News: 2026

What University of Chicago scientists call an artificial leaf that mimics photosynthesis could be useful for wireless medical implants and other technologies.

The search for exoplanets—or worlds orbiting other stars—is astronomy’s great Easter egg hunt. For astronomers looking for extraterrestrial life, the true jackpot planet would be Earth-like: smallish and rocky, with an atmosphere, orbiting its parent star in the so-called habitable zone, that sweet thermal spot that is not too hot and not too cold, allowing water to exist in liquid form. In the 34 years exoplanets have been studied, no world that checks all of those boxes has ever been spotted—until now. 

Scientists say marine cloud brightening could weaken El Niño by cooling key Pacific waters, but major questions remain about feasibility, risks, and global oversight.

New benchmark shows specialized guardrails score near-random when content policies change.

Could the James Webb Space Telescope be missing hidden water on distant worlds? A new study suggests the answer may be yes.

An international group of Nobel Prize winners issued a pointed warning on emerging nuclear risks in an era of rapidly developing AI technology. The group’s declaration followed two days of meetings among the Nobel laureates, top scientific and policy experts, and religious leaders in the Papal Villas of Castel Gandolfo, a summer retreat for popes since the 1600s.

The discovery marks a major milestone in the search for life on planets beyond our solar system. Incoming UChicago postdoc Collin Cherubim and current UChicago postdoc Michael Zhang participated in the research.

Watch Yu Deng accept the Fields Medal and a video featuring his life and work.

Before he won a Fields Medal for his pioneering work balancing randomness and order, Yu Deng had to achieve equilibrium in his own life.

Dr. Deng, a mathematics professor at the University of Chicago, received a Fields Medal for his work on an equation describing fluid mechanics.

University mathematician recognized for cracking 125-year-old challenge to ground physics in mathematics.
 

In 2024, Arturo Charleston ʼ25 was at a turning point. Living in Evanston and working as a research assistant at Northwestern University, he had originally planned to pursue a PhD. The academic path appealed to his curiosity, but he longed for a way to apply his economic and technical skills more directly in the finance industry.

That search led him to the University of Chicago’s Master of Science in Financial Mathematics (MSFM) program. “I wanted to do something in which I can apply all the technical skills, working in economic finance in a more applied way in the industry,” says Arturo. “And well, UChicago is a great school for that.”

When he decided to apply to the Financial Mathematics (FinMath) program, Chicago native, Kunj Shah, was working as a financial analyst at quant trading firm DRW after graduating from college with a Finance and Psychology degree from the University of Illinois. 
He enjoyed the work he was doing, but he wanted more exposure to quantitative finance. 
For Kunj, there was no other place to learn than the University of Chicago. 

As Fermilab commemorates 70 years since the discovery of the neutrino at the Savannah River Site in the United States, the lab also celebrates its multiple generations of pioneering neutrino research. Today, Fermilab is building the next era of neutrino discovery through the development of the world-leading Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment.

Researchers used computer models to see what would have happened had scientists caused marine cloud brightening in the face of strong past El Niños.