News: Awards

UChicago cosmologist recognized for pioneering work on Hubble constant measurements

The K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders Award recognizes graduate students who show exemplary promise as future leaders of higher education and who are committed to academic innovation in the areas of equity, community engagement, and teaching and learning.

The APS Fellowship Program was created to recognize members who may have made advances in physics through original research and publication, or made significant innovative contributions in the application of physics to science and technology. They may also have made significant contributions to the teaching of physics or service and participation in the activities of the Society.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced the selection of 91 early career scientists from across the country who will receive a combined $138 million in funding for research covering a wide range of topics including artificial intelligence, fusion energy, and quantum.

UChicago postdoctoral researcher Rafael Luque has obtained a Starting Grant awarded by the European Research Council (ERC) for the THIRSTEE project. The project's objective is to study and understand the origin and properties of sub-Neptune-type planets, the most common around solar-type stars (similar to our sun) in the Milky Way. The grant of 1.5 million euros over the next five years is part of the European Union's Horizon Europe program.

Congratulations to Anirudh (Ani) Chiti, who has been named a Brinson Prize Fellow at the University of Chicago in the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics. Established in 2021, the Brinson Prize Fellowship Program supports ambitious research in astronomy, astrophysics, and cosmology, with a focus on projects that complement and capitalize on the latest space science.

Congratulations to Astronomy & Astrophysics graduate student Ava Polzin, who has been awarded a 2024 Quad Fellowship.

Congratulations to graduate student Samantha Usman!  She is the recipient of an AAUW American Dissertation Fellowship. 

CCAPP is proud to announce Abigail Lee (U. Chicago) and Hanjue Zhu (U. Chicago) as the winners of the 2024 Price Prize in Cosmology and Astrophysics

Prof. Freedman is a Canadian-American cosmologist at the University of Chicago who works in the area of refining measurement of the Hubble Constant. She is renowned for her work on Cepheid variable stars through a Hubble Space Telescope Key Project. Her work and accomplishments are closely connected to the big-bang theory of Georges Lemaître.

John Carlstrom, Subramanyan Chandrasekhar Distinguished Service Professor in the Departments of Astronomy & Astrophysics and Physics, the Enrico Fermi Institute, and the College, receives this prize in recognition of his critical contributions to the Physical Sciences Division and the continued success of both academic departments.

Ava Polzin, Astronomy and Astrophysics “The Smallest Pieces of the Puzzle: Using Dwarf Galaxies to Understand the Universe”

Congratulations to alumni Will Cerny (BS, 2022; graduate student at Yale) and Sadie Seddon-Stettler (BS, 2022; graduate student at Cornell) for their National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Awards.

Rafael Luque  "Understanding the origin and nature of sub-Neptunes" and Lily Zhao "Enabling Radial Velocity Detection of Earth-Twins Through Data-Driven Algorithms and Community Collaboration"

Astrophysicists and astronomers at the University of Chicago are holding an art contest with the aim of connecting more South Side kids to the cosmos.