News: 2025

August

Could plants unlock quantum medicine’s potential? with Greg Engel

August 22, 2025

Greg Engel

This episode of the Big Brains podcast features Chemistry Professor Greg Engel, who helped launch the field of quantum biology. Engel explains how plants and bacteria evolved to exploit quantum effects for photosynthesis—and how understanding these systems could spark a revolution in quantum sensing, medicine, and neuroscience.


Abigail Vieregg receives 2025 Cottrell SEED Award

August 22, 2025

Photo of Abigail Vieregg outdoors

Congratulations to Abigail Vieregg, Professor of Physics, Enrico Fermi Institute, Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, and the College, who has received a 2025 Cottrell SEED Award!


Dmitri Talapin and John Anderson receive ACS national awards

August 20, 2025

Dmitri Talapin (left) and John Anderson

Congratulations to Prof. Talapin and Prof. Anderson, who have received prestigious ACS awards! The American Chemical Society has announced its 2026 national award winners, acknowledged for their outstanding achievements in chemistry across various fields in the discipline.


Under a mountain in Savoie, the hunt for “dark matter” particles

August 14, 2025

Installation of the prototype of the Damic-M experiment for tracking dark matter, at the underground laboratory in Modane (Savoie), in March 2025 DAMIC-M.

Near Modane, a laboratory buried beneath the Alps is attempting to capture elements of a world parallel to our own. Paolo Privitera uses this laboratory to study dark matter. 

[Article published in French. View in Chrome browser for translation option.]


The origin of the oldest solid objects in the solar system

August 14, 2025

 Structure and composition of a very young protoplanetary disk.

Fred Ciesla reveals how observations of a young star offer a glimpse of the high-temperature conditions that shaped rock formation in the early Solar System.


Unlocking the secrets of our Galaxy’s heart using magnetic fields

August 14, 2025

The dust in the Milky Way, shown in darker and redder colours, are regions where new star formation is taking place. These dusty regions are correlated with the magnetic fields present in our galaxy, and the background light gets polarised in a measurable

PhD student Roy Zhao's research on a region called Sagittarius C discovers that magnetic field in the area wraps around an expanding bubble of hot, electrified gas blown outward by the winds from a cluster of massive young stars.


My little slime

August 14, 2025

A Petri dish with Physarum polycephalum, or slime mold. Computer science researcher Jasmine Lu used the slime mold as a “living wire” in a smartwatch at the University of Chicago.

PhD student Jasmine Lu incorporates slime mold into her devices due to its unique ability to conduct electricity. 


UChicago briefing highlights quantum Tech’s transformative potential

August 14, 2025

A photo of a man speaking in front of a crowd of people dressed in suits.

UChicago hosts a briefing for congressional staff and federal agencies to discuss the potential of quantum technology.


Nuclear experts say mixing AI and nuclear weapons is inevitable

August 14, 2025

A computer chip with an atomic symbol engraved  upon it.

Human judgment remains central to the launch of nuclear weapons. But experts at the UChicago convention say it’s a matter of when, not if, artificial intelligence will get baked into the world’s most dangerous systems.


University of Chicago researchers earn top honor for adaptive software breakthrough

August 14, 2025

Liew Family Chair, Hank Hoffmann.

Hank Hoffmann, Liew Family Chair of Computer Science, earns SEAMS Most Influential Paper Award for research on using control theory to enhance adaptive software reliability and responsiveness.


New UChicago-led research to unravel mysteries of ice sheet flow

August 14, 2025

A sheet of shattered ice on a body of water.

Professors Steven Sibener in Chemistry and Meghana Ranganathan in Geophysical Sciences will lead project to better predict ice loss.


UChicago Pritzker molecular engineering dean receives 2025 Richtmyer Award

August 14, 2025

Dean Nadya Mason has been recognized with the Richtmyer Memorial Lecture Award for outstanding contributions to physics and for effectively communicating those contributions to physics educators

Yearly American Association of Physics Teachers award, given to Nadya Mason, honors outstanding contributions to physics and their communication to physics educators.


Nanoparticles that self-assemble at room temperature could transform vaccine delivery

August 14, 2025

Researchers at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and their collaborators have developed polymer-based nanoparticles that self-assemble with a temperature shift, offering a simple method for delivering protein-based medicin

Stuart Rowan and researchers from UChicago Pritzker Molecular Engineering created drug delivery nanoparticles that self-assemble with a simple temperature shift.


Introducing a new 2-year thesis track for the MS in Applied Data Science Program

August 14, 2025

Photo of Greg Green.

In the Autumn of 2026, students will be able to pursue a new 2-year thesis track to earn an MS in Applied Data Science.


Dark matter hunters search for hidden-sector particles using specialized “camera” deep beneath the French Alps

August 13, 2025

Installation of the Low Background Chamber prototype detector

The mysterious substance called dark matter is intrinsically invisible. It cannot be directly observed; its presence is inferred by its gravitational influence on the universe, such as binding galaxy clusters together and moving stars around their galaxy faster than they should. Yet new research published in Physical Review Letters uses a “camera” to look for dark matter interactions, thereby probing the nature of this elusive stuff.