2023
Michael Gladders will receive a Quantrell Award for excellence in undergraduate teaching
May 24, 2023
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Prof Michael Gladders will receive a Quantrell Award for excellence in undergraduate teaching at the University next week. Mike was nominated by the students in his Astronomy Field Course, an innovative course he designed that gets astronomy majors directly engaged in research with the Magellan telescope. This is one of the highest honors for faculty at the University.
Aster Taylor receives prestigious Hertz Fellowship
May 24, 2023
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Aster Taylor (BS, Astrophysics, 2023) is one of 15 Hertz Fellows selected for this honor, which is awarded to doctoral students who have the "extraordinary creativity necessary to tackle problems others can’t solve."
“Answering big questions at the South Pole”, PSD News
May 17, 2023
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Most people seek warmer destinations for travel to escape the tough Chicago winters. Brad Benson, on the other hand, sets his sights on the South Pole nearly every year. On his list of top reasons to visit: the intense cold creating extremely low levels of moisture in the air, dryer even than the highest mountain peaks in the world.
“Researchers get first up-close look at mysterious planet’s atmosphere”, UChicago News
May 11, 2023
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Exoplanet GJ 1214b is too hot to be habitable, but likely contains water vapor.
Wendy Freedman has been elected to the Royal Society, PSD News
May 10, 2023
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Wendy Freedman, John and Marion Sullivan University Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics, has been elected to the Royal Society, a fellowship of many of the world’s most eminent scientists and the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence. This year, 59 scientists from around the world were elected Fellows or Foreign Members of the Society for their outstanding contributions to science.
“NSF awards $52M to upgrade Simons Observatory in Chile to explore origins of universe”, UChicago News
May 9, 2023
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Improvements include upgraded receiver, solar panels to power the observatory and data processing pipeline.
First results from DAMIC-M chosen as PRL Editors’ Suggestion
May 3, 2023
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Led by PI Privitera, the DAMIC-M experiment published it’s first, world-leading results
searching for sub-GeV dark matter via electron scattering in silicon CCDs.
Congratulations to Dr. Celeste Keith!
April 24, 2023
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Congratulations to Celeste Keith for successfully defending her Ph.D. dissertation on "OBSERVATIONAL CONSEQUENCES OF HAWKING RADIATION FROM PRIMORDIAL BLACK HOLES".
A Cosmic Merger of Science And Art for South Side Students: The South Side Science Art Contest
April 13, 2023
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In early 2023, the Community Engagement Working Group in the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics organized the South Side Science Art Contest, open to children K-12 who attend schools on the South Side of Chicago. Work on this initiative had started in the Autumn Quarter of 2022, following a successful proposal by the group to the PSD's Inclusive Climate Grant, a fund that supports initiatives that increase diversity or positively impact that division’s culture.
“Prof. Wendy Freedman to present Ryerson Lecture on ‘Our Expanding Universe’ “, UChicago News
April 5, 2023
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Prof. Wendy Freedman, a leading astronomer who has made fundamental measurements of our universe, will deliver the 2023 Nora and Edward Ryerson Lecture on May 15 at the Rubenstein Forum at the University of Chicago.
Adina Feinstein won a NASA Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship for 2023
April 5, 2023
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Adina Feinstein (Ph.D. 2023) won a NASA Astrophysics Postdoctoral Sagan Fellowship for 2023.
Congratulations Diego Garza and Congratulations Aster Taylor
April 5, 2023
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Diego Garza (Physics, Astrophysics, 2023) and Aster Taylor (Astrophysics, 2023) won the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.
New calibration of the ‘red giant method’ improves measurement of the Hubble constant
April 3, 2023
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In a new paper in Nature Astronomy, Taylor Hoyt –who received his Ph.D from UChicago in 2022 and is currently a researcher in Berkeley Lab’s Physics Division – presents a new approach to calibrating the measurement of the universe’s present day expansion rate.
Congratulations to Dr. Adina Feinstein
March 21, 2023
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Congratulations to Adina Feinstein for successfully defending her Ph.D. dissertation on “Young Stellar and Planetary Systems from the UV to the IR”.
Congratulations to Alex Drlica-Wagner
March 1, 2023
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Congratulations to Alex Drlica-Wagner, who has been promoted from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor, part-time, in the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics.