striking color comes from the large amount of carbon in the atmosphere.

Astrophysicist and University of Chicago graduate student Abigail Lee is the lead author on a new paper that analyzed observations of light from a nearby galaxy to validate the JAGB method for measuring cosmological distances. This novel technique will allow future independent distance measurements that can help answer one of the biggest outstanding questions in cosmology: how fast is the universe expanding?
 


Computer Science student group compileHer takes hackathon virtual (and to space)

February 25, 2021

Rectangles of Zoom featuring middle schoolers and UChicago Graduate Students from Computer Science, with space themed backgrounds

Each winter, the UChicago Computer Science student group compileHer gathers middle school girls from around the city to campus for a unique all-day hackathon experience. This year the group took their endeavor virtual (and to space).


PSD in the news - February 2021

February 24, 2021

PSD in white against a maroon background

This month, PSD community members have been featured for their work discovering new metamaterials to improve optics for telescopes, designing patterns in self-propelling liquid crystals, and meauring ceramic chips in meteorites to study the early solar system, and more. In case you missed it, review our news headlines from February 2021.