Undergraduates engage in diverse research activities and intellectual production opportunities across campus.
This is the College’s Research Roundup—a quarterly news feature that allows us to celebrate the success of these students and their work.
New Method of Boosting Chemical Reactions
Fourth-year Sarah Kress joined UChicago chemists to author a study that found a way to use electricity to boost a type of chemical reaction often used in synthesizing new candidates for pharmaceutical drugs. Published Jan. 2 in Nature Catalysis, the research is an advance in the field of electrochemistry and shows a path forward to designing and controlling reactions—and making them more sustainable. Learn more in this piece by UChicago News.
Searching for Dark Matter
As a member of Prof. David Miller’s lab, third-year Mira Littmann contributed to an experiment led by the University of Chicago and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory known as the Broadband Reflector Experiment for Axion Detection or BREAD. After releasing its first results in the search for dark matter last year, the group recently developed a dark matter detector, and tested it using a giant magnet at Argonne National Lab. A paper with additional findings was just released for official review.
Novel Diamond Bonding Technique
Fourth-year Avery Linder co-authored a paper recently published in Nature Communications from UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering’s High Lab and Argonne National Laboratory that solved a major hurdle facing researchers working with diamond by creating a novel way of bonding diamonds directly to materials that integrate easily with either quantum or conventional electronics. This story from PME has more details on the project.
Slagscape Workshop
Daniel Arad and Adera Craig take part in the Novel Ecologies of the Slagscape workshop.
Fourth-year students Daniel Arad and Adera Craig contributed to the Novel Ecologies of the Slagscape workshop last month, a two-day event that started at the Big Marsh Environmental Center and closed on the UChicago campus. The Committee on Environment, Geography and Environment (CEGU) and Urban Theory Lab (UTL) organized the event that brought together Chicago scholars and visual artists to consider the past and future status of former dump sites used by metallurgical and chemical industries distinguished by a unique form of waste: slag. While some slag remains inert and homogenous or reacts in toxic ways with on-site water and soils, some slag landscapes manifest traces of ecological rejuvenation. Arad and Craig served as workshop rapporteurs and discussed their thesis research examining Lake Michigan water quality in slag adjacent sites (Arad) and effects of slag pollution on fish species in the lakes and streams of the Calumet region (Craig). Both became fascinated with slag’s environmental effects when they enrolled in the Spring 2024 Calumet Quarter, a CEGU-sponsored immersive experiential education program focused on environment, culture and social dynamics of this important region hugging the southern shores of Lake Michigan. Craig’s research on mapping Calumet slag sites will continue in Spring 2025 thanks to a Quad Research Scholarship.
Biomedical Field Research
Joshua Pixley
Fourth-year Josh Pixley’s first scholarly publication, “High-throughput protein binder discovery by rapid in vivo selection” was accepted for publication in a science methodology journal in the coming weeks. This work aims to democratize the discovery of new interacting partners for biological targets. By reducing the time and financial investment required for initial inquiry, the method developed in this paper will accelerate new discoveries in the biomedical field. The preprint, written in collaboration with chemistry postdoc Matthew Styles, with colleagues from the Department of Chemistry and the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, is available now at BioRxiv.
Researching ‘smelly molecules’
Eli Wakefield
Second-year Eli Wakefield works in the Kay Lab at the Institute for Mind and Biology, and is currently running a study that involves our ability to detect and discern different smelly molecules. This winter, he presented his findings at the Psychological Sciences Undergraduate Research Symposium on campus and to the A*STAR's Institute for Food and Biotechnology innovation. This summer, Wakefield will continue this research in Singapore, examining retronasal olfaction and its effect on flavor.
Fourth-year named Gates Cambridge Scholar
Elena Tiedens
Elena Tiedens was named a Gates Cambridge Scholar in part due to her research that aims to show how infrastructure evolves over time and how old technology and methods can be used to accomplish new goals. The scholarship will allow her to continue her studies at Cambridge’s Scott Polar Research Institute, which is one of the only dedicated educational facilities with a focus on the study of the polar regions. She was joined by Erica Hogan, AB’23, who will study for an MPhil in Development Studies at Cambridge and intends to pursue a Ph.D. Read more about both winners here.
If you know of a UChicago College student whose research should be recognized, email details to kyoshimoto@uchicago.edu with “Research Roundup” in the subject line.
