Physics

Cumrun Vafa's primary area of research is string theory.  String theory, a subject that is about four decades old, is at the center of efforts by theoretical physicists to find a unified fundamental theory of nature.  String theory provides a framework to unify everything we know about nature, including all particles and the forces between them, in a consistent quantum theory.  This is an ambitious goal, given that it aims to describe physical phenomena involving scales 1025 times smaller than the atom, as well as the cosmology of our entire universe, which involves a scale of about 1037 times bigger than the atom. In a single theory, one studies the mysteries of confinement of quarks inside atomic nuclei, as well as enigmatic properties of astrophysical objects such as black holes.

Professor Dimopoulos has been searching for answers to some of the deepest mysteries of nature. Why is gravity so weak? Do elementary particles have substructure? What is the origin of mass? Are there new dimensions? Can we produce black holes in the lab?

Elementary particle physics is entering a spectacular new era in which experiments at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN will soon shed light on such questions and lead to a new deeper theory of particle physics, replacing the Standard Model proposed forty years ago. The two leading candidates for new theories are the Supersymmetric Standard Model and theories with Large Extra Dimensions, both proposed by Professor Dimopoulos and collaborators.

Professor Dimopoulos is collaborating on a number of experiments that use the dramatic advances in atom interferometry to do fundamental physics. These include testing Einstein’s theory of general relativity to fifteen decimal precision, atom neutrality to thirty decimals, and looking for modifications of quantum mechanics. He is also designing an atom-interferometric gravity-wave detector that will allow us to look at the universe with gravity waves instead of light, marking the dawn of gravity wave astronomy and cosmology.

Littlewood holds a BA and PhD in Physics from the University of Cambridge. He was member of technical staff, and later head, of the theoretical physics research group at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey. He moved to Cambridge in 1997 as head of the Theory of Condensed Matter group, and later became head of the Cavendish Laboratory and Department of Physics. He came to UChicago in 2011 as Associate Lab Director and then Lab Director, at Argonne National Lab, returning full time to the University in 2017. He serves on the advisory boards of several institutes, including the Faraday Institution, the Simons Foundation, the Paul Scherer Institute, the Carnegie Institute for Science, and the Max Planck Institutes at Halle and Hamburg.

Sarah Bohndiek completed her PhD in Radiation Physics at University College London in 2008 and then worked in both the UK (at Cambridge) and the USA (at Stanford) as a postdoctoral fellow in molecular imaging. Since 2013, Sarah has been a Group Leader at the University of Cambridge, where she is jointly appointed in the Department of Physics and the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute. 

Sarah’s team develop novel imaging approaches that can be applied to understand the role of the tumour microenvironment in cancer progression. They are also are active in translating their findings into clinical trials. Sarah was recently awarded the CRUK Future Leaders in Cancer Research Prize and SPIE Early Career Achievement Award in recognition of her interdisciplinary research innovation.

In addition to her research programme, Sarah also takes an active role in teaching and mentoring the next generation of scientists. She has acted as an ambassador for public engagement and interdisciplinary research training throughout her career and acknowledging her generosity in this regard, Sarah has received the MSCA Award for Nurturing Research Talent and been invited to deliver numerous talks on career development at both national and international workshops.

Robert D. Mawhinney is a Professor of Physics at Columbia University and the Dean of Natural Sciences.  He received his B.S. in Physics from the University of South Florida in 1980 and his Ph.D. in Physics from Harvard University in 1987.  His research is in theoretical particle physics, with a particular focus on the behavior of quarks, which bind together to form protons, neutrons and a host of other "hadrons", and the theory which describes their interactions, Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD).  

QCD is a highly non-linear theory, giving a first principles description of the strong interactions between quarks and many of the predictions of this theory can only be made through large scale numerical simulations on the fastest supercomputers available at any time.  QCD is also an ideal numerical problem, with only a handful of input parameters and a very large number of output predictions, which are vital to interpreting and assimilating the results of many particle physics experiments.

Graf studied physics and mathematics at ETH Zurich, where he graduated in 1986 with Diplom thesis supervised by Jürg Fröhlich and received his doctorate in 1990 with thesis supervised by Walter Hunziker (1935–2012) . From 1990 to 1992 Graf was an assistant professor of mathematics at Caltech. At ETH Zurich he was from 1992 to 1998 an assistant professor and from 1998 to 2001 an associate professor and is since 2001 a full professor

Graf's research deals with fundamental thermodynamic properties of matter (especially questions related to the problem of the "stability of matter" mathematically investigated by Elliott Lieb and others^[4][5]), many-body scattering processes in quantum mechanics, quantum pumps and various problems of solid-state physics such as the quantum Hall effect and topological insulators.

Prof. Frebel is an observational astronomer and astrophysicist. She received her PhD from the Australian National University’s Mt. Stromlo Observatory in 2007, and did postdoctoral work as a WJ McDonald Fellow in Austin, TX (2006-2008) and as Clay Fellow at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA), in Cambridge, MA (2009-2012).

Prof. Frebel has received numerous honors and awards including the 2010 Annie Jump Cannon Award (American Astronomical Society), a 2013 CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation, and in 2016 she was named one of ScienceNews Magazine’s “Ten Scientists to Watch”. She was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2018 and to full Professor in 2022.

Prof. Frebel has authored more than 120 papers in various refereed journals, including Nature. She also enjoys communicating science to the public through regular public lectures, magazine articles, interviews as well as her popular science book “Searching for the oldest stars: Ancient Relics from the Early Universe” (Princeton University Press).