News: Faculty

2025

Spring Distinguished Speaker Series fosters conversations on the future of AI with leaders in the field

July 3, 2025

Combined photo of Margo Seltzer, Tom Griffiths, and Moshe Vardi.

Professors Margo Seltzer, Tom Griffiths, and Moshe Vardi spoke about the metascience of data science, AI’s limitations, and tradeoffs between efficiency vs. resilience with AI.


A quantum leap in health care

July 3, 2025

A panel of researchers (from left): UChicago Medicine Assoc. Prof. Alexander Pearson, UChicago PME Dean Nadya Mason, UChicago Medicine Prof. Julian Solway, and UChicago PME and Chemistry Department Prof. Greg Engel discussed the future of quantum medicine

UChicago alumni learn how qubits and entanglement can create a healthier future in a recent Harper Lecture.


Latest data from South Pole Telescope signals ‘new era’ for measuring the first light in the universe

July 3, 2025

Scientists have released the first two years of data taken by an upgraded camera at the South Pole Telescope, located in Antarctica, which maps the afterglow of the Big Bang.

Study of the cosmic microwave background adds new depth to our understanding of universe.


Priscilla Frisch, pioneering expert on the heliosphere and local interstellar medium, 1943–2025

July 3, 2025

Priscilla Frisch

Remembered for her groundbreaking science, thoughtful collaboration, and adventurous spirit.
 


UChicago to host Nobel laureates, other experts for event on preventing nuclear war

July 1, 2025

mushroom cloud

July 14-16 gathering to create recommendations for policymakers and leaders to reduce the threat of nuclear war.


Dan Nicolae, Interim Chair of the Department of Statistics

July 1, 2025

Dan Nicolae

Dan Nicolae, Elaine M. and Samuel D. Kersten, Jr. Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Statistics and the Faculty Co-Director of the Data Science Institute and the Committee on Data Science, is appointed as Interim Chair of the Department of Statistics from July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026.


What to read and watch over summer 2025

June 28, 2025

Photo of a man reading a book on a couch inside of a dark room.

Bryan Dickinson and other UChicago teaching award winners share their reading and watch selections for summer 2025.


Giulia Galli wins Berni J. Alder CECAM Prize

June 28, 2025

UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering Liew Family Professor of Molecular Engineering Giulia Galli, shown delivering a plenary address in 2019 on the occasion of the Centre Européen de Calcul Atomique et Moléculaire’s (CECAM) 50th anniversa

The global award, given once every three years, recognizes exceptional contributions to the field of microscopic simulation of matter. 


Asteroid speck at the Field Museum could hold the key to life

June 28, 2025

A sample from the asteroid Bennu, the subject of the 2016 OSIRIS-REx mission, and a “near-Earth asteroid,” has arrived at the Field Museum. Uncontaminated by the Earth’s atmosphere, this tiny piece of rock may offer insights into the minerals and or

UChicago PhD candidate Yuke Zheng leads research on a 4.6-billion-year-old piece of rock that could reveal compounds present at the beginning of the solar system and the building blocks of life.


Handheld device captures airborne signs of disease

June 28, 2025

Structured surface The scientists designed a surface with microscopic silicon spikes that help droplets form inside the device to be read. Each of the spikes (shown above in an electron microscope image) is about 1/200th the width of a human hair.

Researchers lead by Bozhi Tian develops a new device called the Airborne Biomarker Localization Engine (ABLE). ABLE detects both non-volatile and volatile molecules in air in around 15 minutes.


Peter Littlewood, Chair of the Department of Physics

June 26, 2025

Peter Littlewood

Peter Littlewood, Professor in the Department of Physics, the James Franck Institute, and the Neuroscience Institute, will continue as Chair of the Department of Physics through June 30, 2026. Effective July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2029, David Schmitz, Professor in the Department of Physics and the Enrico Fermi Institute, will be appointed Chair.


Fred Ciesla, Chair of the Department of the Geophysical Sciences

June 26, 2025

Fred Ciesla

Fred Ciesla, Professor in the Department of the Geophysical Sciences and the Enrico Fermi Institute, has been appointed as Chair of the Department of the Geophysical Sciences effective July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2028.


Peter Eng, Executive Director of CARS

June 25, 2025

Argonne

Peter Eng, Research Professor, has been reappointed as Executive Director of CARS effective September 1, 2025, through August 31, 2028.


Ed Blucher, Director of the Enrico Fermi Institute

June 24, 2025

Ed Blucher

Ed Blucher has been reappointed as Director of the Enrico Fermi Institute effective October 1, 2025, through September 30, 2028.


A massive endeavor

June 23, 2025

visualization of a muon-producing collision

UChicago physicist Karri DiPetrillo is on a mission to bring a muon collider to fruition.