News: 2026

Congratulations to the PSD faculty members who have received NSF CAREER Awards. According to the NSF, the prestigious CAREER award supports early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.
 

The “coastline paradox” helped to define fractals, but coastlines themselves turn out to be less fractal than thought. Study led by  CCAM PhD student Matthew Oline.

A new internet tool developed with the help of the University of Chicago is making it possible for music listeners to identify songs that were created using artificial intelligence.

Dark matter is an elusive form of matter that almost never emits, absorbs, or reflects light, while only weakly interacting with regular matter. These properties make it very difficult to detect using conventional experimental techniques and instruments.

Are quantum computers changing the way we discover cancer treatments?

In this episode of the podcast 632nm, Fred Chong discusses the future of quantum computer architecture and how quantum algorithms could eventually help solve real-world problems in medicine, optimization, and scientific computing.

Discovering the physical principles of superconductivity in diamond opens the door for scientists to use it in new quantum technologies.
 

On April 16, the University of Chicago’s Data Science Institute and Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation welcomed James Hairston, former Meta executive and current head of global innovation policy at OpenAI, for a lunch and learn that gave students a window into one of the companies shaping the future of technology. 

The work of 2024 PhD Joint Program participant Rajini Wijayawardan, a graduate student in Computer Science working in the lab of Andrew Chien, addresses a question at the forefront of many minds, particularly amidst the rise of AI: how can the environmental impact of data centers be reduced?

UChicago’s Alex Kale receives the Early CAREER Award for advancing ethical and practical standards in data visualization, empowering creators and audiences to better interpret what charts reveal and what they conceal.

Frank Calegari, professor and associate chair of the Department of Mathematics, and Young-Kee Kim, the Albert A. Michelson Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Physics and the Enrico Fermi Institute, have been elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of sciences.

With the war on Iran, Ukraine, AI and climate breakdown increasing the likelihood of a nuclear war, the clock stands closer to midnight than ever before. So who decides how many seconds we have left - and can we buy ourselves more time? 

As AI-generated music increasingly dominates streaming platforms, Quicksilver, a cutting edge browser extension from SAND Lab, gives listeners the power to identify machine-made tracks in real time. Developed alongside the nonprofit ETCH, the project champions transparency, ethical technology, and support from human creativity in a rapidly evolving digital soundscape.

PhD Graduate Brennan Schaffner receives ACM SIGCHI special recognition award for his research on dark patterns, subsequent interventions, and influence users. 

The home of the University of Chicago’s Data Science Institute (DSI), 5460 S. University Ave., has been dedicated in honor of longstanding supporters Yuji Suzuki, SM'70, and his late wife, Lorraine Suzuki, PhD’73, who met and married at the University of Chicago. The University celebrated the dedication of the Lorraine and Yuji Suzuki Center at a May 19 ceremony featuring UChicago leaders, alumni, family and friends of the Suzukis, and members of the Data Science Institute.

 

Congratulations to the PSD community members who have been recognized with 2026 Frontiers of Science Awards. Michael Levin, Professor in Physics and the JFI, and Physics alum Carolyn Zhang, PhD'23, are recognized for the field of condensed matter physics. Yoav Afik, a postdoctoral scholar in the EFI who works on the ATLAS experiment, is recognized for research in particle physics phenomenology.