News: 2023

UChicago paleontologist David Jablonski receives Darwin-Wallace Medal for unique approach to evolution, extinction studies.

Photo by Jean Lachat

In a CNN article, computer scientist Ben Zhao discusses his tool to protect the work of artists from AI, Glaze, saying "entire, multiple, human creative industries are under threat to be replaced by automated machines."

An Atlantic article highlights research by geophysical sciences professor Susan Kidwell finding that runoff from overgrazed, eroding soil most likely smothered the hard surfaces brachiopods needed, resulting in the local extinction of an entire ecosystem.

A Chicago Tribune article on a new quantum education program at Fermilab mentions UChicago as a partner in the Chicago Quantum Exchange.

Photo by Ryan Postel, Fermilab

Scientists at the University of Chicago, including chemist Jiwoong Park, found a glass crystal just a few atoms thick can trap and carry light—and could be used for applications.

Photo by Jean Lachat

Findings at Fermilab show discrepancy between theory and experiment, may lead to new physics beyond the Standard Model.

Image courtesy of Reidar Hahn/Fermilab, via U.S. Department of Energy

Spacecraft named for pioneering UChicago scientist ventures closer to the sun than humanity has ever been: the 5-year anniversary of the Parker Solar Probe launch.

Image courtesy of NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben

A Block Club Chicago article details a study of internet speeds at Chicago Public Schools led by an incoming UChicago student who was assisted and mentored by computer scientist Nick Feamster.

In episode 116 of the Big Brains podcast, Prof. Rebecca Willett (the Data Science Institute's faculty director of AI) discusses how AI will change science and examines the opportunities—and dangers—of this rapidly emerging technology.

Conditions that created the cracks could have been favorable for emergence of microscopic life.

Photo courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Congratulations to Jeffrey Harvey, the Enrico Fermi Distinguished Service Professor of Physics, for winning a 2023 Dirac Medal. The award recognizes wide-ranging contributions to string theory, a mathematical framework in fundamental physics that aims to describe the entirety of the whole universe.  

A New York Times article details the new results from Fermilab's Muon g-2 project and includes comments from astrophysicist Dan Hooper.

Image courtesy of Reidar Hahn/Fermilab, via U.S. Department of Energy

Congratulations to Assistant Professor of Physics Zoe Yan for being named the 2023 laureate in the Physical Sciences & Engineering category. She is recognized for developing the first quantum gas microscope on single, ultracold molecules and applying this technique to explore important phenomena relevant to high-temperature superconductors and other quantum materials. 

Congratulations to Associate Professor of Chemistry Mark Levin for winning the 2023 Bristol-Myers Squibb Unrestricted Grantee Award and Jisoo Woo, who works as part of the Levin Group, for winning the 2023 BMS Graduate Fellowship for his achievements in Synthetic Organic Chemistry.

Associate professor of chemistry Mark Levin discusses skeletal editing, a hugely simplified way to alter matter, paving the way for world-changing innovations in personalized medicine and sustainable plastics.