News: 2026

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.

Integrating artificial intelligence of varying capacities may outshine investing in the most powerful models. Op-ed co-authored by Robert Grossman, the Frederick H. Rawson Distinguished Service Professor in Medicine and Computer Science and the Jim and Karen Frank Director of the Center for Translational Data Science at the University of Chicago.

The frequency of extreme weather events can be predicted more accurately than presently possible by combining artificial intelligence (AI) with physical climate modelling, using a protocol called rare-event sampling. Researchers used the approach to model extreme heat events such as the one currently roasting Europe, but they believe it could also be applicable to many other extreme events in climate science.

A few million years after the Big Bang, a nearly pure star formed within the ancient gas clouds of the Large Magellanic Cloud. This satellite galaxy currently orbits the Milky Way. The star formed primarily from primordial hydrogen and helium gas before early supernova explosions could enrich the local universe with heavier metallic elements. Billions of years later, ten undergraduate students at the University of Chicago identified the rare celestial object within an astronomical data archive.

Stuart Rowan, the Director of UChicago PME’s Institute for Materials and Sustainability (IMS), the Barry L. MacLean Professor for Molecular Engineering Innovation and Enterprise, and Professor of Chemistry, has been named Interim Dean of UChicago PME.