The Simons Foundation today announces that David Spergel, an accomplished astrophysicist and winner of the prestigious Breakthrough Prize, will be the foundation’s next president, effective July 1, 2021. Spergel currently serves as director of the Center for Computational Astrophysics at the Simons Foundation’s Flatiron Institute in New York City.
People with diabetes — especially the 20 to 40 percent with diabetic kidney disease — are among the most at risk for serious complications and death from COVID-19. A new study of gene expression utilizing machine learning peered inside the kidney cells of COVID-19 patients and diabetic kidney disease patients and made a surprising discovery: Similar molecular processes were activated in both sets of patients, revealing potential avenues of viral vulnerability. The researchers report their findings in Kidney International.
You can’t understand the universe unless you understand the galaxies that comprise it. Galaxies are home to stars, black holes, dark matter halos and clouds of gas and dust. But insights into these galactic phenomena aren’t easily obtained. Astrophysicists have long struggled to develop a complete view of galaxies that spans the entire cosmic scale, from single stars to superclusters of thousands of galaxies.
Blakesley Burkhart, whose research investigates the role of turbulence in astrophysical environments, has been awarded a 2020 Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Burkhart is an associate research scientist at the Flatiron Institute‘s Center for Computational Astrophysics and an assistant professor at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.
For decades, scientists have hunted for materials in which electrons flow without resistance. Until recently, this hunt focused squarely on superconductors, in which electrons pair off and flow freely. But superconductors aren’t the only game in town. In 2013, for the first time scientists observed a phenomenon known as the quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) effect. Just like in a superconductor, electrons under the QAH effect flow without dissipating energy, albeit via a different mechanism. Now a new material is pushing the QAH effect to new limits, dramatically increasing the temperature and conditions in which the effect occurs.
The Blavatnik Family Foundation and the New York Academy of Sciences have named computational astrophysicist Adrian Price-Whelan as the winner of the 2020 Blavatnik Regional Award for Young Scientists in the physical sciences and engineering category. The award recognizes outstanding postdoctoral scientists from academic research institutions in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, and comes with a $30,000 prize.
An infinite chain of hydrogen atoms is just about the simplest bulk material imaginable — a never-ending single-file line of protons surrounded by electrons. Yet a new computational study combining four cutting-edge methods finds that the modest material boasts fantastic and surprising quantum properties.
The Simons Foundation is pleased to announce the launch of the Flatiron Institute Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Advocacy (IDEA) Scholar program. The program invites distinguished scientists with a particular interest in increasing diversity and improving equity and inclusion in the sciences for extended visits at the foundation’s intramural computational research division, the Flatiron Institute. The foundation regards diversity as having many dimensions, including but not limited to gender and gender identity, sexual orientation, race, faith, ethnicity, cultural heritage, disability and socioeconomic background. Visiting scholars can engage with any of these dimensions or suggest others.
The Simons Foundation is pleased to announce that Emery N. Brown, M.D., Ph.D., has joined its board of directors.
Astrophysicist Brian Metzger has been named the 2020 Blavatnik National Awards Laureate in Physical Sciences & Engineering by the Blavatnik Family Foundation. The honor recognizes Metzger’s contributions to the discovery of the origins of gold and other heavy elements in the universe. The $250,000 prize is one of the largest for early-career scientists.