UChicago News

Playwright Martyna Majok, AB’07, wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama

Tue, 17 Apr 2018 12:44 -0500

Editor’s note: Playwright Martyna Majok, AB’07, was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play, Cost of Living. In the award, the play is described as “an honest, original work that invites audiences to examine diverse perceptions of privilege and human connection through two pairs of mismatched individuals.” The play appeared Off-Broadway in 2017 and was called ‘immensely haunting’ by The New York Times.

The Polish-born Majok spoke with UChicago News in 2014 about another of her works, a comedy entitled Ironbound that appeared at the Steppenwolf Theatre, as well as her experience as a performer and playwright while at the University. The original story appears below:

Martyna Majok’s “Ironbound” is the story of the relationship between Darja, a struggling Polish immigrant, and three very different men. The play, she says, was inspired by the work of Marxist theorist Slavoj Zizek.

It’s also a comedy.

Despite its weighty subject matter, the last thing Majok wants is “for the audience to sit there for the next hour and a half thinking this is just drama. You have to give them permission to laugh.”

“Ironbound” emerged as Majok was preparing to marry her then-fiancé and reflecting on “who has the privilege to marry for love.” Both Majok and her husband grew up poor and chose to pursue careers in the arts. Majok says they feared they would never have economic security. “We know how hard it is to get out of a cycle of poverty.”

She began to reflect on the romantic choices made by her mother—like Darja, a working-class immigrant from Poland.

“She would make what ended up being the wrong decisions for all the right reasons, trying to do the best thing that she could for her children and for herself,” Majok explains.

Around the same time, Majok was reading Zizek’s Violence during long commutes between a residency and teaching position at a theater in New Jersey and Connecticut, where her fiancé was in graduate school. “What I took away from that is that capitalism makes us treat each other as commodities,” she says. “‘What can you do for me, what can I do for you’ doesn’t exactly equal love.”

With Zizek’s writing, her mother’s experience, and her own impending marriage all simmering in her head, Majok dashed off the first draft of “Ironbound” in just a week. The play follows Darja over 22 years, depicting her at different points in her three marriages and showing her fierce struggle to survive and provide security for her son.

After two workshop productions, she submitted “Ironbound” to Steppenwolf at the suggestion of the company’s literary manager, who had mentored Majok during an internship after college.

“Part of our deal was that if I came to Chicago, I had to bring him Polish food, so I just brought him three pounds of kielbasa and some pierogi. Hopefully he liked it. I haven’t heard back from him, so maybe it was too much,” Majok jokes.

Becoming a playwright was never Majok’s plan, although she always showed a flair for writing. She didn’t see her first play until high school, when she won $45 playing pool and decided to treat herself to a production of “Cabaret” on Broadway.

As a University of Chicago undergraduate, she tried out for a play and fell in love with the strong bonds she created with her castmates. “I loved the communities that you form—these little ridiculous, inside joke-y families,” she says.

Her love of theater flourished as she studied with David Bevington and Nick Rudall at UChicago. She delved into playwriting during a quarter studying abroad in Paris.

She describes her first play as “the 22-year-old play that you write about your family. It was a super dark and ungenerous and emo play.” University Theater ultimately produced the piece, and Majok decided she wanted to make playwriting a career.

“It’s the thing that I found challenging and exciting and I felt it had worth,” she explains. “Leaving some sort of permanence was attractive.”

Supported by a fellowship from the Merage Foundation for the American Dream, Majok spent the first two years after graduating from UChicago immersing herself in the theater community by watching, studying, reading and writing as many plays as she could. She went on to study playwriting at the Yale School of Drama.

Over time, she says, she’s worked to make her plays funnier and less self-serious than her earlier efforts, and to write rich, complex female characters. “Women with strong appetites and flaws—I would like to see these women on stage, and if I were an actor, I would want to play these women who go after something hungrily,” she says.

Her next project focuses on the women and families that continued to live near Chernobyl after the nuclear disaster, despite the risks to their health and safety.

Even when tackling the weighty topic of Chernobyl, Majok’s darkly comedic sensibility still shines through. “It’s a musical,” she says.

UChicago names recipients of Diversity Leadership Awards

Tue, 09 Jan 2018 10:55 -0600

Advocating for the concerns of those whose voices aren't heard is a hallmark of diversity leadership. The University of Chicago’s 2018 Diversity Leadership Award recipients have dedicated their lives to helping support underrepresented communities: Faculty member Randolph N. Stone, alumna Sunny Fischer and staff member Scott Cook have their own areas of public service interests, but are united in their passion for equality and justice.

Regina Dixon-Reeves, assistant vice provost for diversity and inclusion, praised the commitment of this year’s awardees, who will be honored Jan. 16 during the University’s annual MLK commemoration. “We are extremely proud of this year’s recipients as their collective years of work and sustained engagement in support of marginalized populations demonstrates the inclusive excellence valued by the University of Chicago.”

Defending all communities

A lifelong advocate for the underrepresented, Clinical Professor of Law Randolph N. Stone is dedicated to supporting and representing disadvantaged individuals and groups in the Chicago area. As founder of the Criminal Juvenile Justice Project, he works with law and social work students to defend children and young adults who have been charged with criminal behavior, reform juvenile and criminal law policies, and improve the criminal justice system. He continues his child advocacy as a board member of the Youth Advocate Programs, Inc. and the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice.

“We started the CJP because we wanted to help stop the movement to criminalize African-American children,” Stone said. “Illinois was a leader in transferring children out of juvenile court to the adult criminal court by curtailing judicial discretion, lowering the age of transfer, and increasing the number and types of crimes for transfer. Moving forward, we want to continue to help children and young adults be treated with compassion and fairness.”

In addition to working on programs devoted to fair child sentencing policies, Stone also serves on the advisory board of the Federal Defender Program and served on Chicago’s Police Accountability Task Force. Throughout his career Stone has mentored hundreds of minority students, chaired the American Bar Association’s criminal justice section and served as the public defender of Cook County, where he helped increase the number of minority and women lawyers hired to the office while improving the quality of representation.

Confronting stereotypes

Sunny Fischer, AM’82, has worked as a teacher, social worker and executive in philanthropy. After earning her master’s degree at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration, she went on to work with abused women in the community. Learning how women-focused organizations were under-resourced, she helped start the women’s funding movement, serving as executive director of The Sophia Fund, the first private women’s foundation solely devoted to women’s issues. She also co-founded the Chicago Foundation for Women, and had leadership roles in the Women’s Funding Network and Chicago Women in Philanthropy.

Later in her career, Fischer served as executive director of the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, where she focused on historic preservation, the arts, and architecture and design, especially in low-income neighborhoods. While at the foundation, Fischer helped start a public housing museum in Chicago. Fischer was enthusiastic about this opportunity, as it combines her commitment to social justice and the arts, and it challenges stereotypes of public housing residents and the role of public housing.

After 10 years of exhibits and programs as a “museum in the streets,” the National Public Housing Museum is expected to open in 2019 in its own building in Chicago. A former resident of public housing, Fischer knows how damaging stereotypes can be, and she hopes that the museum will raise important questions about race and poverty, and the true meaning of “home.”

Fischer reflects on her perseverance: “These years of labor have been worth it,” she said. “If you believe in social justice and that art and culture can bring deeper understanding and can be a call to action, then the belief is motivation enough.”

Bridging political and social gaps

A clinical psychologist who spent much of his life working to improve health care services for minority populations, Scott Cook works at the University of Chicago Medical Center and Biological Sciences Division to help achieve culturally competent health care and reducing health care disparities across all communities.

“Health care disparities are immediate for me because the physical and emotional suffering that they create harm the people that I love the most in this world—my family, community and friends,” said Cook, who is a quality improvement and clinical transformation strategist. “I try to use the power afforded to me by my privileged identities to address these problems and the problems of others in groups that I may not belong to.”

Cook also serves as the deputy director of Finding Answers: Solving Disparities Through Payment and Delivery System Reform, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation geared toward identifying and reducing health care inequities. Throughout his career, Cook has worked with underrepresented communities in rural Missouri, as an intern at Chicago Cook County Stroger Hospital and at the Howard Brown Health Center. At Howard Brown, Cook worked directly with the LGBTQ community to create health care programs and interventions, including a smoking cessation public health campaign.

At these organizations Cook said he “learned so much about how bias, discrimination and oppression play out in people’s lives and damage their health and well-being.” Cook uses this knowledge along with personal experiences to continue working toward health care equality.

University honors alumni for exceptional professional achievements

Fri, 27 Oct 2017 12:01 -0500

The University of Chicago Alumni Association has announced honors for six distinguished alumni who have influenced both the University of Chicago and the global community.

The Alumni Medal recognizes achievement of an exceptional nature in any field, vocational or voluntary, covering an entire career. The Professional Achievement Awards, which the Public Service Award was merged into in 2016, recognize outstanding achievement in any professional field. The new Early Career Achievement Award recognizes alumni aged 40 or younger who have made an impact in their chosen career path.

The recipients of the Alumni Medal, Professional Achievement Awards and Early Career Achievement Award are the first to be announced in the academic year, with the recipients of the Alumni Service, Young Alumni Service and Norman Maclean Faculty Awards announced in the spring. Nominations for all alumni awards are accepted year-round.

Alumni Medal

Rochus “Robbie” Vogt, SM’57, PhD’61, is the R. Stanton Avery Distinguished Service Professor and Professor of Physics Emeritus at the California Institute of Technology. Since 1962, he has served as chair of the faculty, vice president, provost and other positions at Caltech. His research has focused on astrophysical aspects of cosmic radiation, gamma-ray astronomy and gravitational wave astronomy.

Vogt received the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal for his work as a principal investigator on the Voyager mission, and was chief scientist at Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1977–78. He led the construction of Caltech’s Owens Valley Radio Observatory’s mm-wave interferometer, had a lead role in bringing about the Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, and served as vice chair of the board of directors of the California Association for Research in Astronomy. From 1987 to 1994 he served as the director and principal investigator of the Caltech-MIT Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory project, becoming a co-recipient of the 2016 Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.

Professional Achievement Award

Mikel Arriola, LLM’06, was appointed general director of the Mexican Institute of Social Security in February 2016 by the president of Mexico, a position he currently holds. His professional career developed mainly in the public sector.

In 2002 he was appointed litigation coordinator at Banrural. From 2003 to 2005, he held several positions at Financiera Rural, including regulatory compliance manager and deputy corporate director to the general director. In 2007 he joined the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, where he served as adviser to the minister; income planning general director of the undersecretary of revenue; and, since 2009, head of the tax legislation unit of the undersecretary of revenue. In March 2011 he was appointed federal commissioner for the Protection Against Sanitary Risks of the Ministry of Health, a position in which he was ratified in December 2012.

Herminio Blanco, AM’75, PhD’78, is the president of IQOM Inteligencia Comercial, a foreign trade intelligence company, and its subsidiary, IQOM Strategic Advisors. He is also the president of the board of Arcelor-Mittal Mexico and a member of the board of directors for Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterior, CYDSA and Fibra Uno, as well as a member of the Trilateral Commission.

Blanco served as secretary of trade and industry of Mexico, undersecretary for international trade and negotiations, and chief negotiator of the North American Free Trade Agreement. He was also responsible for the negotiation of a free trade agreement with the European Union, the European Free Trade Area, various Latin American countries and Israel. Blanco also launched the process that lead to the negotiation of a free trade agreement with Japan.

Charis Eng, AB’82, PhD’86, MD’88, is the founding chair of the Genomic Medicine Institute, founding director of the Center for Personalized Genetic Healthcare, American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professor and the Hardis Endowed Chair of Cancer Genomic Medicine in the Cleveland Clinic, among other positions.

As a physician-scientist for more than 20 years, Eng has dedicated her life to patient-oriented research in genetics and genomic medicine. As founding chair of the Genomic Medicine Institute and founding director and staff physician in the Center for Personalized Genetic Healthcare, she implements evidence-based genetic- and genomics-enabled personalized health care, improving care for patients at genetic risk of disease nationally and globally. Eng is passionate about training and mentoring the next generation of physician-scientists, PhD clinical researchers and health care leaders and has founded a unique fellowship training program in cancer genomic medicine. She advocates for women and minorities in medicine and science and is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.

Santa J. Ono, AB’84, is the president and vice chancellor of the University of British Columbia. As a professor of medicine and biology, Ono has worked at Harvard, Johns Hopkins, University College London and Emory University. He was inducted into Johns Hopkins’ Society of Scholars, which honors former faculty who have gained distinction in their fields, in 2015, and into the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences as a fellow in 2017. Ono’s research encompasses the immune system, eye inflammation and age-related macular degeneration—a leading cause of blindness.

As a university administrator, Ono is known for his vision beyond the laboratory. He was the first Asian-American president of the University of Cincinnati when he was appointed in 2012, having previously served as provost and senior vice president for academic affairs. Prior to that, he was senior vice provost and deputy to the provost at Emory University.

Early Career Achievement Award

Megan Driscoll, AB’02, is a strategic media and communications professional with nearly 16 years of experience in health care, aesthetics and dermatology. Driscoll has cultivated relationships with physicians, consumers, key opinion leaders and tastemakers to achieve national recognition for her clients.

Driscoll has worked with Medicis, Rita Hazan, IT Cosmetics, Tria Beauty, Clarisonic, Viviscal, AstraZeneca and Roche. Previously, she served as president of Behrman Communications and held senior roles at Emanate, Lippe Taylor, FleishmanHillard and Euro RSCG Life. As founder and CEO of EvolveMKD, her public relations agency, Driscoll provides day-to-day client counsel, strategic direction and insights.

Alumnus and activist Rami Nashashibi wins MacArthur grant

Wed, 11 Oct 2017 15:00 -0500

Chicago social justice activist Rami Nashashibi, AM’98, PhD’11, was announced on Oct. 11 as one of the 24 winners of a prestigious MacArthur Foundation grant.

In its citation, the foundation honored Nashashibi for “confronting the challenges of poverty and disinvestment in urban communities through a Muslim-led civic engagement effort that bridges race, class and religion.”

Nashashibi is the founder and executive director of Inner-City Muslim Action Network, a nonprofit agency working across religious, ethnic, generational, income and other boundaries for social justice and human dignity on Chicago’s Southwest Side. IMAN was incorporated in 1997 and now has a $3 million annual budget. It operates a free community holistic health clinic, provides job training and transitional housing for formerly incarcerated men, develops youth leadership and civic engagement skills, and incorporates arts and cultural programming to inspire growth and change.

Unlike most winners who receive a phone call, Nashashibi was actually invited to the MacArthur Foundation offices under the pretense of a meeting on criminal justice. MacArthur President Julia Stasch then informed him he had won the award.

“I think then I went into a fog,” Nashashibi said. “It was very surreal disbelief that it was really happening. But I had a range of emotions—from not quite understanding the extent of it, to feeling profoundly grateful and humbled to be even considered.”

Nashashibi said he will use the $625,000 prize for a number of projects, including increasing national awareness of IMAN as well as expanding the nonprofit to other urban centers. In the coming year, Nashashibi also is committed to making the Hajj, the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, as well as completing a longstanding project to write a book about the work he has been doing for the last 20 years.

“IMAN is very deliberate in its own ability to both be rooted in this large, broader American Muslin experience, but also broadly informed and inclusive of the many different traditions that we interact with every single day,” Nashashibi told the MacArthur Foundation. “We believe we have the possibility of being a catalytic force of igniting that passion to do this type of work in urban centers across the country.”

Graduate experience shapes community-driven approach

Nashashibi said his graduate studies at UChicago “forever shaped” his approach to community outreach, allowing him to step away from the day-to-day duties of running a nonprofit to think more critically about the “layers of community life” and to gain “a better understanding of the failures” of communities.

“It’s where I learned to embrace the discomfort that comes sometimes with social change,” he said.

Nashashibi said he enjoys engaging with leading experts and researchers at the University.

“I’ve always kept one foot in academia,” he said, frequently teaching as an adjunct at several Chicago institutions. Currently he is a visiting professor of sociology and theology at the Chicago Theological Seminary.

Omar McRoberts, UChicago associate professor of sociology and a faculty member on Nashashibi’s dissertation committee, recalled Nashashibi’s academic and community work.

“Rami Nashashibi was a brilliant graduate student who produced a remarkable dissertation on ‘ghetto cosmopolitanism,’ which explains how poor urban communities participate in broader metropolitan and global cultural currents,” McRoberts said.

“What is more remarkable is that during his time as a doctoral student,” McRoberts added, “Rami was emerging as one of the most important community organizers of his generation. Through his work with the Inner City Muslim Action Network, Rami has brought his sociological learning about urban inequality, religion and inter-group conflict and cooperation into the realm of active social change, and has made a tremendous impact.”

Nashashibi acknowledged the indelible mark his time as a UChicago graduate student made on his career.

“There are people and institutions along the last 20 years that have a had profound impact,” he said. “My time in sociology at UChicago profoundly impacted every part of my life and how I do this work.”

—This story is adapted from a 2016 UChicago News article.

Alumni and faculty recognized for distinguished service to the University

Thu, 08 Jun 2017 12:10 -0500

The alumni awards, presented by the University of Chicago Alumni Association and the Alumni Board, honor those who have shaped the world and strengthened UChicago’s global community.

The Norman Maclean Faculty Award recognizes emeritus or senior faculty for extraordinary contributions to teaching and to the student experience of life within the University community. This year’s recipient is Prof. Emeritus Peter O. Vandervoort, AB’54, SB’55, SM’56, PhD’60.

The Alumni Service Awards recognize the achievements of individuals working on behalf of the University through service in alumni programs, on advisory committees and through efforts made to ensure the welfare of the institution. The Young Alumni Service Awards acknowledge and encourage service to the University by alumni aged 35 and younger.

Nominations for the Professional Achievement Awards, which recognize outstanding alumni contributions to their vocational fields, are due June 16. Nominations for all Alumni Association award categories are received year-round and can be submitted online.

2017 Norman Maclean Faculty Award winner

Peter O. Vandervoort, AB’54, SB’55, SM’56, PhD’60, is a professor emeritus in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, a position he has held since his retirement in 2003. Starting in 1961 and continuing to today, he has taught and individually guided many generations of undergraduates, graduate students, postdocs and junior colleagues.

Vandervoort served as acting dean for the Division of the Physical Sciences, master of the Physical Sciences Collegiate Division, associate dean of the Division of the Physical Sciences and of the College, and associate chairman of the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics.

2017 Alumni Service Award winners

Vincenzo Barbetta, AB’99, MBA’05, is a founding member and former president of the LGBT Alumni Network. Barbetta strengthened bonds among LGBT alumni and between those alumni and the University. In cooperation with the board of directors and steering committee, he pioneered several aspects of the chapter model now used to organize affinity groups nationally and globally. His aim was to have alumni remain connected to the academic work happening on campus and ensure that the group had a social mission.

Barbetta currently serves as the LGBT Alumni Network’s metro chair in San Francisco. From 2003 to 2010, he volunteered for the Alumni Club of Chicago in leadership roles including treasurer and vice president. He received the Dean’s Award of Distinction in 2005 upon his graduation from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Sean Singleton, MBA’08, is president of the University of Chicago Military Affinity Group and has led efforts to foster awareness and institutional support for veterans across the University community. His leadership has helped current students and alumni to connect their military service to their education, helping the University community understand the training and skill sets of its students and military-affiliated alumni.

Singleton also has given his time and talent to Chicago Booth as a judge for its Volunteer Leadership Program, presented a webinar for Alumni Career Programs titled “Navigating Career Transition for Military Personnel, and traveled to New York to sit on a panel during Volunteer Caucus.

2017 Young Alumni Service Award winners

Joe Anzalone, AB’04, is the president of the Alumni Club of Virginia. As an alumni volunteer, Anzalone began addressing questions and opportunities to reach unengaged alumni populations and help the Alumni Association meet its major engagement goals. His grassroots efforts toward building the Alumni Club of Virginia soon evolved into recruiting a diverse group of board members representing different regions, degrees, class years and industries.

Before his tenure as president of the Alumni Club of Virginia, Anzalone volunteered for the Alumni Club of Washington, D.C., serving as program chair and vice president. Additionally, he has held leadership roles for Phoenixphest DC and Participate Chicago, and has supported the alumni efforts of the Alumni Law Society and the Institute of Politics.

Jennifer Glickel, AB’08, has held various leadership roles as a board member of the Alumni Club of NYC over the past nine years, including Phoenixphest co-chair, programming committee co-chair, and most recently, engagement and outreach co-chair. She is a strong advocate for UChicago alumni and is credited with recruiting many of the current volunteers in the region.

Before graduation, Glickel was a leader with the Senior Class Gift Committee. She has since also acted as a leader for her class reunions, promoting alumni spirit and participation as co-chair for the Participate NYC events.

Tyehimba Jess, AB’91, wins Pulitzer Prize in Poetry

Tue, 11 Apr 2017 13:30 -0500

Tyehimba Jess, AB’91, has won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for Olio, his collection of original verse.

Jess’ poems examine the lives of African-American performers from the Civil War up to World War I, revealing the history of America’s blues, work songs and church hymns. Jess was praised by the Pulitzer committee “for a distinctive work that melds performance art with the deeper art of poetry to explore collective memory and challenge contemporary notions of race and identity.”

A native of Detroit, Jess studied public policy while at UChicago and received his MFA from New York University. Jess is currently the poetry and fiction editor of African American Review and is an associate professor of English at the College of Staten Island.

This is Jess’ second book of poetry. His first, leadbelly, received the 2004 National Poetry Series award. Jess read from Olio this past December at the Seminary Co-op Bookstore.

Prof. Thomas Gajewski honored for pioneering cancer research

Fri, 03 Feb 2017 16:37 -0600

The National Cancer Institute, a branch of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded an Outstanding Investigator Award to Prof. Thomas Gajewski. The award supports scientists who demonstrate remarkable productivity in cancer research and guarantees $600,000 in direct costs per year for seven years.

Gajewski, professor in medicine and the Ben May Cancer Institute and director of the immunology and cancer program at the University of Chicago Medicine, is a pioneer in the field of cancer immunotherapy, one of the most promising approaches to cancer treatment in decades.

Cancer immunotherapy exploits the power and specificity of the immune system to fight cancer. First tested in melanoma, immunotherapy has led to complete remissions in many cancer types, often with limited side effects.

“The Outstanding Investigator Award pulls together a number of separate but related projects from our lab and blends them into one massive, cohesive undertaking,” said Gajewski, AB’84, MD’89, PhD’91. “Such funding is necessary for our lab and many others to make continual progress toward preventing and treating cancer using the host immune system. It inspires us to be even more aggressive, to move the field forward as broadly and quickly as we can.”

By providing seven years of financial stability, these awards encourage investigators to take on long-term projects with significant potential.

“It allows funded investigators to take greater risks and be more adventurous in their research,” Gajewski said. “We can now focus entirely on doing the work and worry less about writing grant applications, making us more productive and efficient.”

Gajewski’s team studies new ways to overcome a tumor’s ability to resist immunotherapy, with a focus on drugs that help the immune system, especially T cells, gain access to tumor sites.

Their approach is multidimensional. “We have treated a large number of melanoma patients using immunotherapies,” he said, “and we now have a great deal of data about the interactions between a patient’s tumors and his or her immune system. We know who responded to treatment and who didn’t. Now we’re cataloguing genetic clues that correlate with response versus resistance. This not only should help us predict who is most likely to benefit, but more importantly identify new therapies to overcome resistance and expand efficacy.”

They are also looking at connections between the gut microbiota—the microbes that live in a patient’s digestive tract—and the immune system’s response to cancer. In 2015, Gajewski’s laboratory showed that a particular strain of bacteria in the digestive tracts of mice could stimulate the immune system to attack tumor cells. They are now refining this approach and analyzing a large cohort of human samples.

A third element is investigation of a protein complex known as STING—short for STimulator of INterferon Genes—which plays a crucial role in detecting cells in which the DNA is in the wrong place, within the cell but outside the nucleus. In 2014, Gajewski’s laboratory showed how the STING pathway signals the body’s innate immune system to attack such tumor cells. “We are now working with a small molecule drug that appears to trigger this response when injected directly into a tumor,” he said. Clinical testing is underway.

“So much of this work is collaborative,” Gajewski said. “We have a lot of faculty and trainees working together to translate these basic observations into systems we can test in the clinic. A major next step is to integrate the various components.”

Being awarded an OIA is “a significant honor and a pleasant surprise,” added Gajewski. “It celebrates and builds on a long research path, made possible by public as well as private support.”

—Story first appeared on UChicago’s Science Life blog.

Rhodes scholar to examine higher education policy in southern Africa

Mon, 28 Nov 2016 15:30 -0600

Lilian Dube, AB’15, has won a Rhodes Scholarship to study at the University of Oxford next fall. A native of Zimbabwe, Dube is the 51st student from the University of Chicago to receive the award and the second to win this year, joining Law School student Joshua Pickar.

She will pursue two master’s degrees at Oxford—one in education and the other in English—with an eye toward higher education policy and curricula in southern Africa, particularly the tensions that exist between the humanities and technical-skills education. Dube was named one of two Rhodes scholars from Zimbabwe this year, it was announced Nov. 26. She will join the Class of 2017 Rhodes Scholars, including the 32 U.S. students who were named on Nov. 19.

“Oxford has phenomenal support in both disciplines I seek to pursue,” said Dube. “I hope to give back to the education system from which I emerged.”

Dube is currently teaching high school in Hong Kong, where she has designed critical thinking and writing lessons on topics ranging from poetry to ethics.

“Lilian’s plan to integrate the humanities with the work of technical education in Zimbabwe shows great depth, reflection and insight into what humanistic study is for and what it can accomplish,” said John W. Boyer, dean of the College. “This is an example of the rich and unique perspectives that our international students bring to our curriculum, and how it can be applied after they leave the College. We commend Lilian on this great accomplishment.”

At UChicago she studied English literature, winning the Elsie F. Filippi Memorial Prize in Poetry for her thesis on violence and gender in the work of the Cuban-American artist Ana Mendieta. During her time in the College, Dube served as course assistant for a graduate linguistics class researching Northern Ndebele, one of Zimbabwe’s 16 official languages, and translated portions of Shakespeare’s The Tempest into that language. In 2012, she participated in an eight-week summer program in Ukrainian language and culture at Harvard University, and the following year she studied Renaissance literature and Russian poetry at Oxford. She was a member of the International Students Advisory Board and the African and Caribbean Students Association, and served as a resident master’s assistant for Booth-Phoenix house.

Dube would eventually like to pursue doctoral studies in education, enabling her to one day teach literature, education and writing at the university level. “I would love to mentor well-rounded African academics who have the potential to produce regionally and globally impactful scholarship,” she said, “especially among traditionally underrepresented groups.”

Dube was assisted by the College Center for Scholarly Advancement in applying for the Rhodes Scholarship. The CCSA supports undergraduates and alumni through the highly competitive application processes for national scholarships and fellowships.

Marshall scholar to explore technology’s civic potential

Mon, 28 Nov 2016 14:30 -0600

Erin Simpson, AB’15, has won a Marshall Scholarship to pursue graduate studies at the University of Oxford next fall. The highly competitive scholarships, which were announced Nov. 28, annually enable up to 40 American students to study at the graduate level in any field of their choosing.

Simpson will pursue a pair of one-year master’s degrees in science at Oxford: one in the social science of the Internet, at the Oxford Internet Institute; followed by a master’s in comparative social policy at the Department of Social Policy and Intervention. The programs will allow her to explore technology’s civic potential from both a theoretical and practical approach.

“The British are leaders in digital government,” Simpson said. “The Oxford Internet Institute is the only major academic department in the world devoted to understanding the Internet through social science.”

Simpson, who also won a Truman Scholarship in 2014, is director of programs for Civic Hall Labs in New York, a research and development nonprofit she helped start that builds technology for civic organizations and advocates for the development of more equitable technologies.

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Erin Simpson, AB'15, wins Truman Scholarship

“Erin’s vision to improve digital government services shows remarkable creativity, energy and independence,” said Dean of the College John W. Boyer. “Her focus on civic technology demonstrates the integration of academic excellence and practice that we see in the College today at its very best. We congratulate her warmly on this achievement."

Simpson said antiquated technology in both the nonprofit and government sectors “compounds the inequities already faced by low-income communities at a number of levels.” As a public policy major at UChicago, she documented that reality in her organizing work in housing foreclosure prevention and in her case studies of Chicago welfare offices and libraries.

At UChicago, she got involved in “the civic side of tech.” Through her involvement at the Institute of Politics, she cofounded the University of Chicago TechTeam, an interdisciplinary volunteer group that remade websites and digital strategy for local government and nonprofits. She served as a fellow at Microsoft in Chicago, where she worked on civic strategy, teaching open data programs and running community-sourced innovation competitions, and spent time as a research fellow at the Georgetown Law Center on Deep Poverty studying best practices in social service delivery methods.

“Now, more than ever, we need to take a more critical approach to the ways that technology is influencing our civic life,” said Simpson, who plans to pursue a career in public service. “Social inequities are being replicated and amplified through our consumer technology, and our civic institutions need greater capacity to combat that trend.”

Originally from Menomonie, Wis., Simpson grew up in a rural community where the farm established by her family four generations ago is still in operation. She is the 23rd person affiliated with the University of Chicago to win a Marshall Scholarship in the past 30 years.

Simpson received guidance and assistance in applying for the award from the College Center for Scholarly Advancement, which supports undergraduates and College alumni through the highly competitive application processes for national scholarships and fellowships.

UChicago awards recognize professional achievements of five notable alumni

Fri, 28 Oct 2016 15:30 -0500

The University of Chicago Alumni Board has selected recipients for its 2016 Professional Achievement Awards, which honor alumni whose achievements have brought distinction to themselves, credit to the University and benefit to their communities.

Recipients will be honored at a dinner on Friday, Nov. 4 at the Drake Hotel. The event is open to the University community. Online registration is required. More information is available on the event page.

Documentary filmmaker Gordon Quinn, AB’65, is a cofounder and the current artistic director of Chicago-based Kartemquin Films, best known for the basketball documentary Hoop Dreams (1994). For more than 50 years, Quinn has been making cinema verité documentaries that focus on how social forces shape real peoples’ lives. His first film, Home for Life (1966), which depicted two seniors’ first months in a home for the aged, was praised by the Chicago Sun-Times’s Roger Ebert, EX’70, as “extraordinarily moving.” Since then Quinn and Kartemquin have told stories revolving around labor strikes, natural childbirth, gentrification, African wildlife tourism, childhood autism and the Big Brother program. Kartemquin’s most recent film, Abacus: Small Enough to Jail (2016), focuses on the immigrant-owned Abacus Federal Savings, the only bank to face criminal charges in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Quinn has won two Emmys for his work, and in 2015 he was recognized with the International Documentary Association’s Career Achievement Award.

Gary Haugen, JD’91, is the founder and CEO of International Justice Mission, a global organization working to combat modern-day slavery, human trafficking and other forms of violence against the poor by rescuing and restoring victims, prosecuting perpetrators, and working with law enforcement and governments to restore broken public justice systems. Previously, Haugen was a human rights attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice, where he focused on police misconduct. In 1994, he directed the United Nations’ investigation into the Rwandan genocide, working with an international team to gather the evidence that would later be used to bring those responsible to justice. Haugen has been named a Trafficking in Persons “Hero” by the U.S. State Department, and he has written several books on global injustice and violence.

An expert on American legal history, Lawrence M. Friedman, AB’48, JD’51, LLM’53, has been on the faculty at Stanford Law School since 1968. He is known for his ability to explain legal history to lay audiences and is a leader in the Law and Society movement, a scholarly enterprise that explains legal phenomena in social terms. He is the most-cited law professor in the field of legal history and the author of many books, most recently Impact: The Effect of Law on Behavior (2016). His books History of American Law (3rd edition, 2005) and American Law in the 20th Century (2003) have become classics in legal education. He holds six honorary law degrees and is a fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

During the 26 years she spent as executive director of the Hyams Foundation, Elizabeth Smith, AM’71, provided leadership to numerous major initiatives in Boston in the areas of affordable housing, community development, childcare, after-school care, immigrant services and organizational diversity. Under her leadership, the Hyams Foundation became a major player in the fight for racial justice and equality in Boston and Chelsea, adopting an aggressive strategic plan in 2015 that places racial justice and diversity at the heart of its funding and other activities. This plan, in many ways, is a culmination of Beth’s vision for the foundation and the community in which it operates.

Pioneering dermatologist and skin biologist Eugene Van Scott, SB’45, MD’48, started his scientific career at the National Cancer Institute immediately after completing his residency in dermatology. He founded and became the first chief of the dermatology branch at NCI and, among other accomplishments, developed the first effective treatment for cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, an achievement that resulted in him receiving the Lasker Award. He’s trained many dermatologists both at NCI and in his subsequent career at Temple University. Along with his longtime collaborator, dermatopharmacologist Ruey Yu, Van Scott founded the entire science of alpha hydroxy acids. These compounds underlie hundreds of prescription and over-the-counter drugs and cosmeceuticals, and formed the basis for Van Scott and Yu’s commercial venture in these areas, NeoStrata. Among many other honors, Van Scott was named a Master in Dermatology by the American Academy of Dermatology in 1998 and received the Dermatology Foundation’s Distinguished Service Medallion in 2004.

University of Chicago Medal honors commitment of Dennis and Connie Keller

Wed, 11 Nov 2015 09:30 -0600

Over the decades, Dennis and Connie Keller’s generosity has touched many areas of the University, from the College to the Harris School of Public Policy and the Chicago Booth School of Business, to name just a few.

On Wed., Oct. 28, the Kellers received the University of Chicago Medal—one of the highest honors the institution can bestow—for their wide-ranging philanthropic support and service to the University.

Dennis, MBA’68, is a University Trustee and cofounder and retired chairman and CEO of DeVry Education Group. Connie Keller is chair of the Field Museum’s Board of Trustees, a longtime member of the University of Chicago Women’s Board, and active in numerous educational and environmental causes.

At a dinner honoring the Kellers, President Robert J. Zimmer described the couple as “truly generous of spirit. They believe that you can change the world through education,” said Zimmer, who thanked the Kellers for their “extraordinary commitment to the University of Chicago.”

The University of Chicago Medal was established in 1976 by President John T. Wilson to recognize distinguished service of the highest order to the University by an individual or individuals over an extended period. The award is conferred by the trustees of the University “to recognize rare and exceptional friends of the University.”

“Dennis’ and Connie’s impact on the University has been widely and deeply felt,” said Joseph Neubauer, MBA’65, chairman of the University’s Board of Trustees and a previous University of Chicago Medal recipient, along with his wife, Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer. “I am delighted to honor them and all that their inspiring support of the University has made possible.”

The Kellers’ first major gift to the University established the Ralph and Dorothy Keller Distinguished Service Professorship at Chicago Booth, named after Dennis Keller’s father and his mother, who entered the College in 1929 but was unable to finish for financial reasons. Keller House, in the Renee Granville-Grossman Residential Commons, is named for Dorothy Keller as well. Extending their philanthropy across campus, the Kellers have supported Odyssey Scholarships, the Urban Education Institute, Court Theatre, and the University of Chicago Medicine, among other areas of the University.

In 2014, they made a gift to the Harris School of Public Policy toward a major renovation and adaptive reuse project for the school’s future home, to be known as the Keller Center. An additional gift will help support collaborations between the business school and Chicago Harris.

The Kellers’ connection to the University reaches back to Dennis Keller’s business school days. Newly married in 1967, he was ready to develop his own entrepreneurial ideas and enrolled at what was then the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.

After graduation, Dennis took a job in marketing with Bell & Howell’s educational division, DeVry, which offered associate and bachelor’s degrees in electronics and engineering. He shared his idea with Ron Taylor, DeVry’s controller, for a business school for working people, taught by instructors from the business world.

In 1973, he and Taylor left DeVry to found what would become the Keller Graduate School of Management. The school anticipated today’s widespread executive MBA programs with features like evening and weekend classes. In 1987, Keller Graduate School acquired DeVry Institute of Technology and became DeVry Inc.

Dennis and Connie’s relationship with UChicago, meanwhile, grew as their family did. All three of their sons had wonderful experiences at UChicago, says Dennis—Jeff, IMBA’97, a member of Chicago Booth’s first international MBA class; John Templeton, or “Temp,” who graduated from the executive MBA program in 2007; and David, JD’08. Temp’s wife, Kerry H. Keller, AM’12, studied at the School of Social Service Administration.

Since Dennis Keller’s retirement in 2008, the Kellers have enjoyed spending time with their eight grandchildren. Seeing the results of their support for the University—especially when it involves students—makes them happy.

“The promise that unfolds in front of your eyes—and the chance to just be part of making that possible,” says Dennis, “brings a lot of joy.”

Former director of NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory to receive Alumni Medal from UChicago

Tue, 10 Mar 2015 16:30 -0500

The University of Chicago Alumni Association and the Alumni Board of Governors announce that leading physicist, Edward C. Stone, SM’59, PhD’64, will be awarded the Alumni Medal at the 74th Annual Alumni Awards Ceremony at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, June 6, 2015, in Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, 5850 S. Woodlawn Ave.

The Alumni Medal recognizes achievement of an exceptional nature in any field, vocational or voluntary, covering an entire career. In addition to the Alumni Medal, the University will recognize distinguished alumni and faculty members who have made exceptional contributions to the University, to their professions and to their communities, across five different categories. This year’s 14 alumni award recipients include a visionary in the media industry, a renowned mathematician, a pre-eminent psychologist and a benefactor of the arts in Chicago.

The awards ceremony, which is free and open to the public, is a highlight of the University of Chicago’s Alumni Weekend. The 2015 alumni award recipients include:

Edward C. Stone, SM’59, PhD’64, Alumni Medal
Edward C. Stone is the David Morrisroe Professor of Physics at the California Institute of Technology and vice provost for Special Projects. He was director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory from 1991 to 2001, and since 1972, he has served as the chief scientist for the Voyager Mission. From 1985 to 2009, he was a member of the Board of Directors of the California Association for Research in Astronomy, which is responsible for building and operating the W. M. Keck Observatory. Stone is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the past president of the International Academy of Astronautics and past vice president of COSPAR. He also serves on the board of the W. M. Keck Foundation. Among his numerous scientific awards and honors, Stone received the National Medal of Science in 1991.

Louis Gordon Crovitz, AB’80, Professional Achievement Award
Louis Gordon Crovitz is a visionary in the media industry at a time of rapid change. He is the former publisher of The Wall Street Journal, where he led the transformation to digital from print publishing and where he writes the weekly “Information Age” column. He is also co-founder of Press+, a software service that enables hundreds of news publishers around the world to generate digital subscription revenues.

David Eisenbud, SB’66, SM’67, PhD’70, Professional Achievement Award
David Eisenbud is a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley, and director of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute. Eisenbud’s mathematical interests range widely over commutative and non-commutative algebra, algebraic geometry, topology and computer methods. His contributions include research, mentoring students, writing influential texts and creative leadership in the mathematics community.

Paul Ekman, EX’52, Professional Achievement Award
Paul Ekman, professor emeritus in psychology at the University of California, San Francisco, is the researcher and author best known for furthering our understanding of nonverbal behavior, encompassing facial expressions and gestures. A pre-eminent psychologist and co-discoverer of micro expressions with Friesen, Haggard and Isaacs, Ekman was named by TIME Magazine in 2009 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Harvey Levin, JD’75, Professional Achievement Award
Harvey Levin is an American television producer, lawyer, legal analyst and celebrity reporter. He is the founder of entertainment news website TMZ.com. Prior to this, Levin worked in various legal roles in the entertainment industry. He has been in front of the camera as a legal reporter and host of The People’s Court.

Paul Beaver, AM’75, PhD’76, Public Service Award
Paul Beaver is a conservationist who is best known for his work in the Amazon and the protection of habitat and the social dimensions of conservation. He founded Amazonia Expeditions in 1981, one of the most respected Amazon tour companies in Peru. His company has become a vital member of the indigenous communities, constructing a clinic and school as well as creating a foundation to provide scholarships.

Howard Gottlieb, PhD’47, Public Service Award
Howard Gottlieb is general partner of Glen Eagle Partners, Ltd., a family private investment firm. He is a major contributor to the extended community in Chicago, serving on several trustee boards, and is credited for helping shape the landscape of the arts in the city. As an accomplished violinist, much of his work has focused around music.

Juri Taalman, SB’63, Public Service Award
Juri Taalman is a partner at the law firm of Brignole, Bush & Lewis, following ten years of international experience, which included serving as the American Bar Association’s liaison to the Republic of Estonia. When Estonia gained independence, Taalman was instrumental in its development of both legal and commercial structures as the special advisor to the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Estonia.

Kathleen Abbott, AB’95, Alumni Service Award
Kathleen Abbott received the Young Alumni Award in 2005 for her service to the Bay Area Alumni Cub, and has continued to be a strong leader even as she transitioned from San Francisco back to Chicago. She held many different leadership roles for the Chicago Club, and has been a great mentor to the current board members as well as students through the Student Alumni Committee.

Christopher Rupright, AB’86, Alumni Service Award
Christopher Rupright has been noted as an alumnus who leads by example, and who takes action without seeking recognition for his efforts. He and his wife have put the University at the center of their philanthropic goals and have taken a holistic approach, from interacting with prospective students, parents and peers; sitting on the Visiting Committee on the College and Student Activities and in many other ways.

Sean Ahmed, AB’06, Young Alumni Service Award
Sean Ahmed started “Go Maroons” with several classmates during their undergraduate studies. As sports editor of the Maroon newspaper, Sean was able to leverage his close ties to the athletic teams and find a way to fill a gap in delivery of information to alumni, parents and friends, who weren’t able to watch the teams on game days, through his broadcast and commentary.

Gahan Christenson, AB’03, Young Alumni Service Award
Gahan Christenson has been a consistent leader in the alumni community in the Washington area, where she is a trial attorney for the federal government. Alumni in the D.C. area look to Christenson as a source of information for all things UChicago-related, allowing for robust and innovative programming for community members.

Leo Kocher, MBA’87, Norman Maclean Faculty Award
Leo Kocher was hired in the fall of 1979 as a faculty member in the University of Chicago’s Department of Physical Education and Athletics. At UChicago he has served as an assistant football coach, taught in the Physical Education curriculum and has been the head coach of the Intercollegiate Wrestling Program for his 35 years with the University.

William C. Wimsatt, Norman Maclean Faculty Award
William C. Wimsatt is the Peter B. Ritzma Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and is on the Committee on Evolutionary Biology and the Committee on the Conceptual Foundations of Science. Wimsatt teaches and publishes work centered on the philosophy of the inexact sciences and the study of complex systems. He is recognized for his ability to help students contextualize problems that are otherwise too “messy” to be tractable within any one academic field, using an interdisciplinary lens.

Three UChicago alumni to receive Presidential Medal of Freedom

Thu, 13 Nov 2014 12:20 -0600

Three UChicago alumni—a physicist called the “queen of carbon science,” a former congresswoman who championed Title IX, and a former congressman and jurist—are among the 19 people named Nov. 10 as recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

Mildred Dresselhaus, PhD’58, a longtime professor of physics and electrical engineering at the Massachusetts of Technology; the late Patsy Takemoto Mink, JD’51, a 12-term U.S. Representative from Hawaii who was the first woman of color elected to Congress; and Abner J. Mikva, JD’51, a former federal judge, congressman and White House counsel, join a high-profile group that includes Tom Brokaw, Meryl Streep, Stephen Sondheim and Ethel Kennedy. Mink is one of six individuals receiving the medal posthumously this year.

The award, which will be presented Nov. 24 at the White House, is given to “individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.” This year’s UChicago honorees bolster the number of people with University ties who have won the honor to 14.

Dresselhaus joined the MIT faculty in 1960. She received the UChicago Alumni Association’s highest honor, the Alumni Medal, in 2008. In the course of her career, she conducted pioneering research on the science of carbon—work that served as the foundation for the lithium-ion batteries used extensively today in computers, cell phones and automobiles. She also directed the federal Office of Science under President Bill Clinton and led programs to encourage women to enter science.

“We send our sincere congratulations to Dr. Dresselhaus for receiving this prestigious honor,” said Rocky Kolb, dean of the Physical Sciences Division and the Arthur Holly Compton Distinguished Service Professor in Astronomy & Astrophysics. “She has made extraordinary contributions in both her scientific research and her service to the country. This award is a richly deserved recognition of these contributions.”

Mink, who died in 2002 at age 74, is best known for co-authoring and defending the landmark Title IX Amendment of the Higher Education Act, which prohibits gender discrimination in federally funded schools, guaranteeing woman equality in both academics and sports. As a legislator, Mink fought injustice by introducing or sponsoring the first federal child care bill and bills establishing bilingual education, student loans, special education and Head Start.

Mikva, 88, who retired from the Law School as senior director of the clinic in 2008, was a five-term congressman for Illinois, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and White House counsel for President Clinton. He also served as an Illinois state legislator and taught at the University of Chicago Law School. He is the 2014 recipient of the University of Chicago's Benton Medal for Distinguished Public Service.

Dean Michael Schill commended the Law School’s two medal recipients. “We are tremendously proud that President Obama has recognized the contributions of these two extraordinary individuals, whose tireless devotion to public service, equality and justice exemplifies ideals the Law School holds dear,” said Schill, the Harry N. Wyatt Professor of Law. “Patsy and Ab, classmates in the Law School’s illustrious class of 1951, are true examples of civic leadership. They are exceedingly worthy of this prestigious honor.”

—Adapted from a story from the University of Chicago Law School website. Read it in its entirety here.

Diversity Leadership Council adds faculty category to Diversity Leadership Awards

Tue, 21 Oct 2014 17:17 -0500

The University of Chicago’s Diversity Leadership Council is seeking nominations for the Diversity Leadership Awards it presents during the annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration in January. Since 2009 a member of the UChicago alumni community and the UChicago staff have received the award. This year, the DLC is adding a new Diversity Leadership Award to honor a member of the faculty.

“For many years, a number of University of Chicago faculty members have worked hard to promote the ideals of diversity, inclusion and equality on our campus, whether it came in the form of service to disadvantaged communities, building the pipeline of potential students or working to diversify our faculty ranks,” said William McDade, deputy provost for research and minority issues, and co-chair of the Diversity Leadership Council.

“Adding a faculty category to our Diversity Leadership Awards provides an opportunity to recognize those longstanding faculty champions who are committed to diversity issues,” said McDade.

McDade noted that the faculty award will recognize those who foster a diverse and inclusive environment both on and off the UChicago campus. “The award will honor those who believe in these values and see them as an important goal worthy of considerable time and effort.”

Past Diversity Leadership Award recipients

The accomplishments of the past award recipients vary in many ways, but all of the Diversity Leadership Award winners have enriched others’ lives and empowered people to envision success and reach their potential.

Last year, President Robert J. Zimmer bestowed awards on alumna Aida Giachello and two staff members, Kathleen Forde and Theaster Gates, who were selected in a tie for the staff honor. Each of the 2014 recipients credited the power of community building for helping them achieve their goals.

Giachello, AM’71, PhD’88, contributes to the field of public health research and has been instrumental in leading the formation of numerous local, regional and national health and human services organizations. Forde created a groundbreaking mentoring program to help students overcome career obstacles related to sexual orientation. Gates, professor in Visual Arts and the College and director of Arts and Public Life, continues to foster collaboration between the University and its neighbors on the South Side through cultural and artistic endeavors.

Nominate your diversity heroes

McDade, associate professor of anesthesiology and critical care, and associate dean for multicultural affairs at the Pritzker School of Medicine, and co-chair Sonya Malunda, senior associate vice president for community engagement, encourage students, faculty, staff and alumni to nominate someone who has shown devotion to the principles of diversity, inclusion, equality and justice.

“The University’s Diversity Leadership Council created these awards to thank the people of our community who challenge the status quo, and who think critically and creatively about how to bring about change where it’s needed and opportunity for everyone.

“With each new year that we honor the top diversity leaders from within our community, we hope that their dedication to lifting up others will be emulated by a younger generation, who in turn will pass on those same principles to the next generation.”

The Diversity Leadership Council is a group of senior administrators from a broad cross-section of the University. Formed by President Robert J. Zimmer in 2007, the council gives the awards annually.

All UChicago community members may submit nominations for the University's 2015 Diversity Leadership Awards. A nomination form may be completed through the Nov. 14 deadline.

President Zimmer and the DLC will present the 2015 Diversity Leadership Awards to the recipients on Jan. 15, 2015, in conjunction with the annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration. Descriptions of the award and the nomination process are provided on the Diversity and Inclusion website.

Diversity Leadership Council selects three recipients of 2014 diversity awards

Thu, 19 Dec 2013 11:43 -0600

Aida Giachello, AM’71, PhD’88, obtained skills at the University of Chicago that she uses to contribute to the field of public health research and ensure its relevance to populations studied. UChicago staff member Kathleen Forde created a groundbreaking mentoring program to help students overcome career obstacles related to sexual orientation, while staff member Theaster Gates utilized his dual talents as an internationally acclaimed artist and urban planner to build avenues of creative exchange between the University community and its surrounding South Side neighbors.

Giachello, Forde and Gates are recipients of the University of Chicago 2014 Diversity Leadership Awards, which recognize alumni and staff leadership in fostering diversity and advancing justice and equality on campus, within the surrounding community and beyond those boundaries. Each of this year’s recipients credits the power of community building for their accomplishments.

Bringing social justice to Latino community

Giachello, who will receive the Diversity Leadership Alumni Award, enrolled in the master’s program at the School of Social Service Administration after moving to Chicago from Puerto Rico in the 1960s. She said a “critical cadre” of mentors and fellow students in the school’s community organizing program—set against the backdrop of the blossoming civil rights movements in the United States—cemented her commitment to social justice issues.

Currently a professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, Giachello has been named “One of 25 of the Most Influential Latinos in America” by Time magazine in 2005 and received an Inspire Award from the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) in 2010 for her career-long quest for social justice.

She played leading roles in the formation of numerous health and human services organizations locally, regionally and nationally. These include the Hispanic Health Alliance, the Midwest Hispanic AIDS Coalition, the National Latino Council on Alcohol and Tobacco Prevention and Control, and the National Latino Institute for Reproductive Health, among others.

“It was at the University of Chicago where I began to understand the importance of really working with the community in terms of reshaping and addressing the kinds of issues that affect residents,” Giachello said. “I trained at the University of Chicago as an organizer and engaged in mobilizing communities and understanding social policy and community structure.” That engagement, said Giachello, was instrumental in the pursuit of her non-traditional research track of engaging in community partnerships and community capacity-building, so residents and leaders could be equal partners in the collection and use of data for social action.

These experiences, combined with research methodologies and theoretical frameworks she studied while pursuing her PhD in sociology at UChicago, would later inform her development of a new research approach now known as Community-Based Participatory Action Research, after she founded the University of Illinois-Chicago’s Midwest Latino Health Research, Training and Policy Center. CPAR transformed the health and human services research field with its emphasis on engaging the community in assessing the social determinants of health, participating in data collection, analysis and dissemination, with the end goal of solving community problems and engaging in policy work as the result of research findings.

Efforts bring mentors, health insurance to LGBTQ community

Forde, an assistant dean of students, used her wide community network of LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer) faculty, staff and alumni to help create a nation-leading mentoring program that matches students with someone to turn to for advice as they make the transition through college to adulthood and, often, a new identity. She first began building these connections on campus as a newly hired academic adviser in the early 1990s after joining a committee that successfully lobbied for domestic partnership benefits for the lesbian and gay community at UChicago.

The policy change, adopted in 1992, is often credited for contributing to the same-sex marriage rights movement undergoing watershed moments today. “Other institutions were giving domestic partnership benefits, but in a very limited way, such as allowing people to sign up their partner for gym memberships or library privileges. We had been looking for something much more comprehensive—namely, health insurance,” Forde said. “I like to say that the University of Chicago may not always do things first, but when we do things we do them right. So, we were actually the first institution to grant same-sex partner benefits, including health insurance.”

But Forde’s true legacy at UChicago lies in the mentoring program, which she co-founded with Jim Howley, a graduate career counselor at the University, and Anne Pizzi, former president of the student organization Queers & Associates. While the program started in 2001 with more than a dozen students and mentors, the program quickly grew to include as many as 100 participants annually.

Forde is a natural mentor and “a friendly, welcoming presence for everyone she encounters,” said Dena van der Wal, AB’96, one of Forde’s nominators. “Kathy connected me with my first job after graduation, a great position with a lesbian-owned software company that helped me develop as a designer,” said van der Wal, now a senior site developer at the University of Chicago.

Another one of the Forde’s nominators, Michael Yarbrough, AB’01, an assistant professor of law and society at John Jay College, said Forde’s mentoring strongly influenced his life. After coming out while enrolled at UChicago, Yarbrough’s father cut off financial support for his education and he was forced to withdraw. (They have since reconciled.) Forde connected Yarbrough with an LGBTQ activist program that paid him to work on Congressional campaigns, after which he spent another three years working on Capitol Hill before returning to UChicago to finish his degree, then able to access financial aid to replace his father’s support.

“Kathy saw me through a successful completion of my bachelor's degree, and I have since gone on to complete a JD and a PhD at Yale, where I did research on LGBTQ people’s and rural women’s rights in South Africa," Yarbrough said. At John Jay College, Yarbrough teaches a heavily working-class, black, Latino and immigrant student body. “Without Kathy, I might not now have any career at all, much less one so focused, like Kathy’s, on issues of inclusion and social justice,” Yarbrough said.

In addition to the mentoring program, Forde also has helped establish the 5710 diversity center, which houses the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs and LGBTQ Student Life. She also has served on the Point Foundation National LGBTQ Scholarship Fund’s Mentoring Subcommittee and as a mentor to University of Chicago Point Scholars. She credits relationships formed as a result of reaching out to the community not only as an activist, but as a volunteer, for having readily available connections to help guide students as they navigate what they might view as uncertain futures. She volunteers regularly in the community, having served on the board of her local YMCA, for example, and includes a volunteer requirement in the mentoring program.

Yarbrough said UChicago’s five-star ”premier” rating in the LGBT-Friendly Campus Climate Index, run by the national organization Campus Pride, is largely is a result of Forde’s efforts. “The strength of diversity is its capacity to bind and enrich communities, and community is the value that drives all of Kathy's efforts both at UChicago and in her non-professional life,” he said.

Opening dialogue between University scholars and South Side artists

This year’s other recipient of a Diversity Leadership Staff Award, Theaster Gates, credits community building for enabling his groundbreaking work as the University of Chicago’s Director of the Arts and Public Life Initiative, a multifaceted effort to foster collaboration and conversation between the University and the civic, cultural and artistic communities of Chicago, with a focus on the South Side.

As part of the initiative, Gates spearheaded the opening of the Washington Park Arts Incubator in March 2013. The facility, located on what was long considered a “dead” corner at 55th and Prairie Street, provides 10,000 square feet of dedicated studio space for artists to grow professionally and build creative connections with the surrounding community.

Prof. Larry Norman, former deputy provost for the arts, said he nominated Gates for a Diversity Leadership Staff Award because of contributions from his current post, in his previous appointment as a community arts liaison in the Humanities Division, and in his many community enrichment projects outside of academia, such as the non-profit Rebuild Foundation that Gates established.

“Through his uncanny ability to connect with an astonishing array of people, Theaster has created wide and reciprocal avenues of exchange between the campus and its neighbors,” Norman said. “On one side, he has worked with a gamut of faculty members from the Humanities and Social Sciences, connecting their research concerns (in art history, studio arts, music, literature, cinema and media, social and cultural history, and political science) to organizations and individuals on the South Side with shared interests.

“Indeed, his ability to create open and productive dialogues between scholars and South Side artists and cultural leaders has helped the University considerably in its efforts aimed at diversifying faculty in these domains,” Norman said.

“On the other side, he has been an untiring advocate for these South Side communities and has been remarkably effective in providing them access to the University in order to further their creative work. He has notably worked closely with the Executive Director of the Logan Center of the Arts, Bill Michel, in leading the efforts to make the new center a powerful resource for the diverse artistic and performing organizations active in the neighborhoods just beyond campus.”

Norman said Gates, who has exhibited at the Whitney Biennial, London's White Cube, the Venice Bieannale and other prestigious venues, could easily devote himself entirely to his highly successful career as an artist of international fame. But Gates said the work he does in the community he lives in, and that he does through the University, helps to inform his artistic work—and visa versa.

“I’d suggest that art and culture have a way of fostering sincere cross-class, cross-racial, intergenerational moments,” Gates said. “Without having to make it my principal agenda, but just by celebrating people’s lives, diversity has been a byproduct of a deeply engaged commitment to culture.”

The 2014 Diversity Leadership Awards will be presented during a special presidential reception on campus on Jan. 15, 2014, in conjunction with the University’s celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.’s life.

UChicago fourth-year Samuel Greene wins Rhodes Scholarship

Sun, 24 Nov 2013 08:22 -0600

Samuel Greene, a fourth-year chemistry student in the College, has won a Rhodes Scholarship to continue his studies at the University of Oxford next fall. Greene is one of 32 American students to win the prestigious scholarship this year, and the 49th student at the University of Chicago to earn the scholarship.

“We are enormously proud of the intellectual leadership and creativity of students in the College, and Sam’s outstanding achievement is a testament to those qualities,” said John W. Boyer, dean of the College. “I am extremely happy that Sam will have the chance to continue developing the innovative and highly original scientific work that he began at the College.”

Greene, who also won a prestigious Goldwater Fellowship last year for students in the sciences, has done research at UChicago on the feasibility of converting organic material to biofuel. He said the opportunity to study with the chemists at Oxford will be of great benefit to his own environmental interests. The Rhodes Trust will pay all his expenses to pursue a research-based D.Phil. in physical chemistry.

“They are conducting fundamental research at Oxford with applications to my interest in developing renewable energy technologies,” he said. “I’m very excited to have the opportunity to study these issues in an international context.”

Greene spent last summer tracking the methane emissions of lakes in Alaska, and is writing an MS thesis on his findings. He plans to eventually pursue a PhD in computational physical chemistry, in the hopes of conducting research into the development of renewable energy technologies. This fall, he has worked as a teaching assistant for Prof. David Archer's online course on climate change. Greene also plans to engage in public outreach about climate change.

This year’s list of Rhodes Scholars was announced late Saturday, Nov. 23, immediately following the candidates’ final interviews. In the announcement, Elliot F. Gerson, American Secretary of the Rhodes Trust, described the scholarship as "the oldest and best known award for international study, and arguably the most famous academic award available to American college graduates.”

Greene interviewed for the Rhodes Scholarship in Chicago, for the district that encompasses his hometown of Spring Green, Wisconsin. He said he is still in shock that he won, and is grateful for the help he received from the College in applying.

A growing number of students in the College compete for prestigious fellowships, with extensive support from College faculty and staff members, including Kyle Mox, director of Scholarships and Fellowships in the College. Mox worked with Greene and the College’s other Rhodes finalists on their application materials and helped them prepare for their interviews. Many advisors guide students through the fellowship application process, including helping them with recommendations from faculty members and offering feedback on drafts of application essays.

Greene said the Rhodes application process was demanding, but it ultimately helped him clarify and refine his own goals.

“Kyle Mox and all my faculty advisors have been an indispensible resource,” Greene said.

Economics Nobel awarded to Eugene F. Fama and Lars Peter Hansen

Mon, 14 Oct 2013 10:42 -0500

University of Chicago professors Eugene F. Fama and Lars Peter Hansen have been awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2013.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences honored Fama and Hansen, along with Robert J. Shiller of Yale University, “for their empirical analysis of asset prices.” This research helps to explain how and why the prices of stocks and bonds change over time. Fama’s work demonstrated that new information is very quickly incorporated into the market, making it difficult to predict short-term changes in asset prices. Hansen developed a statistical method for testing rational theories of asset pricing like those advanced by Fama and Shiller.

"In their work, Gene Fama and Lars Hansen have demonstrated the University's mission to address the complex challenges facing society with innovative scholarship. In doing so, they have helped shape the study of economics and the nature of today's financial markets. We are very gratified to see those accomplishments recognized internationally, and proud to count them among the Nobel laureates at the University of Chicago,” said Robert J. Zimmer, president of the University of Chicago.

Fama is the Robert R. McCormick Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business; Hansen is the David Rockefeller Distinguished Service Professor in Economics, Statistics, and the College, and is research director of the Becker Friedman Institute for Research in Economics. They are among the 89 scholars associated with the University to receive Nobels, and among the 28 who have received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics. In addition to Fama and Hansen, four current faculty members are Nobel laureates in economics: Profs. Roger Myerson (who won in 2007), James Heckman (2000), Robert E. Lucas Jr. (1995), and Gary Becker (1992).

At a news conference on Monday morning, Fama credited much of his success to the intellectual culture of the University of Chicago.

“Whatever I am owes two-thirds—maybe three-quarters, maybe 90 percent—to the University of Chicago,” Fama said. “Over the years, the school [and] the economics department has only gotten stronger. The interaction that you get from your colleagues is so influential in building your work that you cannot underestimate its impact.”

Hansen, too, said his colleagues were essential in guiding his approach to research. “This environment here really is something special,” Hansen said. From his mentors and colleagues in the University’s Department of Economics, he learned that “economics is supposed to do something—it’s supposed to explain the world.”

'A great day for Chicago economics'

Members of the University community crowded into the soaring Rothman Winter Garden of the Charles M. Harper Center on Monday morning to hear from the two winners and their colleagues.

“Today is a great day for Chicago economics,” Prof. John List told the cheering crowd.

At the event, Fama and Hansen’s colleagues praised the far-reaching impact of the two laureates’ research.

Hansen’s “powerful, pioneering” methods for assessing economic models have been adopted by social scientists in many fields, said List, the Homer J. Livingston Professor and chair of Economics. “Whether it is to explore how public policies effect unemployment rates, how networks form, or how environmental regulations influence productivity growth, Lars’ work plays a key role.”

Fama’s early work on efficient markets, which gave rise to the index funds many investors participate in today, not only revolutionized academic finance, but also made “a phenomenal impact on the practical world, and really on people’s lives,” said John Heaton, the Joseph L. Gidwitz Professor of Finance and Deputy Dean for Faculty at Chicago Booth.

Heaton also praised Fama’s commitment to his students, noting that Fama spent his first morning as a Nobel laureate teaching a course on portfolio theory and asset pricing.

When he received the call from the Nobel committee, “I was preparing my class, actually,” Fama said.

For his part, Hansen said he was looking forward to meeting with several graduate students later in the afternoon.

“I’ve been very lucky to have a long list of very good graduate students. I’m very proud of this,” he said. “Most of my best students are happy to tell me where I’m wrong and more than happy to expose the gaps in my understanding. My graduate students over the years—current and former ones—have been some of my best colleagues.”

"I can’t distinguish between students and colleagues,” agreed Fama. Former students become colleagues who “contribute to your work through their work, or through commenting on your work. There’s a continuous interchange.”

Understanding trends in asset markets

The work the Nobel honors had roots in the 1960s, when Fama and his collaborators made pivotal contributions concerning the difficulty of predicting stock prices in the short run.

“These findings not only had a profound impact on subsequent research but also changed market practice,” notes the Nobel announcement for the 2013 prize.

“As a pioneering researcher and teacher, Gene embodies the highest aspirations of Chicago Booth, to create knowledge with enduring impact, and to influence and educate current and future leaders,” said Sunil Kumar, dean of Chicago Booth and the George Pratt Shultz Professor of Operations Management. “We are honored to have him as a member of the Booth community, now in his 50th year with us, and we congratulate him on this well-deserved achievement.”

Hansen’s research examines the connection between the macroeconomy and financial markets. His statistical assessments of economic models “go a long way toward explaining asset prices,” the Nobel announcement stated.

Mario Small, dean of the Social Sciences Division and professor in Sociology, said that Hansen “has proven himself year after year to be a creative econometrician, sophisticated empirical researcher, and broad-minded intellectual. He developed important methods to estimate economic models in conditions where previous models were inadequate to meet the complexity of the real world. His work has furthered our understanding of consumption and asset pricing.”

“This award is recognition that he long-ago joined the ranks of the most important economists in the illustrious history of University of Chicago economics,” Small added.

Eugene F. Fama

Fama joined the University of Chicago faculty in 1963 as he was completing his PhD in economics and finance at what was then called the Graduate School of Business.

His research includes theoretical and empirical work on investments, price formation in capital markets, and corporate finance.

Fama teaches “Theory of Financial Decisions,” a PhD course that many MBA students also take. Some former students, including David Booth, an investment fund manager, have called Fama’s course a life-changing experience. Booth cited Fama as his primary influence and credited Fama with his success in 2008, when Booth gave a $300 million gift to the University.

Fama coined the term “efficient market” and the term gained widespread use following publication of “Efficient Capital Markets: A Review of Theory and Empirical Work” in the Journal of Finance in 1970. The efficient markets hypothesis holds that, as a result of competition, equilibrium prices in financial markets incorporate all relevant information. A famous implication of this hypothesis is that simple strategies cannot beat stock markets, bond markets, and international currency markets.

Fama subsequently developed and tested many propositions about prices in efficient markets, the effect of inflation and other macroeconomic factors on bond prices, and how the structure of corporations affects investment and other decisions. His recent work has shown that prospective stock and bond returns vary through time, and has redefined our understanding of which stocks pay greater returns than others.

In addition to publishing nearly 100 academic research papers on finance, Fama has written two widely used textbooks, The Theory of Finance (with Merton Miller) in 1972, and Foundations of Finance in 1976. His work is among the most cited in all of economics and finance.

Fama received the inaugural Onassis Prize in Finance sponsored by the Onassis Public Benefit Foundation of Greece in April 2009 in recognition of a lifetime contribution to the study of finance by a leading academic, the inaugural Morgan Stanley American Finance Association Award for Excellence in Finance in 2007, and the 2006 Nicholas Molodovsky Award from the CFA Institute, presented for “outstanding contributions to the investment profession of such significance as to change the direction of the profession and raise it to higher standards of accomplishment.”

He was awarded the inaugural Deutsche Bank Prize in Financial Economics in April 2005. The award honors an internationally renowned researcher who has excelled through influential contributions to research in the fields of finance and macroeconomics, and whose work has led to practice and policy-relevant results.

In 2001, Fama became the first person to be elected a fellow of the American Finance Association. He also is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Since 1982, Fama has been a board member of Dimensional Fund Advisers, a fund management company started by David Booth and Rex Sinquefield, two MBA graduates of Chicago Booth. Fama’s research is the basis of most of DFA’s bond products, and his stock market research with Kenneth French is the foundation of the firm’s approach to stock investments.

Included among his honorary degrees is a Doctor of Science Honoris Causa in 2002 from Tufts University where he received his bachelor of arts degree in 1960 before he earned his MBA and PhD at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Fama was born in Boston on Feb. 14, 1939. He and his wife Sally have four children and 10 grandchildren.

Lars Peter Hansen

Hansen is one of the world’s leading experts in economic dynamics. He is internationally recognized for making fundamental advances in the use of statistical methods to assess dynamic economic models and to enhance our understanding of how economic agents cope with changing and risky environments.

Hansen’s research looks at ways to bridge the gap between economic models and economic and financial data. His work has led to improved methods for formulating, analyzing and testing dynamic economic models in environments with uncertainty. He has applied these methods to study the determinants of consumption, savings and security market prices.

In the 1980s, Hansen became the leading contributor to the development and application of rigorous estimation and testing methods for financial data. His 1982 Econometrica paper, “Large Sample Properties of Generalized-Methods of Moments Estimators,” fundamentally altered the way that empirical research is done in finance and macroeconomics.

This new methodology led him, with Ken Singleton, to make one of the pioneering contributions to what became known as the “equity premium puzzle.”

Hansen continues to be a prolific researcher. His recent work focuses on models that incorporate ambiguities, beliefs and skepticism of consumers and investors; specifically, he is exploring how these models can explain economic and financial data to understand the consequences of policy options. He is also principal investigator on a research project that has assembled a group of elite economists to develop macroeconomic models with enhanced linkages to the financial sector. These models will provide more powerful policy tools for measuring and monitoring systemic risks to the economy arising from financial markets.

Since 1981 Hansen has served on the faculty of the University of Chicago’s Department of Economics, where he was the former director of graduate studies and chairman. He serves as research director for UChicago’s Becker Friedman Institute for Research in Economics.

He is the recipient of the 2006 Erwin Plein Nemmers Prize in Economics from Northwestern University. In making the announcement, the selection committee said it was giving recognition “for rigorously relating economic theory to observed macroeconomic and asset market behavior and for innovations in modeling optimal policy under uncertainty.” Hansen also won the 2008 CME Group MSRI Prize and the 2010 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Economics, Finance, and Management.

He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences and a former president of the Econometric Society. He is a former John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellow and Sloan Foundation Fellow.

Along with fellow Nobel Laureate Thomas Sargent and others, Hansen has recently developed methods for modeling economic decision-making in environments in which uncertainty is hard to quantify. They explore the consequences for models with financial markets and characterize environments in which the beliefs of economic actors are “fragile.”

Currently, Hansen is contributing his expertise on decision-making under uncertainty to a collaborative effort as part of the Center for Robust Decision Making on Climate and Energy Policy (RDCEP) headed by Ian Foster, the Arthur Holly Compton Distinguished Service Professor in Computer Science, to develop dynamic economic models in which economic activity could influence the climate. He is a senior fellow of the University of Chicago’s Computation Institute.

Hansen received a BS in mathematics in 1974 from Utah State University and a PhD in economics in 1978 from the University of Minnesota.

Alumni Award winners include Nobelist James Cronin

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 13:21 -0500

Nobel laureate James Cronin, SM’53, PhD’55, will receive the Alumni Medal, the highest honor for a UChicago alumnus, while 13 others will be recognized for their career accomplishments during Alumni Weekend.

Cronin shared the Nobel Prize in physics in 1980 for showing that the laws of nature operate differently on matter and antimatter—a discovery that opened an entirely new research direction for particle physics. More recently, Cronin led the effort to build the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina. The Auger collaboration has become the most successful cosmic ray observatory and has inspired more than 400 scientists in 17 countries to explore this frontier of knowledge. A professor emeritus in Astronomy and Astrophysics, Physics, and the College, Cronin is also a dedicated professor, winning the Quantrell Award for Undergraduate Teaching in 1994.

This year’s 14 Alumni Award recipients include a global economist governing the Banco de Mexico, one of the developers of video game franchise Halo, a renowned statistician in both the sports and political fronts, and a philanthropist working to create a tuberculosis-free world.

The University of Chicago Alumni Association and the Alumni Board of Governors will hold the 72nd annual Alumni Awards Ceremony at 11 a.m. on Saturday, June 8 in Rockefeller Memorial Chapel. The ceremony is free and open to the public.

The 2013 Alumni Award recipients include:

Alumni Service medal

Eva Fishell Lichtenberg, AB’52, AM’55, PhD’60, LAB’49

For more than half a century, Lichtenberg has demonstrated her commitment to UChicago, including endowing a College scholarship, attending all of her class reunions, helping organize the Emeriti Alumni Group, and serving either currently or previously on the University of Chicago Women’s Board, the Alumni Board of Governors, the Visiting Committee to the Department of Music, the Visiting Committee to the College, and the Visiting Committee to the Humanities Division.

Alumni service AWARDS

Nancy Parra, AM’66, PhD’73

Parra is recognized as a visible advocate for UChicago, specifically in her service to the Alumni Club of Houston, the Alumni Board of Governors and the Visiting Committee to the Division of the Humanities. Parra also worked closely with the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in planning the Business Forecasting Luncheons, which average 400 participants.

Reuben Sandler, SM’58, PhD’61

Sandler, chairman and chief executive officer of Intelligent Optical Systems, has helped raise nearly $9 million as chair of the visiting committee to the Physical Sciences Division to reach its $10 million goal for the Magellan Telescopes. That, in turn, is driving recruitment of elite scholars and positioning the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics and PSD as a leader in the developing area of research on exoplanets.

Young Alumni Service Awards

Lauren Henry, AB’05

Henry has served her alma mater and classmates through the Alumni Schools Committee, class council and reunions, and acted as president for both alumni club boards in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. As a reader for the Metcalf Internship Program, Henry assists in fulfilling the career ambitions of current College students, and is a proven collaborator committed to enhancing the volunteer experience via the Volunteer Caucus.

Evan Trent, AB’02, MBA’06

Trent played a key role in the launch of UChicago Careers in the Arts and the UChicago Careers in Business programs, serves as a mentor to UChicago students, and has interviewed Metcalf internship applicants and prospective students through the Alumni Schools Committee, as well as conducted workshops for hundreds of students interested in careers in consulting. Trent also contributed support to create the Logan Center Cabaret Series.

Professional Achievement Awards

Agustín Carstens, AM’83, PhD’85

A global economist, Carstens has spent his career working to understand the roots of financial crisis in both emerging and industrialized economies and the limits of public intervention and policy. One of his major achievements has been to help steer the Mexican economy through the world financial crisis that started in 2007. He is a member of the board of the Bank for International Settlements, member of the steering committee of the G-20 Financial Stability Board, chairman of the FSB Standing Committee on Assessment of Vulnerabilities and co-chair of the FSB Regional Consultative Group for the Americas.

Alexander Seropian, SB’91

While a UChicago student, Seropian partnered with Jason Jones, X'94, to found Bungie. Seropian and Jones developed the Halo video game series, which has sold more than 40 million copies worldwide, and revolutionized the gaming industry. Seropian went on to found Wideload Games, which was acquired by Disney Interactive Studios, where he became vice president of game development. In 2012, Seropian formed Industrial Toys and shifted focus to mobile games.

Nate Silver, AB’00

Silver is a leading statistician in the worlds of politics and sports. He runs a political website, FiveThirtyEight.com, and has written for ESPN, Sports Illustrated, Newsweek, The New York Times, Huffington Post and Vanity Fair. Silver recently released the New York Times best-seller, The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail—But Some Don’t. He has been named to Time Magazine’s most influential people list and Rolling Stone’s 100 Agents of Change.

Public Service Awards

Sandeep Ahuja, MPP’06

In 2005, Ahuja co-founded Operation ASHA with Shelly Batra to address the global pandemic of tuberculosis greatly affecting those at poverty level. The non-profit organization provides health and economic benefits to disadvantaged communities at the grassroots level. OpASHA provides TB treatment and services to 6.1 million people in eight Indian states and two provinces in Cambodia and is expanding to other countries in Southeast Asia and Africa.

R. Lawrence (Larry) Liss, AB’63, MAT’65

Liss’ work with students has spanned more than four decades and impacted more than 100,000 students, grades 4-12. He helped translate his own experience as a student-athlete into the Academic Games Leagues of America, helping students become “thinking kids” by improving their academic and problem-solving skills, their logical thinking, and their lives. Now retired, Liss serves as the director of the Palm Beach Academic Games League and on the AGLOA board of directors.

Paul Yingling, AM’98

The retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel is considered a scholar-warrior. During his second Iraq tour in 2006, he was one of the first army officers to implement a successful counter-insurgency strategy, and he is credited with reducing civilian and military casualties. His ground-breaking essay, “A Failure in Generalship,” published in the Armed Forces Journal, called to attention faults in leadership, thereby creating a lasting impact on the intellectual and professional standards of the military.

Norman Maclean Faculty Awards

Harry L. Davis, the Roger L. and Rachel M. Goetz Distinguished Service Professor of Creative Management

For more than 50 years, Davis has made a lasting impact on generations of students through his work creating innovative educational programs including Leadership Exploration and Development. Former and current students cherish the countless hours spent in his office, fondly referred to as “The Treehouse,” where Davis carefully “curates conversations, knowing when to let it drift and when to refocus it and how to encourage each participant to reflect on something more personal.”

Marvin Zonis, Professor Emeritus of Business Administration at Chicago Booth

Zonis, a leading authority on the Middle East and former director of the University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies, has taught and inspired generations of students in the College, the Department of Political Science, the Committee on International Relations, and the Committee on Human Development and at Chicago Booth. Students credit Zonis for teaching them how to think, not what to think. As one student said, “he demonstrates the nexus between rational, analytic approaches and emotional, personality-driven actions and impact.”

Michael Bennett and Kim Ransom to receive 2013 Diversity Leadership Awards

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 16:32 -0600

For most of his life, sociologist and UChicago alumnus Michael Bennett, AM’72, PhD’88 (SSA), has been working to remove roadblocks that thwart fair access to education and economic opportunity.

“At the level of helping individual families trying to enhance their human capital or financial capital, or trying to adjust policy, you have to remove barriers that keep people from being self-sufficient,” said Bennett, associate professor of sociology at DePaul University, and the 2013 University of Chicago alumni Diversity Leadership Award recipient. “Those are the ways that I’ve tried to help people realize their potential.”

As a young pupil at Charles H. Wacker Elementary School, Kim Ransom acquired the mindset that education is about becoming one’s best self to build the best community. There she discovered her own voice and the importance of raising it along with those of her classmates, as they recited the Pledge of Allegiance or sang “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” “Singing became a metaphor for letting your light shine, making your impact toward that common goal, which in that song was freedom,” said Ransom.

Raising her voice as a child planted the seeds for Ransom to recognize the importance of developing young, diverse leaders to be civic-minded. “There’s a bigger context and bigger purpose beyond ourselves, that’s crucial,” said Ransom, founding director of the Collegiate Scholars Program and the recipient of the University’s 2013 staff Diversity Leadership Award. “Sharpen your mind and find your purpose,” she tells the high school students she works with daily. “Go into the world and do something great, beyond yourself and for the community.”

Both Bennett and Ransom learned early on that the majority of people desire to be self-sufficient and to get a good education, but the structures of society don’t always make those aspirations possible.

“So many kids get lost in the shuffle,” said Ransom. “When we look at the statistics about leadership in America, when you look at minority students, it’s abysmal. What if I didn’t have the mentorship? That’s where the light bulb went off for me.”

The two diversity leaders will receive their awards at a private reception on Jan. 17. The University also will honor them at its Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Celebration that evening at 6 p.m. in Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, where Dr. King gave his first major address in Chicago in 1956.

Judy Richardson, a civil rights author and documentary filmmaker, is the guest speaker for this year’s MLK Celebration. Veteran of the southern civil rights movement and an activist with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Richardson began her film work with the Academy Award-nominated, 14-hour PBS series, Eyes on the Prize, for which she was series associate producer and education director.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way

Bennett, who was the executive director of the Monsignor John J. Egan Urban Center for over a decade and former President of the Neighborhood Institute, said he always tries to put his education to practical use. “I’ve always been an applied sociologist. The heart of my work has always been to put together programs, stimulate community development efforts on a local or national level.”

At the Egan Center, Bennett was able to help institutions leverage their resources to have major, positive impacts on their communities. By helping organizations with their planning processes, evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of their operations, and helping them improve and enhance their abilities, they’ve addressed critical urban problems by channeling community and economic assistance directly to the people and communities that need it.

One way they did this was to found the Fathers, Families and Health Communities Collaborative. This initiative focuses on enhancing the capacities of low-income, noncustodial fathers to enrich the lives of their children. Many of these fathers are formerly incarcerated and have suffered long stretches of unemployment.

“We partnered with the Safer Foundation, who focused on 22 state regulations that prohibited ex-offenders from gaining certain kinds of licenses,” said Bennett, who chairs the board of the Chicago-based Fathers, Families and Health Communities Collaborative. “You could cut everyone’s hair in prison, but once you got out you couldn’t get a barber’s license!”

All of the obstacles that prevent self-sufficiency aren’t immovable mountains, said Bennett.

“The only thing we need is the will. That’s it. We can do anything we choose to do as a national society or as a global society. All the resources are here. The mechanism evolves from the will. There’s a disconnect between our rhetoric and our actions in society. If you ask most policymakers what their highest priorities are, they’d say education. But we don’t want to pay teachers. And basically we’ve never really focused on education as the top priority. It’s the will, that’s what we need.”

James Williams, manager of business diversity at the University of Chicago Medicine, nominated Bennett because, he wrote, “[Bennett] has always stood for the fair, equitable distribution of scarce resources, with a particular focus on assuring that under-resourced areas were not only included in economic plans, but were equipped to develop, prosper, and sustain healthy, thriving communities.”

‘From Roseland to UChicago or West Lawn to Harvard’

Ransom founded the Collegiate Scholars Program in 2003, which has since helped hundreds of Chicago Public School students gain entry into college—100 percent of them to four-year institutions. The college application process is long and complicated and, she said, needs to begin in the ninth grade—by junior year, it may already be too late, leaving students confused and panicked.

“My own college search process was not the best,” Ransom said. “The mentorship around where to go and what to choose was just not there. My parents knew, ‘you gotta go to college,’ but they didn’t know much more than that in terms of the process.”

Ransom said UChicago faculty members have played an essential role in Collegiate Scholars’ success, and their presence in the classroom is the program’s hallmark. Three of the first to participate in the program are senior lecturer Allen Sanderson, Prof. Paul Sally and the late Prof. Herman Sinaiko, who provided the foundation for the program’s humanities core.

Sitting in on one of Sinaiko’s classes, Ransom recalls the question he asked the students: “What does it mean to be human?” An answer came: “To be alive.” A deeper discussion ensued, until Sinaiko got another 40 or more answers. “I’ve had so many students come back to me and say, ‘I remember when I was in Herman Sinaiko’s class, and how much it changed the way I think about myself, about humanity and about learning.’ He taught them what it means to be involved in the life of the mind,” said Ransom.

In addition to rigorous summer courses, Collegiate Scholars provides guidance on which classes to take, how to assess the rigor of classes offered during high school, how to develop oneself outside of school hours, and how to find the right fit when it comes to school choice. To extend the work of Collegiate Scholars throughout and beyond college, Ransom, along with six program graduates, created the Collegiate Scholars Alumni Network. Through professional, social and civic opportunities, CAN hopes to develop the next generation of Chicago's civically engaged leaders.

"Wouldn’t it be powerful if alumni were able to go into the public schools and tell young people about their college access journeys through their personal stories of ‘how I went from Roseland to the University of Chicago,’ or ‘West Lawn to Harvard,'" said Ransom.

Derek R. B. Douglas, Vice President for Civic Engagement at the University of Chicago, nominated Ransom. Writing in his nomination letter, Douglas noted, “Through her extensive work with minority youth, Kim has focused on the importance of education as the pathway to successful careers and lives. She continues to apply this philosophy to her own education as well, which is evidenced by her recent participation in the Chicago Community Trust Fellowship for Emerging Leaders and as a Lead the Way Fellow, a program at New York University’s Women of Color Policy Network.”

Paleontologist chalks up another Schuchert Award for UChicago

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 09:37 -0600

Shortly after Gene Hunt, PhD’03, arrived on the UChicago campus in the mid-1990s, he gave what paleontologist David Jablonski remembers as an “almost frighteningly precocious brown bag talk” about his research as a Smithsonian intern on developmental patterns in a lineage of trilobites—a long extinct group of marine organisms.

Hunt, a graduate of UChicago’s Committee on Evolutionary Biology, is now a curator at the Smithsonian Institution, where he has become an authoritative and influential young voice in his field. The Paleontological Society has made this official, having presented him the 2012 Charles Schuchert Award, presented annually to an outstanding paleontologist under the age of 40.

“Gene has truly become a leader in evolutionary paleontology, skilled at turning challenging problems into crisp questions that can be addressed in the fossil record in creative and rigorous ways,” said Jablonski, the William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Service Professor in Geophysical Sciences.

Hunt is especially interested in translating evolutionary processes acting on short time scales into the dynamics that are observable in the fossil record. As a leader in quantitative approaches to paleobiological approaches, he often draws upon the rich microfossil record in deep-sea cores to investigate the connections between evolution on small and large time scales. His combination of detailed tracking of individual lineages with a new statistical analysis of previous studies “was truly a game-changing move,” Jablonski said, casting new light on the long-standing debate about punctuated equilibrium as a pervasive evolutionary pattern.

“Past and present Chicago faculty and alums have now accumulated 13 Schuchert awards since their inception in 1973, more than any other institution,” Jablonski said, who presented the award to Hunt at the Paleontological Society’s meeting in November. “We’ve been lucky to be able to attract so much talent,” he said, “and the University’s investment in the rich intellectual environment—in geophysical sciences, the Committee on Evolutionary Biology, and our links to the Field Museum and other affiliated institutions, is clearly paying off in very concrete terms—our ability to launch our graduate students into influential careers.”

Last year’s Schuchert awardee was C. Kevin Boyce, associate professor in geophysical sciences. The first Schuchert recipient was David Raup, the Sewell L. Avery Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in Geophysical Sciences. Other current faculty members to receive the award were Jablonski in 1988; Susan M. Kidwell, the William Rainey Harper Professor in Geophysical Sciences, in 1995; and Michael Foote, professor in geophysical sciences, in 2000.

University invites nominations for Diversity Leadership Awards

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 10:44 -0500

Members of the UChicago community can now submit nominations for the University's 2013 Diversity Leadership Awards, given each year since 2009 to alumni and staff members who have made fostering diversity and equality a priority in their everyday lives.

Nine people have received the honor for developing opportunities for diverse populations and creating a culture of inclusiveness on campus and beyond. The accomplishments of past recipients show the varying paths they have carved out in their personal and professional roles to enrich and empower others.

“Each year when we accept nominations for the Diversity Leadership Awards, we discover new sources of inspiration among our UChicago community,” said Sonya Malunda, Senior Associate Vice President for Community Engagement, who co-chairs the Diversity Leadership Council with Prof. William McDade.

“These are individuals who live out their deep, personal commitment to diversity, equality and community activism in their careers,” Malunda added. “We hope everyone on campus and within the alumni community will consider nominating eligible coworkers or alumni whose commitments to inclusion support the University’s mission by welcoming diverse perspectives.”

The Diversity Leadership Council is a group of senior administrators from a broad cross-section of the University. Formed by President Robert J. Zimmer in 2007, the council gives the awards annually.

As the council begins accepting nominations for the 2013 Diversity Leadership Awards, it continues to honor the legacies and ongoing work of the first nine recipients — the late Larry Hawkins, director of Special Programs and College Preparation; James Hormel, JD'58, Hedy Ratner, AM'74 (2009); Duel Richardson, AB'67, former director of neighborhood relations and education in the Office of Civic Engagement; Evette Cardona, AM'98 (2010); the late Dr. James E. Bowman, X'64, Professor Emeritus in Pathology and Medicine; Lynda N. Hale, administrative director of the Primary Care Group (2011); Shayne Evans, director of the University of Chicago Charter School; and Sylvia Puente, AM’90, executive director of the Latino Policy Forum (2012).

A nomination form may be completed through Nov. 16, the deadline to nominate a non-academic employee or UChicago alum for the award. Anyone may nominate an eligible candidate.

President Zimmer and the DLC will present the 2013 Diversity Leadership Awards to the recipients in January in conjunction with the annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration. Descriptions of the award and the nomination process are provided on the Diversity and Inclusion website.

UChicago to honor historian Black, theater director Bogart at Convocation

Thu, 24 May 2012 11:50 -0500

The University will award the Benton Medal for Distinguished Public Service to historian and activist Timuel Black and the Jesse L. Rosenberger Medal for Outstanding Achievement in the Creative and Performing Arts to Anne Bogart, avant-garde theater director and theorist, on Saturday, June 9 at UChicago’s 511th Convocation.

In support of Timuel Black’s selection, one of his nominators wrote: “Timuel Black is one of the most influential civil rights leaders in Chicago history. He has been a community leader, political activist, thoughtful critic and national voice in the cause of American justice.”

Raised on Chicago’s South Side, Black began his life of social activism as a teenager, walking a picket line to protest discriminatory employment in his neighborhood. He served in the segregated U.S. Army in World War II, returning from the war a decorated veteran so profoundly affected by the devastation he had witnessed that he decided to dedicate his life to work for peace, equality and justice.

Working alongside political and social activists like Martin Luther King Jr., W.E.B. DuBois and A. Phillip Randolph, Black played a central role in efforts to organize unions, register citizens to vote, and eliminate segregation in the armed forces and the Chicago Public Schools. He organized Chicago’s participation in the 1963 March on Washington and helped lead the successful campaign of Harold Washington to become Chicago’s first black mayor.

A graduate of Roosevelt University and the University of Chicago, Black, AM’54, spent four decades as an educator in the Chicago Public Schools and the City College of Chicago system where he also served as a senior-level administrator.

Black brings his combination of historical training and understanding of Chicago history to his work on the Black Metropolis Oral History Project. He is the author of Bridges of Memory, a two-volume history of black Chicago, and is currently working on his memoir titled Sacred Ground: The Chicago Streets of Timuel Black.

Black is the 11th recipient of the Benton Medal, one of the University’s most prestigious awards. It was created and first awarded to Sen. William H. Benton in 1967, and it honors individuals dedicated to public service from a wide variety of backgrounds and occupations. Honorees have included American publisher Katharine Graham, Sen. Paul Simon and Ela Bhatt, international labor leader and humanitarian.

‘A tireless advocate for the theater’

In selecting Bogart for the Rosenberger Medal, one of her nominators described her as a “tireless advocate for the theater” who has brought her “unique combination of a movement and gesture-based approach to classical themes.”

Bogart is the co-founder and artistic director of the SITI Company, a theater ensemble based in New York City. She has taught master classes and workshops around the world and currently serves on the faculty of the Columbia University School of the Arts, where she runs the Graduate Directing Concentration.

Born into a Navy family that moved often, Bogart has said that theater gave her a sense of community she had never felt before. With her first successful production at age 15, Bogart decided she was going to be a director. She later trained at Bard College and the NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

Bogart’s award-winning staging of modern dramas, musicals, operas and collaborative dance pieces has included productions in her Brooklyn brownstone and on the streets of New York City. Two of her productions—Radio Macbeth and Hotel Cassiopeia—have been staged at UChicago’s Court Theatre. Her honors include two Obie awards for off-Broadway work, a Bessie Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a United States Artist Fellowship and a Doris Duke Artist Fellowship, among others.

Bogart’s theories on improvisational, ensemble-building techniques are widely used in theater instruction across the country and around the world. She presents those theories in The Viewpoints Book, co-written with Tina Landau. She has also written three other books that explore directorial technique, the transformative power of art and the role of theater in society: A Director Prepares, And Then You Act and Conversations with Anne.

Bogart is the 48th recipient of the Rosenberger Medal. Established by Mr. and Mrs. Jesse L. Rosenberger in 1917, the award originally honored a wide variety of achievements “deemed of great benefit to humanity,” but it has come to recognize outstanding contributions in creative and performing arts.

Jazz legend Earl Von Freeman Sr. is the most recent recipient, and other recent honorees include Nobel laureate and author Toni Morrison and South African artist William Kentridge.

Nominations for both the Rosenberger and Benton Medals are submitted and reviewed by members of the faculty and approved by vote of the Council of the Senate.

Leon Botstein to receive Alumni Medal from University of Chicago

Wed, 23 May 2012 16:10 -0500

The University of Chicago Alumni Association and the Alumni Board of Governors announce Leon Botstein, AB’67, president of Bard College and music director and principal conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra will be awarded the Alumni Medal at the 71st Annual Alumni Awards Ceremony at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, June 2.

The Alumni Medal recognizes achievement of an exceptional nature in any field, vocational or voluntary, covering an entire career. The medal is reserved for those alumni who have attained and maintained extremely high stations in their chosen fields of endeavor and in their service to society.

In addition to the Alumni Medal, awards are presented in the following categories: Alumni Service Awards, Norman Maclean Faculty Awards, Professional Achievement Awards, Public Service Awards, Young Alumni Service Awards, and Howell Murray Student Medals. In these categories, distinguished alumni, faculty, and students are recognized for their contributions to the University, to their professions, and to their communities. This year’s 17 alumni award recipients include an artist whose work is featured in the Museum of Modern Art, a conservationist who presides over Great Lakes Brewing Company, and the former City of Chicago commissioner for the Department of Housing.

The awards ceremony, which is free and open to the public, will take place in Rockefeller Memorial Chapel. Visit alumniandfriends.uchicago.edu/alumniweekend for a complete schedule of 2012 Alumni Weekend events.

The 2012 Alumni Award winners include:

Alumni Medal

Leon Botstein, AB’67

In addition to working for the reform of education, Botstein has published widely on the subjects of music, education, history, and culture. In 2009, he received the Carnegie Academic Leadership Award, and was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2010. He was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2006, has served as music director of the American Symphony Orchestra since 1992 and the Radio Orchestra of Israel. He is the conductor laureate of the Jerusalem Symphony, edits the Musical Quarterly, and is the founder and co-artistic director of the Bard Music Festival.

Alumni Service Awards

Jeffrey S. Rasley, AB’75

Rasley, a published author and philanthropist, is being honored for his extraordinary contributions to the University. He has devoted his time to alumni and students, building Summer Sendoff events in Indianapolis, chairing Reunion Committees, and serving on the Alumni Board of Governors. His volunteerism extends beyond the UChicago community, and he has received a key to the city of Indianapolis.

Agnes A. Roach, AM’71, MBA’80

Recognized among fellow volunteers as a visionary, Roach co-founded both the University of Chicago Women’s Business Group (UCWBG) and the Chicago Women’s Alliance. The UCWBG was the first alumni club established for the Universty of Chicago Booth School of Business and laid the groundwork for connecting an underserved sector of the alumni population back to the University.

Matthew B. Whitaker, MBA’95

Whitaker has focused his energies on fostering alumni engagement in Washington, D.C. In addition to serving as the club president for three years, he has hosted Alumni Board of Governors externs, served on the Volunteer Caucus Advisory Committee, and played a key role in strengthening the D.C. Entrepreneurs Advisory Group.

Professional Achievement Awards

Robert H. Bork, AB’48, JD’53

In addition to being considered one of the foremost legal scholars in antitrust and constitutional law, Bork has also served as circuit judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, solicitor general in the Unites States Department of Justice, professor of law, and is a best-selling author. His writings have focused antitrust law on maximizing consumer welfare, and helped shift the United States Supreme Court’s approach to those laws.

Adele Goldberg, SM’68, PhD’73

A member of the Women In Technology International Hall of Fame and recipient of PC Magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award, Goldberg’s efforts set the groundwork for mainstream computer user interfaces. She spent 14 years at the Palo Alto Research Center, where she participated in the development of the programming language Smalltalk, and was a central researcher in the invention of personal computing.

Wolf Kahn, AB’50

Kahn is a distinguished American artist known for his combination of realism and Color Field. His work is displayed in nearly a dozen museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the National Academy of Art. He has received the American Academy of Arts and Letters Art Award, the John Simon Guggenheim Award in Art, and a Fulbright Scholarship.

Muriel D. Lezak, PhB’47, AM’49

Lezak is a preeminent expert neuropsychologist whose work has centered on research into, assessment of, and rehabilitation of brain injuries. She authored Neuropsychological Assessment, a groundbreaking study that is now considered the standard of assessing cognitive function. She has also served as president of the International Neuropsychological Society; has been honored by that society as well as the American Psychological Association, the National Academy of Neuropsychology, the National Head Injury Foundation, and the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University; and was the recipient of a Fulbright Award.

Anthony M. Trozzolo, SM’57, PhD’60

The driving force behind the Gordon Research Conference in Organic Photochemistry, Trozzolo’s research interests have focused primarily in the creation and detection of reactive intermediates. He holds more than 30 patents; has delivered more than 300 invited lectures at universities, international meetings, and industrial laboratories; and is widely published. He is an elected Fellow of the American Institute of Chemists, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the New York Academy of Sciences, and one of only 12 individuals elected as a Fellow of the Inter-American Photochemical Society.

Public Service Awards

Enrique Beckmann, PhD’84

Serving as CEO for Michael Reese Hospital, at a time when this historic institution was slated for closure, Dr. Enrique Beckmann's tenacity kept alive a vital community resource, which provided both healthcare to the needy and training to future healthcare professionals. He was also instrumental in saving another south side hospital threatened with closure, MetroSouth Medical Center, the former St. Francis Hospital in Blue Island. Dr. Beckmann now works as CEO of that full-service hospital, which enhances access to health care under an investor-owned structure, and also serves as an indispensable source of employment to an economically challenged local community.

Patrick Conway, AM’78

Patrick Conway’s service to the community has contributed to the revitalization of the neighborhood in which he and his brother’s company is located, and the city of Cleveland at large. He is committed to operating Great Lakes Brewing Company with a “triple bottom line”, a philosophy that emphasizes the importance of social, environmental, and financial responsibility. His commitment to sustainable practices coupled with GLBC’s award winning and diverse family of beers has contributed to the success of Great Lakes Brewing in his hometown of Cleveland and throughout the Great lakes region.

John G. Markowski, AB’74

As president and chief executive officer of Community Investment Corporation (CIC), Markowski oversees lending at a non-profit that provides financing for multifamily apartment buildings in the metropolitan Chicago area. Prior to joining CIC, he served as Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Housing. During his tenure, he was instrumental in the development and implementation of the Department’s five-year affordable housing plans, the creation of the Historic Chicago Bungalow Initiative, the Illinois Donations Tax Credit, and the Chicago Partnership for Affordable Neighborhoods.

Eric D. Rosenthal, AB’85

Rosenthal is founder and executive director of Disability Rights International, which is dedicated to promoting the human rights and full participation in society of people with mental disabilities worldwide. The organization is renowned for its work training human rights and disability activists and investigating human rights violations against people with disabilities, and using the international media to generate support for new protections worldwide. In addition, Rosenthal has served as a consultant to the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the US National Council on Disability.

Young Alumni Service Award

George L. Anesi, SB’06

Commitment to engagement through participation and philanthropy distinguishes Anesi, a resident of internal medicine at Massachusetts General. A class correspondent for the University of Chicago Magazine and former editor-in-chief for the Chicago Maroon, he has served as program chair for his Class Council, gift chair for his Reunion Committee, and chair for Participate Chicago.

Tobias B. Switzer, SB’99

Switzer, a major in the United States Air Force, has identified opportunities for alumni engagement in numerous areas. When stationed in Chile as an Olmsted Scholar, he co-founded the University of Chicago Alumni Club of Chile, and led the organization in the promotion of the group’s first Distinguished Speaker Series event. Switzer also identified a need for UChicago community members affiliated with the military to connect and worked to establish the Military Affinity Group.

Normal Maclean Faculty Awards

Charles E. Bidwell, the William Claude Reavis Professor Emeritus in Sociology

Bidwell, LAB’46, AB’50, AM’53, PhD’56, has served on the University’s faculty since 1961, serving as chair of the Departments of Education and Sociology. He served as the editor of the American Journal of Sociology, and was awarded the Willard Waller Award for a Career of Distinguished Scholarship.

Dolores Norton, the Samuel Deutsch Professor Emerita in Social Service Administration

Norton, who graduated from Temple University in 1952, then went on to earn her MSS and PhD from Bryn Mawr College, has published on early linguistic interaction and school achievement, diversity, early socialization, temporal development in children, and black family life patterns. Career honors include the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services Award for Family Support Programs, the National Association of Social Workers Mentor Award, and Chicago YMCA Outstanding Achievement Award in Education.

Alumnus Reece Trevor selected as Carnegie Junior Fellow

Mon, 21 May 2012 13:21 -0500

Reece Trevor, AB’11, has been named as one of nine Junior Fellows by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C. The Junior Fellowship Program is a prestigious one-year fellowship that pairs outstanding students with senior policy staff to write, edit, organize programming and get exposure to the Carnegie Endowment’s multiple global programs.

Trevor will work as a research assistant in the Carnegie South Asia Program, which studies relevant issues in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Carnegie scholars offer analysis of Pakistan’s political transition, the daunting challenges facing Afghanistan and India’s emergence as a rising power.

Reece received his bachelor’s degree with honors in political science from the College. He was Phi Beta Kappa, a student marshal and on the dean’s list all four years. His BA thesis was titled “The Vote is Useless – Get Your Gun: A new Analysis of the Italian Red Brigades.” He was active for three years on campus in Model United Nations, serving as secretary general in his final year.

For further information on the Carnegie fellowship program, contact adviser Roberta Cohen at rcohen2@uchicago.edu.

Two UChicago students named 2011 Gates Cambridge Scholars

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 12:22 -0600

College fourth–years Greg Nance and Ann Robbins are among the 30 United States students named 2011 Gates Cambridge scholars.

“This has been an extraordinary year for University of Chicago students seeking to study in the U.K.,” said Amanda Norton, Lead Adviser for Scholarships and Fellowships. “Annie and Greg are both tremendously energetic students who not only do very good academic work, but who also work very hard simply to do good, and to improve the lives of others in large and small ways. We are so pleased that they have been named Gates scholars.”

The competitive award—the 30 recipients were chosen from 800 applicants—funds graduate study at the University of Cambridge, England. The scholarship was created in 2000 with a $210 million donation from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and has funded nearly 1,000 Gates scholars from more than 90 countries.

Including Nance and Robbins, 10 UChicago students have received Gates Cambridge scholarships in the program’s 10 years.

“Ann’s aspiration to be a physician–scientist, and Greg’s to play a major role in the future of American education are a tribute to their talent, their ambition and their hard work,” said John W. Boyer, Dean of the College. “Their ideals and their achievements exemplify the University of Chicago ideal, originally articulated by our first President, William Rainey Harper, of scholarly creativity linked to public citizenship.”

Nance, a 2010 Harry S. Truman scholar, will pursue an MPhil degree in management to “bolster his skills in preparation for a career in American education leadership.”

A native of Bainbridge Island, Wash., Nance is a political science major focused on international relations, and he has dedicated much of his time to programs empowering Chicago youth. He is the founding director of Moneythink, a financial literacy mentoring organization that has helped more than 1,000 students on Chicago’s South Side. He is now overseeing the program’s national expansion to 20 top U.S. colleges, and even plans to start a Moneythink chapter at Cambridge.

Nance would like to focus his future energies in helping foster social entrepreneurship.

‘I am humbled by this extraordinary opportunity,” he said. “I aim to continue my work as a social entrepreneur by creating, launching and effectively directing organizations that sustainably benefit the people and communities they touch.”

Robbins is a 2008 recipient of the Lillian Gertrude Selz Prize, awarded to the top female College first–year. A chemistry and biochemistry major, she is currently performing research on the microenvironment of breast cancer. At Cambridge, Robbins will pursue an MPhil in medical science (clinical biochemistry).

“The past few days have been a little surreal,” Robbins said of hearing the news. “I am very excited about my project next year at Cambridge.”

A native of Mountain Home, Ark., Robbins works with the visually impaired through a new campus organization, Mission for Vision. She also has spent the last two years volunteering at La Rabida Children’s Hospital, which serves children with chronic illnesses and trauma.

At Cambridge, Robbins will pursue an M. Phil in clinical biochemistry in Dr. David Savage’s laboratory, working with patients who suffer from lipodystrophy, a disease in which people are born with abnormal fat tissue.

“The work has vital implications for a much larger group of people who suffer from Type 2 diabetes and insulin–resistant diabetes,” Robbins said, adding that she was specifically drawn to the humanitarian aspect of Savage’s work.