ABOUT US
Founded in 2022 at the University of Chicago, the Existential Risk Laboratory (XLab) is an interdisciplinary research organization dedicated to the analysis and mitigation of risks that threaten human civilization’s long-term survival. We focus on critically under-addressed areas: AI safety, biorisk, nuclear security, and extreme climate change, recognizing the urgent need for more expertise and innovative thinking in these fields. Since these issues don’t fit neatly into pre-existing academic silos, XLab was created to serve as a coordinating locus for work on existential and global catastrophic risk on the UChicago campus, bringing together scholars from across the academy. We support direct research and provide a venue for students to build expertise in our focus areas.
The legacy of existential risk work at the University of Chicago dates back to Enrico Fermi and the world’s first nuclear chain reaction under the historic Stagg Field. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists—the creator of the well-known Doomsday Clock—was originally founded in 1945 by UChicago scientists from the Manhattan Project who were concerned about the emerging dangers. XLab was founded in the same spirit of concern and commitment to mitigating the great threats of our time.
Slider Images:
(1) Scientists from the University of Chicago’s Metallurgical Laboratory, a Manhattan Project Site. Photo courtesy of Special Collections Research Center at the University of Chicago. (2) Worker standing next to an early experimental nuclear reactor (PILE-1) built here at the University of Chicago. Photo courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration. (3) Photo of Henry Moore’s sculpture “Nuclear Energy” on campus where the first sustained nuclear reaction occurred in 1942. Photo by Tom Rossiter. (4) 2023 Doomsday Clock Announcement. Photo by Jamie Christiani/Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
MEET OUR TEAM
DANIEL HOLZ
Director
Daniel Holz is the founding director of XLab. A professor at the University of Chicago in the Departments of Physics, Astronomy & Astrophysics, the Enrico Fermi Institute, and the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, Holz is a member of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) collaboration and researches black holes, gravitational waves, and cosmology. He has received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, a Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, and as a member of LIGO received the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics and the Gruber Prize. He was selected as a Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences and is an APS Fellow. Holz is Chair of the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and in this role helps set the time of the Doomsday Clock.
ZACHARY RUDOLPH
Deputy Director
Zachary Rudolph is the founding deputy director of XLab. He holds a Master of Public Policy from the University of Chicago Harris School where he focused on AI governance, security studies, and management. He also holds a BA in Mathematics and Philosophy from Amherst College where he founded a One for the World chapter and organized events on impactful careers.
OKSANA VICKERS
Student Associate
Oksana Vickers is a fourth year undergraduate at the University of Chicago studying Political Science and Russian/Eastern European Studies. Her work focuses on tactical nuclear weapons and their relevance to modern strategic planning and 21st century security. She initially joined the XLab team as a summer research fellow in 2023, and has now joined the team for the academic year.
RHEA KANUPARTHI
Student Research Associate
Rhea Kanuparthi is a second year undergraduate at the University of Chicago studying Political Science and Mathematics. Her research focuses on the impacts of emerging technology on nuclear strategy and shifts in crisis dynamics in South Asia. She has worked with XLab since January of 2024, and was a summer research fellow in 2024.
MADELINE BERZAK
Nuclear Program Lead
Madeline Berzak manages the nuclear risk program at XLab. She holds a Masters in Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, where she worked for two years at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies on open-source intelligence contracts regarding North Korea’s nuclear and munitions programs. She also holds a BA in political science and public policy from American University.
FACULTY ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Luis Bettencourt
Professor of Ecology and Evolution; Director, Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation
Ethan Bueno de Mesquita
Dean and Sydney Stein Professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy
Lawrence A. Kimpton Distinguished Service Professor of History, South Asian Languages and Civilizations and the College
Professor and previous Chair, Department of the Geophysical Sciences
Professor of Anthropology and of Social Sciences in the College
Professor of Sociology; Director, Knowledge Lab; Faculty Director, Masters Program in Computational Social Science
Milton Friedman Distinguished Service Professor in Economics, the College, and the Harris School; Director, Becker Friedman Institute and EPIC
Professor, Department of Cinema and Media Studies, English Language and Literature, the College, and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology; Program Director, Media Arts and Design Major
Professor and Founding Faculty Director, Climate Systems Engineering Initiative
John U. Nef Distinguished Service Professor at the Committee on Social Thought and in the Department of Philosophy
Joseph Masco
Professor of Anthropology and of Social Sciences in the College
Dean of the Divinity School; Caroline E. Haskell Professor of the History of Judaism, Islamic Studies, and the History of Religions
William E. Wrather Distinguished Service Professor, Departments of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Physics, Enrico Fermi Institute, and the College; previous: Director, Argonne National Laboratory; founding Co-director, Energy Policy Institute
Assistant Professor of Statistics and Data Science
Walter J. Blum Professor of Law; Senior Fellow, the Computation Institute of the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory
Professor of Statistics and Computer Science; Director of AI, Data Science Institute; Faculty Lead, Schmidt AI+Science Postdoctoral Fellowship
Robert C. McCormack Distinguished Service Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance, Booth School of Business; Director, George J. Stigler Center
OUR WORK IS SUPPORTED BY:
