News: 2020

PSD’s May spotlight is Susan Hearth, Divisional Administrator for the PSD Dean’s Office. Susan has been with UChicago for five years and was a high school teacher for a decade before coming to UChicago.

University of Chicago launches new campus virtual events website

Syrian Truong was born in Fresno, California, and mostly lived there until he transferred from community college to university. The summer before arriving to the University of Chicago, he was doing a summer research internship at the Institut de Physique et Chimie des Matériaux de Strasbourg (IPCMS) in Strasbourg, France. Prior to this, he earned a B.S. in Physics from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), and three A.S. degrees in Biology for Transfer, Mathematics for Transfer, and Physics for Transfer from Fresno City College in Fresno, California. He also held jobs during his undergrad as a busser at Hunan Chinese Restaurant, a mathematics tutor at Fresno City College’s Tutorial Center, and a research assistant at UCSB. He has been at UChicago for 1.5 years and is enrolled in the Master of Science in the Physical Sciences Division (MS-PSD) program, working on hard condensed matter theory research. He is currently staying at home in Fresno, California. We interviewed him about his experiences below.

Gravitational waves reveal unprecedented collision of heavy and light black holes. UChicago researcher Maya Fishbach discusses the latest gravitational waves detected by LIGO.

 

Physics Prof. Edward Blucher discusses a new study that finds groundbreaking information on neutrinos

Spies like us: Biological chemist Prof. Yamuna Krishnan and other UChicago scientists develop probes made of DNA to track molecular secrets

the workspace
Read the PSD Communications blog Intentional Space for simple strategies to help you navigate working from home and heightening your awareness. This blog series by PSD Communications Specialist Maureen McMahon will run during Spring Quarter. Find simple work-from-home routines, mindfulness strategies, and ways to cultivate a peaceful day.

From Self-Sanitizing Face Masks To Emergency Ventilators, Here’s What Illinois Universities Are Doing To Combat The Coronavirus

The Register UK asks when will quantum computers be capable of crypto-cracking, cites new RAND report and CS Prof. Diana Franklin

Astrophysicist and former University of Chicago scientist, Margaret Burbidge, died in San Francisco in April. Burbidge was a giant in the field of astronomy and physics and an expert practitioner of astronomical spectroscopy—the study of the spectra of stars, galaxies, and quasi-stellar objects. She used her international spotlight to champion the representation and inclusion of women in the sciences.
 

UChicago community finds new ways to learn together
Faculty, students, University community connect as Spring Quarter and remote learning begins

Three undergraduates awarded Goldwater Scholarships to support STEM education: third-years Spencer Dembner, Vennela Mannava and Thomas Propson honored

Article notes Assoc. Prof. Luca Grandi’s role in the Xenon experiment, an investigation into the nature of dark matter, which has been halted by the pandemic

Congratulations to UChicago PSD’s five 2020 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program recipients, David Zegeye and Cory Cotter in astronomy, LeeAnn Marie Sager in chemistry, and Jordan T Kemp and Amanda Mirna Farah in physics.

In Quanta, Prof. Matthew Emerton describes two new papers that reveal fundamental number-theoretic phenomena that overcome the barrier of bridging two continents—a challenge generations of researchers have pursued as “Langland's program,” which seeks to create a grand unified theory of mathematics. These findings may help prove Fermat’s Last Theorem for some number systems beyond the positive whole numbers.