News from the University of Chicago Physical Sciences Division INQUIRY FALL 2015

Tech speculation Forecasting the future of technology INQUIRY FALL 2015 Epigenetics 1 Blueprints 3 Software bugs 7 Future tech 9 Juggling math 10 Nambu Divisional 125 years of remembered 11 news 12 science 13

Note from the dean Gained in translation

he University of Chicago has always been an institution to their projects. The network also helps identify outside built on fundamental research. For over a century, funding sources. TDivision of the Physical Sciences researchers have made Now in its fifth year, the Innovation Network’s outreach field-forming, groundbreaking discoveries (page 13), from efforts have already benefited computer science and measuring the charge of an electron in 1909 to helping to mathematics professor Ridgway Scott’s FEniCS Project discover the Higgs boson in 2012. (automated scientific computing software), chemistry Gaining foundational knowledge will always be a priority, professor Dmitri Talapin’s novel semiconductor soldering but it’s also crucial that such research gets translated into technique, and physics professor Heinrich Jaeger’s jamming practical solutions—sent out into the world to address our most materials-based robotic gripper. pressing needs. The PSD has opportunities to advance medicine (“Making Tech speculation Collaboration between academic and industrial settings a Mark,” page 1), IT (“Reliable Source,” page 7), and countless provides an optimal conduit for basic science to reach the other fields. With the support of the Innovation Network, masses. The PSD not only recognizes the value of application advocacy of the division, and inventive inclinations of PSD but actively encourages it. scientists, we have the power to improve the human experience, Forecasting the future of technology We foster entrepreneurial spirit by providing science by creating creature comforts, lifesaving procedures, and world- translation assistance. The Innovation Network—a changing technologies. subcommittee of the PSD Visiting Committee that includes alumni, friends of the University, and campus partners—was With all best wishes, created to help UChicago innovators navigate the path toward commercialization. In addition to offering their own expertise, members of the network help connect researchers with other alumni who have knowledge and resources relevant Edward W. “Rocky” Kolb, Dean Photography by Peter Barreras, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Chemistry discrepancy can be explained in part by For almost half a century, geneticists epigenetics: changes to gene expression have studied DNA methylation. For about that don’t change the underlying three decades, they have been studying Making a DNA sequence. the same type of modifications on Epigenetics “is basically a coding histones—the proteins around which DNA mark process,” says Chuan He, the John T. coils. But until recently, partly for practical Wilson Distinguished Service Professor and partly for conceptual reasons, no Chuan He breaks new in Chemistry. The DNA sequence is one considered the role RNA might play ground in RNA and DNA a predetermined template, but one in epigenetics. epigenetics. with hundreds of millions of spots that “In the beginning, it was easier to study can accept chemical flags that alter DNA and histones,” says He. “They’re much gene expression. One such template more stable. You can isolate them and hree billion—the number of base pairs modification is methylation. perform various analyses.” And because Tin the human genome—sounds like Three classes of proteins carry out RNA has a shorter half-life inside cells, a huge number. But of those billions of epigenetic coding: “writer” enzymes that scientists thought it might merely be a bases, humans appear to have only about apply tags or marks, “eraser” enzymes that template that transfers genetic information 19,000 protein-coding genes. And while remove the marks, and “reader” proteins from DNA to protein. Yet in the past that may sound like a large number as that recognize and bind to the marks. This few decades, as more capable analytic well, those genes alone can’t account for tagging provides an additional genetic sequencing technology has been invented, the vast complexity of a human being with coding process, expanding complexity researchers have discovered that RNA plays trillions of cells, all with their own identities. exponentially, and explains, for instance, major functional roles in many processes. The standard flow of information how cells with identical genome sequences He, who joined UChicago in 2002 and coded into DNA, transcribed into RNA, can develop into different cell types. A now directs the Institute for Biophysical and translated into protein provides too deeper understanding of epigenetics Dynamics and is a Howard Hughes Medical small a genetic template to accommodate provides insight into essentially all life Institute Investigator, came to study RNA the diversity of living systems. This on earth. via the scenic route. A synthetic chemist

1 FALL 2015 • INQ UIRY Epigenetics provides an additional genetic coding process, expanding complexity exponentially.

The methylation on messenger RNA that He’s team discovered is reversible, which could affect a range of properties and functions that play essential roles in medical and biological research. Image courtesy Chuan He.

who had worked in organic synthesis, he with “the implication that this is going to With associate professor Laurens Mets also studied biochemistry; investigated impact most biological processes.” He in molecular genetics and cell biology, He pathogenic bacteria with Olaf Schneewind, suspects his lab will have a complete set off to find methylated DNA adenine the Louis Block Professor in Microbiology; characterization of the reader functions in in eukaryotes, and they did—in algae, and later collaborated with Tao Pan, a couple of years. worms, and fruit flies. The discovery led professor in biochemistry and molecular The next questions to address are to three Cell papers published in April biology, on RNA biology. how and why the erasers regulate by He’s group, a team at Harvard, and Researchers have long known about demethylation and the writers selectively a team in China. The DNA mark is also RNA methylation, but they believed it restore the mark. And in the longer term, found in mammals, according to as-yet was a static state, playing a minor role. In how these proteins and pathways affect or unpublished data. 2010 He—who had been working on DNA control cell differentiation, development, “This is a completely new mark,” says epigenetics—discovered the first RNA and human diseases. He. “This is new biology emerging.” These demethylase, called FTO, an eraser that While He is making waves in RNA, he epigenetic pathways, involving adenine removes a methyl group from RNA. His hasn’t given up his DNA work. A recent methylation in RNA and DNA in eukaryotes discovery proved that RNA methylation revelation, in fact, links back to his field- and mammals, play a critical role in is reversible and thus a dynamic making RNA discovery. Scientists know that innumerable biological processes, and He modification. Publishing the research in the DNA base cytosine gets methylated in is providing vital groundwork for advances 2011, He’s lab founded the research field of both multicellular and single-cell organisms in medical and life sciences. “We’re doing RNA epigenetics. alike. (Cytosine methylation is the most the fundamental research, mapping up the He’s team went on to discover and thoroughly researched and best understood players, the building blocks,” says He, “and describe the writer, eraser, and reader epigenetic DNA mark.) The DNA base then others can study immunology, proteins involved in RNA methylation. adenine was thought to be methylated only infection, cancer therapy, diabetes, Focusing particularly on the readers, in bacterial cells. However, homologues of metabolism, neurogenesis, plant biology, which ultimately affect the cell’s biological the RNA demethylase protein that He’s lab developmental biology. You name it, these functions, He is gaining a mechanistic discovered remove a methyl group from pathways are involved.” understanding of the methylation pathway, adenine in multicellular organisms. —M.S.

INQ UIRY • FALL 2015 2 Physical Sciences Groundwork PSD facilities keep up with an ever- progressing scientific landscape. This September the William Eckhardt n 1961 faculty members conducting space exploration Iresearch, in both the Department of Physics and the Enrico Fermi Institute, were spread across and off campus; physicist Research Center John A. Simpson proposed a building to unite them. Completed in 1965, the Laboratory for Astrophysics and Space Research (LASR) boasted a foundation and roof designed with future opened, designed expansion in mind. Simpson knew that research would advance, and such progress requires leading-edge facilities. for precision science Half a century later, Simpson’s preparation is paying off. Just as science is built on previously laid groundwork, the University plans to build upon the original design, adding two floors and and collaboration making extensive internal renovations to LASR over the next two years. The modernization of LASR comes amid tremendous growth between the the Division of the Physical Sciences has ushered in over the past decade, notes Dean Rocky Kolb. In 2006 the Ellen physical sciences and Melvin Gordon Center for Integrative Science brought together physical and biological sciences. The Searle Chemistry Laboratory was renovated in 2009, and the Searle Cleanroom and molecular and Nanofabrication Facility—the University’s first controlled- environment laboratory for nanoscience research—launched in 2013. This September the William Eckhardt Research Center engineering. opened, designed for precision science and collaboration between the physical sciences and molecular engineering. LASR is slated to begin construction in November 2015, ultimately serving as the new and improved home to the Fermi Institute and the Kadanoff Center for Theoretical Physics. “The division’s goal is for every unit to have new or renovated facilities by 2022,” says Kolb. Now that the Eckhardt Center has opened, Jones Laboratory—previously home to PSD administration—will begin renovations and eventually house the Department of Statistics and the division’s new undergraduate program in Computation and Applied Mathematics, jointly run by the Departments of Statistics, Mathematics, and Computer Science. Space made available in Eckhart Hall and Ryerson Physical Laboratory by the move to Jones will become upgraded instructional and collaborative research spaces for mathematics and computer science, respectively, and the division hopes renovations to Hinds Laboratory—the home of the Department of Geophysical Sciences—will also be completed by 2022. In addition to new construction and adaptive reuse, PSD continues to maintain and upgrade shared core facilities: nuclear magnetic resonance, crystallography, mass spectrometry, a machine shop, an electronics shop, an engineering center, and a graphic arts design and print studio. The PSD invests in the tools its scientists need—one of the most concrete ways the division invests in the scientists themselves. —M.S.

3 FALL 2015 • INQ UIRY William Eckhardt Research Center Stats • Opened 2015 • 265,000 square feet • 400+ faculty members, staff, and students • Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics • Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics • Institute for Molecular Engineering • PSD and IME deans’ suites • Facilities: Pritzker Nanofabrication Facility, quantum computing labs, nanolithography imaging, astronomy detector labs, soft materials (polymer) labs, immunoengineering labs • LEED Silver (pursuing)

Spotlight The Eckhardt Center features natural illumination created by light designer James Carpenter and artwork made in collaboration with the Museum of Science and Industry.

Photography by Tom Rossiter (above); photography by Tom Tian, AB’10 “Our computer science Ecostructure department, like most, lives in a building constructed in the ’90s,” The University designs new the University implemented says Kolb. “But their facilities to offer campus a sustainable building policy, buildings are from the researchers the best possible based on the US Green Building 1990s, not the 1890s.” equipment and resources but Council’s Leadership in Energy Opened in 1894, Ryerson recognizes its responsibility to and Environmental Design will be modernized, befitting the leading- the global community as well. (LEED) certification system. edge work done by Environmental sustainability is Every new building must comply Photo courtesy Department of the department’s a primary concern, and in 2010 with these standards. Computer Science computer scientists.

Shivakumar Bhaskaran, manager Searle Cleanroom of the new clean room in the Searle Chemistry Laboratory building, holds up a three- inch silicon wafer emblazoned with the University of Chicago phoenix. The logo consists of a 50-nanometer-thick layer of gold with a five-nanometer- thick adhesion layer of titanium underneath.

Photo courtesy Shivakumar Bhaskaran

5 FALL 2015 • INQ UIRY Searle Chemistry Laboratory

Photo courtesy University of Chicago Facilities Services

Gordon Center Gordon Center Searle Cleanroom

Photography by Tom Rossiter Photography by Jason Smith

Searle Cleanroom and fabrication industry, the tools Spotlight electron microscope, Nanofabrication Facility inside the clean room are Laboratory services are electron paramagnetic also used to create intricate modular for potential resonance instrument, Stats nanoscale devices. reconfiguration in response to and time-resolved • Opened 2013 future scientific needs. luminescence spectrometer • 2,680 square feet in Searle Searle Chemistry and microscope Chemistry Laboratory Laboratory Gordon Center for • Class 100/1000 environment Spotlight Integrative Science (reduces contaminants Stats The Gordon Center features by 99.99 percent or 99.9 • Gut renovation 2009, Stats walls made from the same percent, respectively) originally constructed • Opened 2006 Indiana limestone used in the • Specialized equipment in 1968 • 400,000 square feet main quad and a colonnade of includes deposition, etching, • 85,000 square feet; four • ~800 senior scientists, six-story steel columns acting and lithography tools floors plus basement researchers, and students as a modern interpretation of • UChicago’s first LEED Gold • Institute for Cobb Gate, a block and a half • Adjacent biological research building, with green Biophysical Dynamics east on 57th Street. sample prep area and soft garden roof • Department of Biochemistry lithography laboratory • Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biology • First multiuser clean synthetic and theoretical • Howard Hughes room on campus; open labs, administrative offices Medical Institute to entire UChicago • Computation Institute • Ben May Department for research community • Shared chemical Cancer Research • Creates new opportunities instrumentation facilities • James Franck Institute for faculty appointments in for nuclear magnetic • Part of Department To support PSD initiatives like the Core nanoscience research resonance spectroscopy, of Chemistry Facilities Fund, contact Brian Yocum Spotlight mass spectroscopy, and • Specialized equipment (773.702.3751, [email protected]) Advanced by the semiconductor X-ray diffraction includes scanning or visit campaign.uchicago.edu.

INQ UIRY • FALL 2015 6 “Thirty years ago, programs usually had a thousand lines of code. It was still possible to read through every line and manually validate and correct.”

—SHAN LU Photo courtesy Department of Computer Science

Computer Science time, and a professor who worked on challenging part of the process—she can software reliability asked if she’d like to join write a program to search code, identify his group. that pattern, and, depending on the type Reliable of bug, automatically fix it. “When you fix Pattern recognition a bug,” she adds, “you want to make sure source Understanding, detecting, mitigating, you don’t introduce new ones.” and fixing defects in today’s software is Lu’s group ran one of these programs Shan Lu finds your much more involved than it once was. on 15 widely used Java and C/C++ software bugs and “Thirty years ago, programs usually had applications. It found 150 previously kills them. a thousand lines of code,” says Lu. “It undetected performance bugs. Lu was still possible to read through every submitted the report along with patches ay you find a bug in your kitchen. line and manually validate and correct.” to fix the bugs, and 116 were immediately SYou have three options: leave it be Most programs are now too large and accepted by developers. The software and try to forget about it, put it outside complicated to comb through the source was presented at the International where it won’t bother you, or kill it. The code, and they often combine different Conference on Software Engineering in same options exist for computer program components. “Software is not built by just May, winning the team a Distinguished bugs: ignore the problem, build a work- one person.” So Lu builds programs to Paper Award. around, or fix the source code. But what find bugs based on patterns and then, if if you have a million bugs? You call a possible, fix them automatically. Depending on a digital world professional, like associate professor A typical project for Lu involves The type of software dependability Shan Lu. Specializing in computer system choosing a large, mature, and open-source research Lu conducts affects much of our robustness and reliability, she eradicates program and studying its defect database, technologically developed lives, in both software bugs through program analysis which contains detailed user reports. trivial and critical ways. Consider your and software engineering. She studies discussions between users smartphone or smartwatch. If its software When she started graduate school at the and developers, patches, and reviews of is inefficient, your applications can become University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, patches and tries to identify a pattern in unresponsive and drain the battery. Now Lu had much less programming experience the types of mistakes developers make. consider the equipment that delivers than many of her peers. “I had a lot of She uses complex software to provide radiation therapy to cancer patients. bugs in my programs,” says Lu, who joined a large enough sample size to draw A programming error can cause lethal the University in August 2014. But rather statistically significant conclusions. malfunctions—and has, Lu recalls. than a liability, her inexperience opened Once Lu generalizes a common Between 1985 and 1987, the Therac-25 a door. She didn’t have an adviser at the problem and identifies a pattern—the most radiation therapy machine ran software

7 FALL 2015 • INQ UIRY that contained a subtle bug called a changes to the computer science race condition, which causes a device department. In 2011 Andrew Chien, to attempt two or more operations at previously Intel’s vice president of the same time, resulting in the wrong research, joined the department as sequence of events. The machine delivered the William Eckhardt Distinguished an overdose of radiation; five patients Service Professor. While the department died and many others were injured. maintains its traditional focus on theory, Bugs also have caused space rockets to says associate chair Anne Rogers, his explode (Mariner I, 1962; Ariane 5, 1996) appointment marked the beginning of an and destroyed pipelines (trans-Siberian expansion of faculty members who work gas pipeline, 1982, rumored to have been under the broad umbrella of systems. caused by a CIA-planted bug, leading “The field is going to change, and to the largest non-nuclear explosion very quickly,” says department chair in history). Todd Dupont. Some recent hires come from industry, some from academia, and Ivory to computer towers some have worked in both (see “Science Because of our dependence on computer Nonfiction,” page 9). The boundaries systems, academic computer science between the two areas are increasingly and industry share a close relationship. fluid, says Rogers, with advances in each Often breakthroughs are directly and driving the other. immediately applied by corporations. This relatively new attention to systems When she was a student, Lu and her research is part of the reason Lu came to adviser developed a tool, filed a patent, UChicago from an established program and licensed it to Intel. Her adviser created at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. In 1947 Harvard’s computer lab, run by a start-up based on another technique “It almost feels like a start-up,” she says. Grace Hopper, pulled a moth from a they developed. While she doesn’t plan to “Everyone is energetic, with a ‘we’re doing malfunctioning Mark II. Though widely cited as the origin of “computer bug,” this begin her own company any time soon, she this together’ feeling.” As a relatively junior tale is disputed. For the full story, visit does expect to collaborate with industry. faculty member, Lu has an opportunity to mag.uchicago.edu/reliable-source. Photo courtesy the US Naval Historical Center. This melding of academia and effect real change. entrepreneurship is reflected in recent —M.S.

Cascade effect

The path to at the Center for Elementary much,” Lu wondered, “and how As a graduate student Mathematics and Science can I possibly catch up?” 10 years ago, Lu helped her gender diversity in Education. Such additions may The women banded adviser mentor two undergrads computer science. encourage more women to together, helping each other through the Distributed pursue a field in which they are narrow the gap, while the men Research Experiences for still underrepresented. moved forward from their Undergraduates program, Andrew Chien, a computer Lu feels surrounded head start. She wonders if sponsored by a woman-focused science professor who’s helped and supported by women women are deterred by the committee of the Computing recruit more systems-focused colleagues at UChicago, so it disparity in early exposure to Research Association. This faculty, has been intent on takes her a minute to remember computer science. summer she became a mentor increasing the department’s ever feeling less at ease. But Now as a professor, she herself, hosting two women diversity, making an effort to her years as an undergraduate makes a point of assuring her computer science students from identify top-flight women in at the University of Science less experienced students— different cities for 10 weeks. the field and inviting them to and Technology of China were who tend to be women—that Lu’s colleague, assistant visit campus. Sometimes that difficult. She began her course although they need to practice professor Hank Hoffmann, visit has led to an appointment, work with little programming programming, they can still also hosted women summer as was the case for Shan Lu. In experience—inexperience do well in her classes. Speed is researchers through a the past year, the department shared by her three female important, but “there are many different program. “We are has hired two more women classmates. The 20 or so male other skills that will determine hoping that a collective computer scientists—assistant computer science majors if you’re successful,” Lu says. effort like this,” says Lu, professor Yanjing Li and seemed to already have “Whether you’re organized, “will contribute to increasing Diana Franklin, director of programming knowledge. determined, or creative. You the percentage of women in computer science education “How can they already know so need to be a good thinker.” computer science.

INQ UIRY • FALL 2015 8 Illustration by Mario Wagner

Computer Science I, bionic Siri and Amazon’s Alexa in its ability to Associate professor Shan Lu and assistant contextualize. He wants to have a natural professor Yanjing Li would like to see conversation with the computer, where Science medical technology improved. Li envisions his questions are answered and refined by bionic body parts—implantable chips that further discussion. nonfiction could restore sight to the blind or speech to the mute. She cites the blood-sugar- Transcendence We asked recently monitoring contact lens designed by Assistant professor Andrew Drucker hopes appointed computer Google and Novartis. “People are already for “direct computer/brain interfaces that scientists what fantastical, looking at nonintrusive ways of integrating use the brain’s plasticity to intimately link futuristic technology computer systems into your body, but in human and machine intelligence,” leading they’d like to see invented. the future, it could be another level.” to new kinds of virtual experiences and Turns out some of their telepathy. He’d be even happier “to see the foresights aren’t so far off. Auto chauffeur benefits of existing technologies shared Assistant professors Ravi Chugh and Ariel more equitably—for example, to see more Feldman look forward to self-driving cars, of the wealth generated by our computers Quantum leap “although given recent progress, perhaps going to the people who assemble them.” Fred Chong, the Seymour Goodman that isn’t so fantastical any more,” says Professor of Computer Architecture, Feldman. Chugh predicts that self-driving “I know kung fu.” and computer science lecturer Matthew cars combined with public transit would Diana Franklin, director of computer science Wachs are eager to see advances in lead to safer and more energy- and time- education at the Center for Elementary quantum computing. “It’s the only efficient travel. “The economic and social Mathematics and Science Education, would technique that may provide exponentially challenges to overcome, however, are like to see “personalized, automated learning powerful computation,” says Chong. probably harder than the technical ones.” systems to support students in all subjects, Wachs compares it to a genie in a bottle: including math, art, computer science, “Whenever a genie grants you a wish, Sentient Siri history, language.” Though not exactly the obvious strategy is to ask for infinite The technology that assistant professor Matrix-style downloadable education, these wishes. The kinds of breakthroughs that Aaron Elmore, SM’09, most wants would “assist teachers in reaching students quantum computing would make possible developed “has to be the Star Trek with wide variance in background, knowledge, would almost be like that.” computer.” His vision differs from Apple’s learning styles, and personal interests.”

9 FALL 2015 • INQ UIRY the time, and eventually one coauthor on Who influenced you at UChicago? “Juggling Drops and Descents,” a paper I’ve always been deeply involved in music on the math behind the art form. He was a and joined the Collegium Musicum—a great teacher, and my juggling took a great performing group that gave a concert leap forward. I still practice a bit and juggle in Bond Chapel every quarter. When I with Joe whenever we’re together. arrived I played the flute and recorder; with them I slowly expanded and played You wrote a graduate-level textbook, recorder, krummhorn, wooden flute, and Commutative Algebra with a View eventually viola da gamba. The Collegium Toward Algebraic Geometry (Springer, Musicum was run at the time by Howard 1995). What is commutative algebra and Mayer Brown, a famous musicologist who algebraic geometry? played the same assortment of instruments Those are two sides of the same thing. as I did. His partner, Roger Weiss, AM’51, Photography by Jason Smith Algebraic geometry started with the PhD’55, a social sciences professor, was a Greeks and conic sections. If you think tenor. Brown hosted us at his house, and about a slice of a cone, you have a circle, we became personal friends. I got quite Mathematics an ellipse, a hyperbola, or a parabola, and an education from the deep culture of the those curves can be defined in a plane by a leaders of the group. quadratic equation. Juggling act What’s been the highlight of your career thus far? David Eisenbud, SB’66, SM’67, PhD’70, Certainly the fact that I’ve been director wears a lot of hats. A mathematics of MSRI in Berkeley now for a total of professor at the University of California, a dozen years. Last April MSRI hosted Berkeley; director of the Mathematical the first national mathematics festival Sciences Research Institute (MSRI); in Washington, DC, with an event and former president of the American supporting basic research, several Mathematical Society, he is also an events about mathematics education, author, musician, and juggler. Eisenbud, and a public festival where 27,000 who received a 2015 Alumni Association people came to about 70 events in the professional achievement award, tells Smithsonian museums. Inquiry about algebraic geometry, the first Much of my work with MSRI was made national mathematics festival, and the possible by the guidance of my wife, significance of the number 3264. Monika, who’s a physician. For example, she was very involved in the design of a new wing we added to the building. How did you first become interested The way that people study modern in mathematics? algebraic geometry is to look not at that My father was a theoretical physicist, so equation but at the functions on the What are you working on now? it wasn’t far to look. He showed me how circle. Let’s look at polynomial functions, I’m making final corrections on a book to solve simultaneous equations, which a function with two variables, like 5x + 7y. written with Harvard’s Joe Harris. It has excited me a lot. When I was about 12, If I apply that to a point on the circle, I get a funny title: 3264 & All That: A Second I began announcing that I was going to a number. Those functions form what’s Course in Algebraic Geometry (Cambridge be a mathematician. I don’t know what called a commutative ring—that it’s a ring University Press, forthcoming). The number prompted that exactly. It was the warm means you can add, subtract, and multiply 3264 references the solution of a classic contact with my father that started the functions by adding, subtracting, and algebraic geometry problem. “All that” ball rolling. multiplying their values—which determines comes from a spoof of English history the geometric form. Algebraic geometry called 1066 & All That (W. C. Sellar and R. J. Yeatman), which claims there are only two Your father started another ball rolling— studies geometric objects, defined by memorable dates in English history—one or flying—right? polynomial equations, by studying the He taught me to juggle three balls around functions on those objects. of them is the Battle of Hastings. This book the time I went off to college, and I 3264 has been a 10-year project. The only way anyone writes another book must be remember practicing while walking around What fields use algebraic geometry? the circular corridor on my floor of Pierce String theory is a big application because to forget the pain of writing the one before. Tower. Later on he and I bought a set of strings are curves in a sense. It also —Interviewed by M.S. clubs and tried to learn club passing; we appears in mathematical biology, robotics made some progress, but not very much. and motion planning, and in applications Visit mag.uchicago.edu/eisenbud for a Later I met Joe Buhler—a pro-level juggler, where you have to deal with simple chance to ask the juggling mathematician a mathematician from Reed College at functions or constraints, like optimization. a question and win a prize.

INQ UIRY • FALL 2015 10 Physics In memoriam Yoichiro Nambu (1921–2015)

oichiro Nambu is no more,” says Yformer student Madhusree Mukerjee, PhD’89, “and with him is gone an era in physics.” Nambu, professor emeritus and 2008 Nobel Prize winner, died July 5 of an acute heart attack. He was 94. The Japan-born physicist is best known for introducing a mathematical model to describe “spontaneous symmetry breaking.” Now a cornerstone of the Standard Model of particle physics, this phenomenon helps explain how subatomic particles interact, governed by fundamental forces of nature.

Visit mag.uchicago.edu/nambu to learn more about his work, read tributes, and share your own memories of the “gentle genius.”

Photo courtesy Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library

11 FALL 2015 • INQ UIRY Divisional news

ANNOUNCEMENTS Donald Lamb Daniel Holz, SM’94, PhD’98 Robert A. Millikan Distinguished (Physics) We’ve moved! The PSD dean’s Service Professor in Astronomy Received a Quantrell office, the development office, and Astrophysics Award for Excellence in the dean of students, the Kavli Undergraduate Teaching Gene Mazenko Institute for Cosmological Professor in Physics Richard Jordan (Chemistry) Physics, and the Department of Named the Paul Snowden Frank Merritt Astronomy and Astrophysics Russell Distinguished Professor in Physics now reside in the Eckhardt Service Professor Center, 5640 South Ellis Robert Soare David Miller, AB’05 (Physics) Avenue. Come visit us and Professor in Computer Science Received an NSF CAREER award check out UChicago’s newest and Mathematics precision science facility. Ray Moellering (Chemistry) Won the 2015 V Scholar Award from the V Foundation for FACULTY AWARD AND Cancer Research HONOR HIGHLIGHTS FACULTY ADDITIONS Angela Olinto (Astronomy and László Babai (Computer Science Astrophysics) John Anderson, SB’08, SM’08 Awarded a Faculty Award for Assistant Professor in Chemistry and Mathematics) Received the 2015 Donald E. Excellence in Graduate Teaching Francesco Calegari Knuth Prize and Mentoring Professor in Mathematics Elected to the American Norbert Scherer, SB’82 Frederic Chong Academy of Arts and Sciences (Chemistry) Professor in Computer Science Awarded the 2015 Peter John E. Carlstrom (Astronomy Philipp Heck Debye Prize from the Edmond and Astrophysics) Associate Professor (part time) Hustinx Foundation Received the 2015 Gruber Prize in Geophysical Sciences in Cosmology Panagiotis E. Souganidis Malte Jansen (Mathematics) Fred Chong (Computer Science) Assistant Professor in Elected a fellow of SIAM Named the Seymour Geophysical Sciences (Society for Industrial and Goodman Professor of Applied Mathematics) Edwin Kite Computer Architecture Assistant Professor in Andrei Tokmakoff (Chemistry) Ravi Chugh (Computer Science) Geophysical Sciences Received the 2016 Ahmed Zewail Awarded Neubauer Award in Ultrafast Science Yanjing Li Faculty Fellowship and Technology Assistant Professor in Jian Ding (Statistics) Computer Science Received an NSF CAREER award Yanbin Wang (Senior Scientist, Center for Advanced Arvind Murugan Alex Eskin (Mathematics) Assistant Professor in Physics Radiation Sources) Elected to the National Academy Named a 2015 American of Sciences Sergei Nagaitsev Geophysical Union fellow Professor (part time) in Physics Wendy Freedman (Astronomy Jonathan Weare (Statistics) Charles Smart and Astrophysics) Received a Department of Associate Professor Received the R. M. Petrie Energy Early Career Award in Mathematics Prize at the Canadian Astronomical Society Paul Wiegmann (Physics) Scott Snyder Received a 2015 Simons Professor in Chemistry Named the John and Fellowship Award Marion Sullivan University Professor Shmuel Weinberger (Mathematics) RETIREMENTS Henry Hoffmann (Computer Named the Andrew Science) MacLeish Distinguished Received a Department of John Frederick Service Professor Professor in Geophysical Sciences Energy Early Career Award

INQ UIRY • FALL 2015 12 Et al.

Review 125 years of PSD discovery

n 1890, University of Chicago founder John D. IRockefeller and University president William Rainey Harper created an intellectual culture that led to more than a century of scientific innovation, advancing existing fields of inquiry and creating new ones, like particle cosmology and cosmochemistry. From Yerkes to the Giant Magellan Telescope, UChicago scientists are developing technologies of unprecedented scope, power, and precision; answering some 1 of the universe’s most puzzling mysteries; and asking tomorrow’s questions today. This autumn quarter the University celebrates its 125th anniversary with a series of lectures, 1. Mathematics—Proof of the fundamental lemma of the Langlands Program, Ngô Bao Châu (2009). panels, and events, culminating in the 525th Graphic courtesy Bill Casselman; adapted by Michael Vendiola. Convocation on December 11, 2015, in Rockefeller 2. Astronomy and Astrophysics—Yerkes Observatory, George Ellery Hale (1897). Photo courtesy Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library. Memorial Chapel. The Division of the Physical 3. Physics—First chain reaction, Enrico Fermi (1942). Photography by Robert Kozloff. Sciences joins in this celebration of history, 4. Computer Science—Grid computing, Ian Foster (1999). Photo courtesy Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. affirmation of its founding principles, and 5. Astronomy and Astrophysics—Giant Magellan Telescope, Wendy Freedman (2021). dedication to future progress by noting some of Photo courtesy GMTO Corporation. 6. Geophysical Sciences—Fujita Tornado Scale, Tetsuya “Ted” Fujita (1971). Photo courtesy the division’s most noteworthy breakthroughs. US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. To explore more of the University’s scientific 7. Astronomy and Astrophysics—Black holes proposal, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1974–83). Illustration courtesy NASA. history, visit Crerar Library’s exhibit A Bold 8. Chemistry—Carbon-14 dating, Willard F. Libby (1950s). Photography by Maureen Searcy. Experiment: The Origins of the Sciences at 9. Physics—Electron charge measurement, Robert Millikan (1909). Photo courtesy APS Physics, January 20, 2012. the University of Chicago, running through 10. Astronomy and Astrophysics—Expanding universe, Mount Wilson Observatory, Edwin March 31, 2016. Hubble (1920s). Photography by Andrew Dunn. 11. Physics—Higgs boson discovery, 2000+ US-based physicists, many from UChicago —M.S. (2012). Image courtesy CERN.

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