Physical Sciences Division, University of Chicago

Scientists at UChicago & Argonne created an ultrathin transistor—just FOUR atoms thick. Faster, cooler, and even more energy-efficient computers, with mind-blowing potential for new discoveries. Traditional silicon just met its match. ⚡🔬
https://shorturl.at/ts50L

Shape n’ Swarm: Hands-On, Shape-Aware Generative Authoring for Swarm User Interfaces Wins Best Demo at UIST 2025 - Department of Computer Science Imagine creating shapes, animating scenes, or telling interactive stories, simply by arranging a group of tabletop robots with your hands. What if you could give voice instructions without a single line of code? With this intuitive, hands-on approach, the process of programming complex behaviors bec...

Meet Shape n’ Swarm: an award-winning tool from UChicago's AxLab that lets you design and control groups of tabletop robots by simply arranging them with your hands and speaking natural commands.

The U.S. Department of Energy, Argonne National Laboratory, NVIDIA and Oracle will deliver the DOE’s largest AI supercomputer and accelerate scientific discovery. 
https://news.uchicago.edu/story/department-energy-announces-partnership-argonne-nvidia-and-oracle-build-ai-supercomputers

Arthur H. Compton Lecture Series | Enrico Fermi Institute | The University of Chicago The Enrico Fermi Institute is a research unit in the Physical Sciences Division devoted to interdisciplinary research in areas including: Physics, Astronomy, Astrophysics, Chemistry, Geophysical Sciences and Mathematics.

This Saturday, Prof. David Keith will provide an overview of sunlight reflection methods (SRM) as part of Enrico Fermi Institute's Arthur H. Compton Lecture Series.

⏰: 11/1 at 11 AM
📍 : KCTP 106 and streaming at

The UChicago Department of Computer Science’s Human Computer Integration Lab highlights Galvanic Vestibular Simulation, tech that may help people relearn balance and orientation after injuries. 

https://shorturl.at/YjTOn

In early September, prominent researchers in biology, chemistry, physics, earth science, planetary sciences, and astronomy gathered at UChicago as part of the Origins Federation Conference to share and discuss research results related to how life emerged and evolved.
https://shorturl.at/yRlpg

Chen Ning Yang, PhD’48, 1922-2025
“Yang’s pioneering work in theoretical physics revolutionized our understanding of nature’s fundamental laws and laid the groundwork for the Standard Model of particle physics.”
-Ka Yee C. Lee, interim dean, PSD
https://shorturl.at/0KuDv

The Space Explorers program offers Chicago students the opportunity to engage with hands-on learning such as circuitry, electrical work, and Arduino programming. 

https://physicalsciences.uchicago.edu/news/article/space-explorers-preparing-chicago-youth-for-the-future-since-1991/

Please join us for the next lecture in the Enrico Fermi Institute's Arthur H. Compton Lecture Series, Carbon Removal Part 2: A Deep Dive into the Methods.
⏰: 10/25, 11am
📍: KCTP 106 and streaming at https:/ efi.uchicago.edu/events/compton-lecture-series/

The star SDSS JO715-7334 is the most pristine object in the known universe. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2498843-exceptional-star-is-the-most-pristine-object-known-in-the-universe/
📷: Josh Lake/NASA/ESA

Join us in congratulating PSD faculty on their outstanding achievements!
🏅Peter B Littlewood received the 2025 Institute of Physics Richard Glazebrook Medal and Prize.
🏅Jiwoong Park has been named the 2025 recipient of the David Turnbull Lectureship
🏅Abigail Vieregg has been named a 2025 APS Fellow.

On Oct. 18, Prof. Tiffany Shaw will explain the scientific basis for predicting how the climate changes in response to emissions of greenhouse gases and aerosol pollution and examines what climate models can and cannot tell us about what to expect. 
https://shorturl.at/WdCzF

Initiative Brings a Climate Adaptation Tool to Communities Globally: Weather Forecasts Guided by Human Needs, and the Power of AI Thirty-eight million farmers across India received forecasts this summer from the Indian Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare accurately predicting the start of the rainy season, known as the monsoon. The information, thanks to the power of artificial intelligence (AI), provided them with ...

A UChicago initiative is transforming how low- and middle-income countries adapt to climate change by bringing weather forecasts built around human needs.

Join us at 11 AM on Oct. 11 for Carbon Removal Part 1: the Carbon Removal Landscape. Prof. Cael will introduce the carbon cycle and natural geochemical processes as a basis for explaining how humans might intervene in these cycles to deliberately remove carbon. 
https://shorturl.at/WdCzF

In an episode Big Brains, Prof. Edwin Kite examines how we could terraform Mars to make the Red Planet habitable. New findings in a rock formation on Mars could point to ancient microbial activity. 
https://news.uchicago.edu/big-brains-podcast-life-mars-it-possible-humans-edwin-kite

Largest-ever South Side Science Festival puts UChicago STEM in kids’ hands Yewande Oluwole, 5, and her sister Jadesola, 3, love astronomy and can name every planet – even the dwarf planets. But peering through a refracting telescope at a tree branch on the University of C...

Saturday's Southside Science Festival was the largest event in the festival’s history, with more than 700 UChicago scientists and 200+ volunteers from across campus sharing STEM with approximately 4,300 kids and parents from across Chicago.

Thank you to all the scientists and scientists-to-be who made Saturday's Southside Science Festival one for the books! @uchicagopme.bsky.social

Join us for the annual South Side Science Festival TOMORROW, Oct. 4, from 11-6 to learn the physics of skateboarding, make your own kaleidoscope, study replicas of human fossils, and more!
https://southsidescience.event.uchicago.edu

The Compton Lecture Series: An Intro to Climate Systems Engineering begins this Sat., Oct. 4, at 11 AM with Profs. David Keith and B.B. Cael presenting,  "Climate as a 4D Problem." All are welcome to join! Livestream available.

https://efi.uchicago.edu/events/compton-lecture-series/

The University of Chicago’s Department of Chemistry is launching a new Master of Science in Chemistry program to prepare students for careers in the sciences and to strengthen their applications for PhD, MD, or JD programs. 
https://shorturl.at/Xaz5w

MIT Joins Giant Magellan Telescope International Consortium As the 10th American institution to invest, MIT expands the Giant Magellan Telescope international consortium to 16 members from the United States, Chile, Australia, Brazil, Israel, South Korea, and T...

A huge welcome to @mit.edu, the newest member of the international consortium constructing the Giant Magellan Telescope. UChicago is proud to be part of the distinguished group of 16 institutions supporting the project!

giantmagellan.org/2025/09/30/m...

A huge welcome to the new faculty joining the PSD this academic year! Learn more about their backgrounds and research at the link below.

https://physicalsciences.uchicago.edu/news/article/introducing-new-faculty-in-the-physical-sciences-division-2025-26/

A huge welcome to Autumn Quarter 2025! This quarter, we are thrilled to welcome nearly 2,500 new and returning graduate students, including the first cohort in the MS in Environmental Science program!

Curious about the future of climate solutions? Join us for an Intro to Climate Systems Engineering on Saturdays at 11 AM, 10/4-11/22. Learn more about sunlight reflection, carbon removal, and glacial preservation and discover what it takes to put these ideas into action.

https://shorturl.at/CvTMg

A huge welcome to over 900 new graduate students who are joining our 7 MS and 10 PhD programs! We are so glad to have you as part of our PSD community!

📆This Friday, David Awschalom, Wendy Freedman, and Heather Zheng will explore how innovation, ethics, and empathy intersect to shape a better future at TEDxChicago: The Future is Human.
https://www.harristheaterchicago.org/performance/tedxchicago-2025-future-human

🎉Congrats to Arvind Murugan for being named a 2025 Schmidt Science Polymath!🎉 The program will help support his work at the intersection of physics, biology, computation, & materials science to understand the hallmarks of life. 
https://shorturl.at/M8mKk

🎉Congratulations to physicist Zoe Yan, who received a 2025 AFOSR Young Investigator Award!🎉
https://physicalsciences.uchicago.edu/news/article/zoe-yan-receives-2025-afosr-young-investigator-award/

🎉Congrats to 5 UChicago CS students, Hilman Hanivan, Sophia Henn, Jonathan Liu, Raghav Mehrotra, and Yudai Tanaka, who were named 2026 Siebel Scholars!🎉
https://physicalsciences.uchicago.edu/news/article/five-uchicago-cs-students-named-to-siebel-scholars-class-of-2026/

UChicago PME Prof. Andrew Cleland and Prof. Paolo Privitera of the Astronomy & Astrophysics Department and Physics Department are heading a team that recently received a $5M Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) grant to build a qubit-based neutrino detector.
https://shorturl.at/UNlzg