Dear Alumni & Friends,

As we near the end of the academic year, we invite you to explore the ways you can stay up to date on the Physical Sciences Division's groundbreaking research. UChicago Magazine's Inquiry shares stories from the physics of food to the Abelian sandpile. In addition, μChicago, a monthly e-newsletter, delivers a small selection of science stories to your inbox. The PSD has launched a new website, which features divisional news right on the homepage. You can also follow us on social media by clicking the buttons at the bottom of this email.

As always, we'd love to hear from you.

Thank you for being supporters and advocates of the PSD,

Angela V. Olinto
Dean of the Physical Sciences Division, UChicago

New Model to Fund Ambitious Research

UChicago's Big Ideas Generator supports innovative work with the potential to transform fields, including the work of geophysical scientist, Maureen Coleman, who studies the genes of model microbes in the Great Lakes. BIG invests in research projects that are often considered too exploratory and too risky to tap into traditional funding sources.

New Study May Lead to Pharmaceutical Benefits

A study by University of Chicago chemists offers a new approach that could significantly cut the time and effort needed to make a molecule important for pharmaceuticals. Published in Nature, the breakthrough significantly reduces the number of steps needed to produce a molecule rich in quaternary centers—which make the drug easier for the body to take up without metabolic side effects.

Computer Scientist Responds to Data Privacy Crisis

Companies are collecting more consumer data than ever before, and there's "no clear line" between what's normal and what's invasive, says UChicago computer scientist Ben Zhao. Zhao discusses the sophisticated methods used to track your behavior online and his work to shape privacy solutions.

• Video: Prof. William Irvine explains the use of 3D printing to create knotted vortex rings with Physics Girl.
• Prof. Wendy Freedman comments on a new measurement of Hubble constant. 
  • See also: WWTW
• Prof. Graham Slater discusses new findings on blue whale size evolution with National Geographic. 
• Video: Prof. Daniel Holz explains possible detection of a neutron star being swallowed by a black hole on WTTW.
• Prof. Heather Zheng talks about the benefits of 5G network technology with Crain's. 
• Prof. Marcela Carena comments on the importance of updating the European Strategy for Particle Physics with Symmetry.
• Two CS students explain research proposals that earned NSF Graduate Research Fellowships.

• Geophysical scientists discover the first-ever pockets of seawater preserved from the last Ice Age.
• Study recreates the mechanism of cell division outside the cell for the first time.
• UChicago scientists are part of research team that breaks the record for highest-temp superconductor.
• Physicists innovate a method to track dark matter by exploiting a potential particle's slightly slower speed.
• Fermilab scientist designs innovative spun-sugar electrospinning technique.
• Physicists to study macroscopic quantum phenomena as part of the Simons Collaboration on Ultra-Quantum Matter.

• Northwestern University joins Chicago Quantum Exchange, a step toward advancing quantum information science expertise.
• UChicago grants long-delayed chemistry doctoral degree to Cheryl Sundari Dembe.
• Three third-year undergraduate students awarded Barry Goldwater Scholarships for excellence in STEM.
• UChicago announces recipients of this year's honorary degrees.
• CompileHer Capstone grants middle school girls tech superpowers.

• Alexei M. Khokhlov, theoretical and computational astrophysicist, 1954-2019.
• Murray Gell-Mann, former faculty member and Nobel-winning physicist, 1929-2019.

Compton Lecture Series
This series of free public lectures at the University of Chicago explores the role of symmetry in the development of modern physics, how it has led to a series of experimental searches for particle decay, and why a case of asymmetry is one of the world’s biggest unsolved mysteries. The series concludes this Saturday, June 1 at 11 a.m. in Room 106 of Kersten Physics Teaching Center.

Convocation
The 523nd Convocation will take place June 15, 2019 on the Main Quadrangle of the University of Chicago. This ceremony will include a presentation of honorary degrees, an address from the convocation speaker, and the University president will verbally confer degrees to candidates by division and school.