News: 2024

Congratulations to Gabriel Yusuke Hoshino, a Physics PhD student in David Miller's group, for being selected to the DOE’s Office of Science Graduate Student Research Program for Experimental Research in High Energy Physics at Fermilab.

Through world-class training and access to state-of-the-art facilities and resources at DOE National Laboratories, SCGSR prepares graduate students to enter jobs of critical importance to the DOE mission and secures our national position at the forefront of discovery and innovation.

Megan Weiner Mansfield, PhD'21 (Geophysical Sciences), has been awarded the 51 Pegasi b Fellowship, a three-year postdoctoral fellowship that provides recipients with resources, freedom, and flexibility to conduct theoretical, observational, and experimental research in planetary astronomy at a selected host institution.

Fellows were selected based on research achievements, plans, and potential to impact the field of planetary astronomy. Fellows were also selected based on their commitment to and plans for advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in planetary astronomy.

Weiner Mansfield's research—leveraging cutting-edge tools across scientific disciplines to transcend our understanding of exoplanet atmospheres and the keys to life—will be conducted at Arizona State University.

LinLin Jones, MPP’21, is a Grants and Contracts Supervisor in the Physical Sciences Division Local Business Center. She joined the University in 2019 and has a Master of Arts in Public Policy Analysis from UChicago. We interviewed LinLin about her interests and experiences.

Listen to a Scientific American podcast about Prof. Melba Phillips, a UChicago physicist who contributed to the development of nuclear physics and then became an outspoken critic of nuclear weapons.

CS Asst. Prof. Sarah Sebo discusses why her robot cheats at Rock, Paper, Scissors.

CS Prof. Andrew Chien is exploring ways to help big electricity users tap clean energy.

Profs. Guangbin Dong and Benoît Roux have made breakthroughs in organic synthetic chemistry and biophysics. They join the 2023 class, announced April 18, which includes scientists, engineers and innovators across multiple fields.

Scientists used a neural network, a type of brain-inspired machine learning algorithm, to sift through large volumes of particle collision data.

For the past two years, Chemistry Assistant Professor Sarah King has organized an open art contest in her CHEM 122 class. At the end of the quarter, several students are selected to present a visual project before the class that breaks down complex chemistry principles into creative works of art. By incorporating elements of creativity and communication, the competition serves multiple purposes in King’s pedagogical approach.

CS PhD Student Soumik Ghosh and Assistant Professor Bill Fefferman find that random circuit sampling problems that incorporate non-unital noise do not anticoncentrate, breaking every easiness and hardness result to date.

The University of Chicago has announced the winners of its 2024 “Science as Art” contest, which highlights images of innovative scientific research from the UChicago community.

The contest drew more than 60 entries from undergraduates, graduate students, staff, alumni, postdoctoral researchers, and faculty members, showcasing everything from fossils to fly anatomy. Together, these images display the pursuit of knowledge in a new light, underscoring the beauty of intellectual exploration.

The grand-prize winner is “Peculiar Dynamics” by Computer Science PhD student Sam Everett!

In a CNN article, Geophysical Sciences postdoc Maria Valdes states that as the climate continues to warm, Antarctic rocks are sinking into the ice at an increasing rate, making many meteorites inaccessible to scientists and causing the loss of "precious time capsules that hold clues to the history of our Solar System."

MIT Technology Review article discusses the same study regarding the reduction in air pollution and its connection to global warming. Geophysical Sciences professor David Keith notes that this inadvertent "geoengineering experiment" is now being shut off as the world cleans up its air.

A Science article, which quotes Geophysical Sciences professor Tiffany Shaw, discusses how the reduction in air pollution and aerosols has led to less reflection of sunlight, which could be contributing to faster global warming.

Protein lets calcium ions into cell; finding could open new avenues for therapies.