News: Faculty

Named for a renowned University of Chicago professor who shaped minds with his sense of duty and dedication to students, the Norman Maclean Faculty Award recognizes those who do the same.

As part of the 2025 Alumni Awards program, Prof. Emeritus Donald G. York, PhD’71, will receive the Norman Maclean Faculty Award honoring his extraordinary contributions to teaching and student life at the University of Chicago.

For a keen mind, the right mentor can make a world of difference. This may be especially true for students at the University of Chicago as they immerse in discovery. The relationships students build with their mentors support them as they connect with research opportunities, explore their passions and test their mettle against tough problems and enduring questions.

UChicago analysis of new and old data suggests the signal is weak and explainable by other molecules

A segment filmed by UChicago Creative, featuring Prof. Mike Gladders' and his students' travel to Chile to do research on the Magellan Telescope, has won a gold Telly award. The Telly Awards are awards that recognize excellence in video and television across all screens since 1979. The gold award is the highest honor in the category.

The search for life beyond Earth is no longer science fiction—it takes a lot of data, powerful telescopes and a bit of cosmic detective work. And at the center of this search is University of Chicago astrophysicist Jacob Bean. Bean was part of the team that made history by detecting carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a distant planet using the James Webb Space Telescope—a major step forward in our ability to study exoplanets.

Professor Wendy Freedman named one of TIME Magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2025

The DAMIC-M experiment, led by Prof. Paolo Privitera, has released new results on the search for dark matter particles with its prototype detector operating at the Modane Underground Laboratory in France. With an improvement of orders of magnitude in sensitivity with respect to any other detector technology, DAMIC-M new results exclude for the first time that dark matter may be primarily composed of hidden-sector particles with sub-GeV mass. The Chicago group played a  leading role in the detector design, underground installation and commissioning, and data analysis.

MAROON-X instrument finds evidence for planets around famous Barnard’s Star

Awarded since 1955 to the brightest young scientists across the United States and Canada, the two-year Sloan Fellowships are one of the most competitive and prestigious awards available to early-career researchers.

On January 3, 2025, the Biden White House presented 23 individuals and 2 organizations with the National Medals of Science and National Medals of Technology and Innovation.

Congratulations to Prof. Irina Zhuravleva on her promotion to tenure in the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics. 

Congratulations to Prof. Chihway Chang on her promotion to tenure in the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics.

UChicago cosmologist recognized for pioneering work on Hubble constant measurements

Analysis of cosmic microwave background reinforces Hubble constant measurement

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.