https://www.scmp.com/rss/523458/feed The latest news and top stories on the University of Chicago. A prominent private research university located in Chicago, Illinois, USA, the University of Chicago is dedicated to advancing knowledge through rigorous inquiry and intellectual debate, as reflected in its motto, “Let knowledge grow from more to more; and so be human life enriched.” Renowned for its academic excellence, it encompasses an undergraduate college, four graduate divisions, and numerous professional schools. Notable for... en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Holly Chik Holly Chik World-leading Vietnamese mathematician Ngo Bao Chau has said his decision to leave the US was not just the result of the worsening academic environment there, but also a vision to transform Asia into the next global powerhouse for maths and science. Ngo, the first Vietnamese recipient of the prestigious Fields Medal, will join the University of Hong Kong in June. “I want Asia to be the next America or the next Europe [as] a place where science and mathematics strive,” he said in an interview on... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3346664/things-i-do-not-drove-me-quit-us-hong-kong-top-mathematician-ngo-bao-chau?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3346664/things-i-do-not-drove-me-quit-us-hong-kong-top-mathematician-ngo-bao-chau?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 16 Mar 2026 04:00:10 +0000 William Zheng,Sylvie Zhuang William Zheng,Sylvie Zhuang In his decades toiling as a health official in a coastal Chinese province, Alan Chen has rarely had to study a subject about which he knew so little. “Nd is Neodymium. It is needed for almost all modern EV motors. China dominates the refining of Nd oxide. Dy is Dysprosium. It is needed for magnets to operate at high temperatures and is also essential for EV motors.” This was the kind of content Chen pored over in a training course he attended at the Central Party School, the Communist Party’s... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3345957/economic-security-101-why-chinas-officials-now-have-study-rare-earths-and-supply-chains?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3345957/economic-security-101-why-chinas-officials-now-have-study-rare-earths-and-supply-chains?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 09 Mar 2026 22:00:08 +0000 Shi Huang Shi Huang Mathematician Ngo Bao Chau, who made history in 2010 as the first Vietnamese recipient of the prestigious Fields Medal, will join the science faculty at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) as a chair professor in June. Ngo, 53, currently distinguished service professor and chair of the University of Chicago’s mathematics department, is a pre-eminent figure in Vietnamese mathematics. HKU announced his new appointment last Thursday. Born in Hanoi in 1972, Ngo showed early brilliance, winning gold... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3342872/vietnams-legendary-maths-genius-ngo-bao-chau-join-university-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3342872/vietnams-legendary-maths-genius-ngo-bao-chau-join-university-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 09 Feb 2026 08:00:08 +0000 Frank Wilczek Frank Wilczek In the latest instalment of his exclusive series for the South China Morning Post, American theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek pays tribute to the mathematical beauty of Yang’s contributions. Read his previous articles here. Chen-ning (Frank) Yang, a towering figure in modern physics, died on October 18, 2025 in Beijing, shortly after his 103rd birthday. Let us celebrate his profound contributions to our understanding of the world, his remarkable life and his living... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3340946/revisiting-peaks-nobel-laureate-chen-ning-yangs-remarkable-career?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3340946/revisiting-peaks-nobel-laureate-chen-ning-yangs-remarkable-career?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 23 Jan 2026 09:00:09 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow New Google research into DeepSeek and Alibaba Cloud’s artificial intelligence models has found that powerful reasoning models capable of “thinking” demonstrated internal cognition resembling the mechanisms underpinning human collective intelligence. The findings published on Thursday suggested that perspective diversity, not just computational scale, was responsible for the increasing “intelligence” of AI models, while also underscoring the growing importance of Chinese open models for... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3340690/google-study-finds-deepseek-alibaba-ai-models-mimic-human-collective-intelligence?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3340690/google-study-finds-deepseek-alibaba-ai-models-mimic-human-collective-intelligence?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 21 Jan 2026 23:00:09 +0000 Josephine Ma Josephine Ma John Mearsheimer is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, where he has taught since 1982. He has written extensively on security issues and international politics and is best known for his theory of offensive realism, which holds that to dominate the international system, great powers must constantly engage in security competition with each other, sometimes leading to war. In this, our 100th Open Questions interview,... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3340309/john-mearsheimer-trump-and-why-iran-isnt-venezuela-and-venezuela-isnt-panama?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3340309/john-mearsheimer-trump-and-why-iran-isnt-venezuela-and-venezuela-isnt-panama?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 18 Jan 2026 22:00:17 +0000 Josephine Ma Josephine Ma John Mearsheimer is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, where he has taught since 1982. He has written extensively on security issues and international politics and is best known for his theory of offensive realism, which holds that to dominate the international system, great powers must constantly engage in security competition with each other, sometimes leading to war. In this interview, Mearsheimer discusses the US raid on... https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3340023/china-wins-if-venezuela-ensnares-imperialist-trump-mearsheimer-says?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3340023/china-wins-if-venezuela-ensnares-imperialist-trump-mearsheimer-says?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 16 Jan 2026 02:00:27 +0000 Terry Su Terry Su We had barely entered the new year when Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured in a brazen raid on the orders of US President Donald Trump. In the early hours of January 3, the couple were taken from their residence in Caracas, Venezuela, and flown to the US in a military operation impeccably executed in the name of countering narcoterrorism. Beijing, for one, was “deeply shocked” by Washington’s “hegemonic behaviour” and strongly condemned it. At a UN... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3339058/how-trumps-raid-caracas-deepens-us-china-strategic-tensions?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3339058/how-trumps-raid-caracas-deepens-us-china-strategic-tensions?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 11 Jan 2026 12:30:10 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo The horrors of war are so seared into the minds of people that the resultant images in their heads can bias them to picture future conflicts as being like previous ones. The more tragic and terrible the past conflicts, the stronger this bias tends to be. Hollywood films play a big part in such image-making, but some experts themselves may also be so biased, especially if they are of the older generation. When Americans say their country may be heading towards a civil war, many likely still have... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3336903/taiwan-intervention-may-just-spell-end-west?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3336903/taiwan-intervention-may-just-spell-end-west?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 20 Dec 2025 01:30:08 +0000 Dannie Peng Dannie Peng A renowned mathematician who is also part of China’s Qian clan – a surname linked in the annals of Chinese scientific history to national pioneers in science and engineering – has become the latest US-based scientist to return to China. After more than 40 years in the United States, Qian Hong has left his endowed professorship at the University of Washington to join the prestigious and private Westlake University in eastern China. Qian’s appointment last month as a full-time chair professor with... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3333087/mathematician-qian-hong-son-chinas-leading-scientific-clan-reverses-us-brain-drain?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3333087/mathematician-qian-hong-son-chinas-leading-scientific-clan-reverses-us-brain-drain?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 17 Nov 2025 12:00:12 +0000 Shi Huang Shi Huang Lin Wenbin, one of the founders and leading lights in the cutting edge field of metal-organic frameworks (MOF) – an area of chemistry recognised this year with a Nobel Prize – has left the United States for China. The internationally renowned molecular materials chemist and chemical biologist confirmed on Friday that he had retired early from the University of Chicago and joined Westlake University in Hangzhou, eastern China. Westlake University said earlier that Lin was now a full-time chair... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3332162/world-leading-cancer-drug-scientist-lin-wenbin-joins-chinas-westlake-university?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3332162/world-leading-cancer-drug-scientist-lin-wenbin-joins-chinas-westlake-university?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 10 Nov 2025 10:00:18 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly involved in scientific research, especially in the fierce competition between China and the US, a unique gathering of AI “scientists” has revealed that the technology still faces fundamental weaknesses. Each paper presented at last week’s Agents4Science 2025 conference listed large language models as primary authors and reviewers, while scholars from around the world shared how they used AI bots in scientific work and the challenges... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3331218/why-ai-scientists-fail-impress-human-experts-one-kind-online-conference?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3331218/why-ai-scientists-fail-impress-human-experts-one-kind-online-conference?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 02 Nov 2025 12:00:10 +0000 Josephine Ma Josephine Ma John J. Mearsheimer is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, where he has taught since 1982. He has written extensively on security issues and international politics and is best known for his theory of offensive realism in international relations, which holds that to dominate the international system, great powers must constantly engage in security competition with each other, sometimes leading to war. In this interview,... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3330356/john-j-mearsheimer-unavoidable-anarchy-and-what-trump-gets-right-china-russia?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3330356/john-j-mearsheimer-unavoidable-anarchy-and-what-trump-gets-right-china-russia?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 26 Oct 2025 22:00:26 +0000 Reuters Reuters Two fossilised “mummies” unearthed by scientists in the badlands of Wyoming of the duck-billed dinosaur Edmontosaurus reveal the external anatomy in exquisite detail, including the surprising presence of hooves on the feet – a first for any dinosaur. The two Edmontosaurus individuals, dating to the very end of the dinosaur age 66 million years ago, were a young adult roughly 12.2 metres (40ft) long and a two-year-old juvenile about half that length. The contours of the external fleshy surface of... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3330130/rare-duck-billed-dinosaur-mummies-reveal-surprise-hoofed-feet?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3330130/rare-duck-billed-dinosaur-mummies-reveal-surprise-hoofed-feet?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 23 Oct 2025 22:36:07 +0000 Jimmy Chow Jimmy Chow Hong Kong sculptor and community artist May Yeung centres her practice on recycled objects, cultural heritage and cross-cultural exchange. Her work includes public sculptures as well as collaborative projects with children, patients and disadvantaged groups. This socially driven approach has earned her a place as a finalist in this year’s Spirit of Hong Kong Awards in the culture category. She studied political science and visual arts at the University of Chicago from 2008 to 2012 under... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3328052/spirit-hong-kong-awards-sculptor-bridges-generations-and-cultures-through-art?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3328052/spirit-hong-kong-awards-sculptor-bridges-generations-and-cultures-through-art?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 07 Oct 2025 02:15:08 +0000 Julian Ryall Julian Ryall Japan’s police are turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to identify individuals who appear likely to commit “terrorist attacks” based on their social media posts, but observers say the move could backfire by sweeping up innocent citizens engaging in normal political discussion. The National Police Agency is seeking 49.5 million yen (US$338,000) in next year’s budget for a pilot project that would use AI to analyse online activity and flag individuals deemed potential threats. Officials say... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3325890/japan-ai-powered-policing-thwart-lone-wolf-threats-sparks-civil-liberties-concerns?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3325890/japan-ai-powered-policing-thwart-lone-wolf-threats-sparks-civil-liberties-concerns?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 18 Sep 2025 00:00:08 +0000 Tribune News Service Tribune News Service Walking in nature for as little as 15 to 20 minutes can improve your attention span – even if you do not always enjoy it. Environmental neuroscientist Marc Berman explains how the natural environment can help restore people’s frazzled, overstimulated nervous systems in his new book, Nature and the Mind: The Science of How Nature Improves Cognitive, Physical and Social Well-Being. Berman, founder and director of the Environmental Neuroscience Laboratory at the University of Chicago in the US... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3325138/how-you-could-improve-your-attention-span-just-15-minute-walk-nature?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3325138/how-you-could-improve-your-attention-span-just-15-minute-walk-nature?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 14 Sep 2025 00:15:08 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin Pioneering Chinese-American mathematician Zhongwei Shen has left the United States to take up a chair professorship at Westlake University in Hangzhou. He joined Westlake’s School of Science in July to continue decades of research on partial differential equations and harmonic analysis – mathematical fields that form the backbone of modelling the natural world, according to the university website. Shen, who was admitted to Peking University as a maths major at just 14, has spent 40 years in the... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3324826/after-40-years-us-pioneering-mathematician-zhongwei-shen-returns-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3324826/after-40-years-us-pioneering-mathematician-zhongwei-shen-returns-china?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 09 Sep 2025 03:58:56 +0000 Vanessa Cai,Xinlu Liang Vanessa Cai,Xinlu Liang New rules on certain Communist Party organs suggest China’s ruling party is aiming to standardise its decision-making process and that President Xi Jinping might be delegating more of his power, according to observers. The 24-member Politburo, the party’s top echelon, on Monday reviewed new rules that would apply to the various “party coordinative institutes” – organisations aimed at coordinating cross-agency policies in a specific area. Specifically, these refer to party “central commissions”... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3317101/new-communist-party-rules-hint-chinas-xi-jinping-delegating-more-power-deputies?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3317101/new-communist-party-rules-hint-chinas-xi-jinping-delegating-more-power-deputies?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 06 Jul 2025 02:00:15 +0000 Meredith Chen Meredith Chen China could draw on its innovation in advanced manufacturing to improve business – and overall – ties with the United States amid a fragile trade truce, according to a prominent American political scientist. In an interview, Robert Pape, a professor at the University of Chicago, also said China could “rise peacefully” to be the world’s leading superpower through its strength in innovation if it continued “moderate responses” to US President Donald Trump’s foreign policy – while America grappled... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3316995/could-hi-tech-china-revive-us-rust-belt-and-steady-superpower-ties?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3316995/could-hi-tech-china-revive-us-rust-belt-and-steady-superpower-ties?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 04 Jul 2025 15:00:08 +0000