News: Faculty

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.
 

Prof. Ka Yee C. Lee has been appointed dean of the Physical Sciences Division, following two years of dedicated service as interim dean. Her term began March 1.

Bonnie Fleming has joined UChicago as professor of physics, effective March 10. Previously, Fleming served as Fermilab’s Deputy Director for Science and Technology and Chief Research Officer and a part-time University of Chicago faculty member with appointments in the Physics Department and the Enrico Fermi Institute. Read a Q&A with our newest full-time physics professor.

University of Chicago Prof. Emeritus Karl Frederick Freed, whose mathematical rigor provided the scaffolding for modern molecular theory, died Jan. 11. He was 83.

University of Chicago’s PUEO mission floated above Antarctica for 23 days, collecting data on ultra-high energy neutrinos from 120,000 feet, with results expected in one year.

Scientists have dived deeper into the "eye of the storm" swirling around supermassive black holes than ever before. This unprecedented investigation of the turbulent and violent conditions around these cosmic titans, including the first black hole ever imaged by humanity, was possible thanks to the joint Japanese Aerospace Agency (JAXA)/ NASA X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM).
 

This March, the University of Chicago will become a crossroads for researchers, designers, artists, and technologists from around the world as it hosts the 20th ACM Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction, TEI’26, from March 8–11, 2026. For UChicago students, faculty, and staff, it’s a chance to engage with leaders at the forefront of human-computer interaction and help celebrate two decades of innovation in tangible, embedded, and embodied technologies.

New infrared light sources mark 100-fold efficiency boost, could improve broad range of sensors, technology.

Greg Engel and Julian Solway are leading the new UChicago Berggren Center to bring quantum tools into the clinic. In a Q&A, they explain what that means for patients.

Analyzing NOAA's billion-dollar weather disaster database, a UChicago-led study projects sharply rising costs driven by climate change and expanding development.

The workshop convened researchers to discuss progress on AI models, tools and data commons for applying AI to biology, medicine, and healthcare.

Globally recognized leader in computational materials becomes the first woman to lead journal’s flagship Computation Physics "Reviews" section.

A University of Chicago–led team launched NASA’s Payload for Ultrahigh Energy Observations (PUEO) experiment via balloon above Antarctica, aiming to detect elusive, ultra-high-energy neutrinos. 

New approach may help shed light on turbulence, other stubborn natural mysteries.

​​In a Data Engineering course taught by Steve Barry, a team of Master’s in Applied Data Science students built a full end-to-end data pipeline, from raw public datasets to an interactive, AI-powered interface. The project gave students hands-on experience designing the kind of data infrastructure that underpins real-world applications, developing the technical skills.