ABOUT US
A coordinating locus for existential risk research.
Bringing scholars from across the academy together on the risks that could shape civilization's future.
OUR STORY
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 to support direct research and provide a venue for students to build expertise.
SINCE 1942
A legacy dating to Stagg Field.
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 — creator of the Doomsday Clock — was 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.
Meet Our Team
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.
Daniel Holz
Director
Zephaniah is a founding member of the AI Safety Student Team at UChicago. Zephaniah co-founded Second Look Research this year and will act as the program director and a research manager.
Zephaniah Roe
Second Look Director
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.
Madeline Berzak
Director, Nuclear Risk
Rhea Kanuparthi is an undergraduate at the University of Chicago studying Political Science and Mathematics. Her research focuses on the impacts of emerging technology on international security, focusing particularly on nuclear and AI strategy. She was an XLab Summer Research Fellow in 2024.
Rhea Kanuparthi
Emerging Tech Research Lead
Madeleine is an undergraduate at the University of Chicago studying Economics and Cognitive Science. She supports XLab’s research programming and operations across the lab’s core focus areas.
Madeleine Hoffman
Chief of Staff
Alice is an undergraduate at the University of Chicago studying Business Economics and HIPS (History & Philosophy of Science). She supports operations and strategy at XLab, securing physical workspaces and planning for XLab’s future events.
Alice Cai
Operations
Faculty Advisory Committee
Scholars from across the academy who guide XLab's research direction.
Professor of Ecology and Evolution; Director, Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation
Dean and Sydney Stein Professor, Harris School of Public Policy
Lawrence A. Kimpton Distinguished Service Professor of History
Professor, Department of the Geophysical Sciences
Professor of Anthropology and of Social Sciences
Professor of Sociology; Director, Knowledge Lab
Milton Friedman Distinguished Service Professor in Economics
Professor, Cinema and Media Studies; Program Director, Media Arts and Design
Professor and Founding Faculty Director, Climate Systems Engineering Initiative
Professor of Anthropology and of Social Sciences
Dean of the Divinity School
William E. Wrather Distinguished Service Professor
Assistant Professor of Statistics and Data Science
Walter J. Blum Professor of Law
Professor of Statistics and Computer Science; Director of AI, Data Science Institute
Robert C. McCormack Distinguished Service Professor, Booth School of Business
