UChicago News

University to bestow five honorary degrees at Convocation

Tue, 29 May 2018 14:48 -0500

The University of Chicago will present honorary degrees to five distinguished scholars during the 531st Convocation on June 9.

The honorary degree recipients are Fabiola Gianotti, the director-general of CERN; Charles M. Lieber, chair of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and the Joshua and Beth Friedman University Professor at Harvard University; Michael C.A. Macdonald, research associate in the faculty of Oriental Studies and the Khalili Research Centre at the University of Oxford; Robert E. Ricklefs, the Curator’s Distinguished Professor of Biology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis; and William S-Y. Wang, chair professor of Language and Cognitive Sciences at Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Fabiola Gianotti, an experimental particle physicist who led the search and characterization of the Higgs boson, will receive the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science.

Gianotti led the 3,000-member ATLAS collaboration since its inception at CERN Laboratory to search for the Higgs boson, one of the most sought-after objects in scientific history. Her early career was devoted to the search for supersymmetric particles, which could provide stability to nature’s two very different fundamental energy scales—gravity and weak interaction.

Gianotti is a member of the Italian Academy of Sciences, a foreign associate of the United States National Academy of Sciences and the French Academy of Sciences, and an honorary member of the Royal Irish Academy. She is the author or co-author of more than 500 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Her scientific and societal contributions have been recognized by prestigious honors, including the Special Fundamental Physics Prize of the Milner Foundation, the Enrico Fermi Prize of the Italian Physical Society, the Medal of Honor of the Niels Bohr Institute of Copenhagen, and the honor of “Cavaliere di Gran Croce dell’ordine al merito della Repubblica” by Italian President Giorgio Napolitano.

Charles M. Lieber, a groundbreaking scholar of nanoscience and nanomaterials, will receive the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science.

Lieber has defined directions and demonstrated applications of nanomaterials in areas like electronics, computing and photonics, and has pioneered the interface of nanoelectronics with biology and medicine, including his current focus on brain science. He has originated new paradigms that have defined the rational growth, characterization and original applications of functional nanometer diameter wires and heterostructures, and provided seminal concepts central to the bottom-up paradigm of nanoscience.

Lieber’s work has been recognized by a number of awards, including two National Institutes of Health Director’s Pioneer Awards, the MRS Von Hippel Award, the Willard Gibbs Medal and the Wolf Prize in Chemistry. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine. He is also a fellow of the Materials Research Society and American Chemical Society, and honorary fellow of the Chinese Chemical Society. In addition, Lieber is co-editor of the journal Nano Letters, and serves on the editorial and advisory boards of a number of other journals. He has published over 395 papers in peer-reviewed journals, and is the principal inventor on more than 40 patents.

Michael C.A. Macdonald, a leading expert in early language and civilization in the Arabian Peninsula, will receive the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Humane Letters.

Macdonald has improved knowledge of the languages, religions, cultures and history of ancient Arabia and neighboring areas, including the Hellenistic and Roman Near East, through his scholarship on the vast number of inscriptions on the Arabian peninsula that predate the language of the Quran. Macdonald created the Online Corpus of the Inscriptions of Ancient North Arabia, a database that collects more than 70,000 inscriptions, many of which were unearthed, edited and translated by Macdonald himself. He was instrumental in establishing the field of Ancient North Arabian studies as an academic field in its own right, and has been its foremost scholar for the past three decades. He has fundamentally enabled the work of scholars of Ancient North Arabia, and has contributed research and writing that has shaped and guided this field.

In addition to his many articles, Macdonald also wrote the book Literacy and Identity in Pre-Islamic Arabia (2009). Macdonald was elected to the Fellowship of the British Academy in 2016.

Robert E. Ricklefs, a leading figure in evolutionary ecology, will receive the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science.

Ricklefs has contributed fundamental research linking disease dynamics to macro-ecology, linking life-history evolution with macro-evolutionary patterns, and searching for commonalities in patterns of ecological communities across types of organisms and geographic areas. His research focused on history’s role in determining population densities and distributions on islands, at a time when other leading ecological researchers were emphasizing the importance of species interactions at local scales for shaping species distributions. Because of this, his work represents the modern foundation for the recent synthesis of local conditions and historical processes in shaping the composition of communities of organisms.

Ricklefs is the recipient of the 2015 Ramon Margalef Prize from the government of Catalonia, the 2011 Alfred Russel Wallace award from the International Biogeography Society and the 1999 President’s Award from the American Society of Naturalists, among other honors. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

William S-Y. Wang, a pioneer in the study of language evolution and the emergence of new languages, will receive the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Humane Letters.

Wang is an internationally renowned linguist whose scholarship and academic impact have spanned two continents across the Pacific Ocean. He has performed multidisciplinary research on the biological and evolutionary basis of language, as well as computational linguistics with a focus on the production and processing of language, the brain and computer interface, machine translation, and speech synthesis and recognition. He was one of the first to apply a combination of linguistics and acoustics to the problem of machine recognition of speech.

Wang is the founder and lead editor of the Journal of Chinese Linguistics, which is the top publication in this field. He has had full professorial careers at the University of California, Berkeley; at the City University of Hong Kong; and at National Taiwan Normal University. His wide-ranging scholarship has been written in or translated into Chinese, English, French, German, Italian and Japanese.

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.

Garrett P. Kiely appointed to third term as director of University of Chicago Press

Tue, 29 Aug 2017 11:00 -0500

Garrett P. Kiely, a leader in academic publishing who has expanded and elevated the work of the University of Chicago Press, has been reappointed as its director. He will serve a third five-year term beginning Sept. 1.

Kiely will continue to lead the nation’s largest academic press, which publishes award-winning books and journals for both scholarly and general interest audiences. The Press also serves as the largest distributor of academic publications in the United States through its Chicago Distribution Center.

“Garrett’s leadership continues to be essential to the Press at a time of great change in publishing,” Provost Daniel Diermeier said. “In the face of such seismic shifts, Garrett has not only grown the work of the Press and extended its global reach, but fostered a closer connection to the University of Chicago and its faculty.”

The Press publishes more than 350 new books and 73 journals a year including such recent titles as the critically acclaimed Henry David Thoreau: A Life. Long a leading academic publisher in areas of the humanities and sciences, the Press has in recent years expanded its offerings in law and economics and continues to deepen its connection to the mission of the University through new publishing relationships with faculty as well as centers, institutes and labs. Such relationships include a book series with the UChicago-affiliated Marine Biological Laboratory titled Convening Science: Discovery at the Marine Biological Laboratory and KNOW: A Journal on the Formation of Knowledge, a new journal with the Stevanovich Institute on the Formation of Knowledge.

“It is my great honor to work every day with the best people in publishing. Their passion, skill and expertise inspire me and are a reflection of the institution we represent. I appreciate the University’s support for its Press and I look forward to continuing and extending our tradition for excellence,” Kiely said.

In September, the Press will publish the 17th edition of its most famous title, The Chicago Manual of Style, in print and electronic versions. Under Kiely’s leadership, all new works appear simultaneously in print and digital editions, and the Press has expanded its print-on-demand program, which ensures titles are available around the world.

Kiely joined the Press in 2007 after more than 20 years at Palgrave Macmillan USA, a division of St. Martin’s Press, where he served as president, vice president of the Scholarly and Reference Division, and both sales and marketing director. He recently served as chair of a task force that developed a new membership structure for the Association of American University Presses.

Roscoe Braham Jr., pioneering meteorologist, 1921-2017

Wed, 21 Jun 2017 12:28 -0500

Prof. Emeritus Roscoe Braham Jr., a noted expert in cloud precipitation physics who furthered weather research by combining the use of aircraft with ground-based instruments, died May 28 at the Glenaire Retirement Community in Cary, N.C. He was 96.

“He was a giant of experimental meteorology and was one of the pioneers using aircraft for weather research,” said Prof. Andrew Davis, chair of the University of Chicago’s Department of Geophysical Sciences.

Braham performed key research for The Thunderstorm Project, which operated from 1946 to 1949. A congressionally mandated, multi-agency program to improve aircraft safety in thunderstorms, the project was the nation’s first large-scale meteorological study.

Braham’s participation in the project led to his discovery of the convection-cell organization of thunderstorms, and to his co-authorship of The Thunderstorm, a classic in the annals of meteorology. He is further noted for discovering the coalescence-freezing mechanism of precipitation in clouds.

“The Thunderstorm Project was very significant,” said Frank Richter, the Sewell L. Avery Distinguished Service Professor in Geophysical Sciences at UChicago. “It merged technical developments—for example instrumented aircraft and radar—to promote basic scientific insights and use these to develop practical strategies that made very important contributions to aircraft safety.”

These insights include recognition that radar could detect and guide aircraft around the most dangerous parts of thunderstorms.

“Today this is routine,” Braham commented in 1996, “but we must recall that during World War II radar was new, highly classified and essentially limited to the military.”

Braham also played a key role in promoting mutual respect between the faculties of the meteorology and geology departments at UChicago, which merged to become the department of geophysical sciences in 1961.

“The merging of two historic and highly successful departments of meteorology and geology would require the joint faculty to surrender a certain amount of their professional identity, which was bound to create a certain amount of friction,” Richter said. “Roscoe Braham on the meteorology side and Julian Goldsmith from geology were the key persons who by their civility and intellectual tolerance turned what could have been a very fractured new department into one that became a model of a more holistic approach to the earth sciences.”

Braham was born Jan. 3, 1921, in Yates City, Ill. He earned his bachelor’s degree in geology from Ohio University in 1941. He married Mary Ann Moll in 1943 in Xenia, Ohio.

During World War II, Braham served in the U.S. Army Air Corps, first as a weather officer, later as a bomber pilot. After his discharge in 1946, he entered graduate school at the University of Chicago to study cloud physics, earning his master’s degree in 1948 and his doctorate in 1951.

“He always stressed the importance of education, calling education our meal ticket,” said his son, Richard Braham, a professor of forestry at North Carolina State University. Two of Roscoe Braham’s daughters, Ruth Ann and Nancy, became grade school and high school teachers. His third daughter, Jean, became a registered nurse.

“His summer research locations were of necessity in areas largely removed from commercial airline traffic, allowing his plane to fly wherever needed,” Richard Braham recalled. “To keep the family together during the research season, the family would find a campground within commuting distance and set camp, often for as long as five to six weeks.”

Braham retired from UChicago in 1991. He and his wife then moved to Cary, N.C.

During his career Braham also served as a research meteorologist at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, as founding director of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the University of Arizona, and as a visiting scientist at North Carolina State University.

Braham was a co-founder of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. UCAR manages NCAR under sponsorship from the National Science Foundation.

He was author or co-author of more than 80 scientific reports, books and manuscripts.

Braham had collected many honors during his career, including the Silver Medal from the U.S. Department of Commerce for his work on the Thunderstorm Project. He also received the Rossby Research Medal from the American Meteorological Society, the Losey Award from the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences and an honorary doctorate from North Carolina State University.

Braham is survived by his wife, Mary Ann; daughters, Ruth Ann Ashton, Nancy Billingslea and Jean Barwig; son, Richard Braham; eight grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.

Memorial services were held. Donations may be made to the Edith Braham Endowment, which supports meteorology collections at the North Carolina State University Libraries.

Educator Charles Abelmann named director of UChicago Laboratory Schools

Mon, 05 Jun 2017 10:50 -0500

Charles Abelmann, an educator who has led highly regarded independent and public schools and worked on international education at the World Bank, has been appointed director of the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools.

Since 2010, Abelmann has served as head of school at Barrie School in Silver Spring, Md., an independent school for students 18 months through grade 12. He has strengthened academic programs at Barrie, in part by ensuring coordination among divisions and promoting pedagogical innovation. He developed a teaching fellow and intern program, and formed partnerships that attracted guest artists and visiting teachers from other countries. Under his leadership, the school became a convener on important topics in education, and formed local and global partnerships that provided new opportunities for students and faculty to build community and support social responsibility.

Prior to his leadership of Barrie, Abelmann served in a variety of roles for the World Bank, including overseeing its investments in education programs in Indonesia, China and Mongolia. He conducted policy analysis and aided in capacity building with ministries of education and local governments across East Asia and other countries including Latvia, Uganda, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Brazil, Guatemala and Colombia. Earlier in his career he served as principal of Janney Elementary School, which is part of the Washington, D.C public schools, and was special assistant to the superintendent of the D.C. public schools.

“The Laboratory Schools have a legacy of outstanding and innovative education, and Charlie will provide the strong academic leadership needed to continue and enhance that tradition,” said President Robert J. Zimmer. “He is also committed to fostering vibrant connections between Lab and the rest of the University, which will bring multiple benefits to our community.”

Abelmann, whose appointment is effective July 1, holds a bachelor’s degree in English and religion from Duke University and a master’s degree and doctorate in administration, planning and social policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He has two sons, Tobias and Emilio.

“We have been greatly impressed by Charlie’s passion for education, his breadth of experience and his enthusiasm for collaborating across the Lab community to advance teaching, learning and the development of students,” said David Fithian, executive vice president of the University, who has oversight responsibility for Lab and its director.

As Laboratory Schools director, Abelmann will oversee the nursery school, kindergarten, primary school, lower school, middle school and high school, stewarding their distinctive cultures, supporting their faculties, and encouraging creativity, innovation and ambition. He will be responsible for developing the human and financial resources the Schools need to continue to excel, promoting a community that engages alumni, families, the University and the city of Chicago.

Abelmann said that during his visits to Lab he has been impressed by the confidence of the students, the integration of the arts into school life and the strong sense of community.

“I am excited to join a school with such a rich history and deep connections to the University, and to help chart the path forward to continue a tradition of excellence and innovation,” Abelmann said. “I grew up around university life, and I am eager to be part of a community that is so engaged in the education of children and youth, and that places a high value on questioning and collaboration.”

“Our search committee was unanimous in its enthusiasm for Charlie’s candidacy,” said David Kistenbroker, chair of the Laboratory Schools Board. “His style of leadership is characterized by excellent analytical skills, compassion and a strong vision for education. He has shown an affinity for collaborative work with boards, parents, teachers, staff and students. We look forward to welcoming him to our community.”

American philosopher and educator John Dewey founded the Laboratory Schools in 1896 to test and demonstrate his educational theories. Since then, Lab has continued to be an integral part of the University of Chicago, now serving more than 2,000 students from nursery school through 12th grade.

Abelmann succeeds Beth A. Harris, who has served as interim director since 2016. In a message to the Lab community announcing the appointment, Fithian and Kistenbroker thanked Harris for her work over the last year. Harris served on the Laboratory Schools Board from 2002 though 2015 and was the University vice president and general counsel for 13 years.

Richard L. Baron, radiologist and authority on liver disease, 1949-2017

Fri, 02 Jun 2017 09:40 -0500

Richard Baron, professor and former chairman of the Department of Radiology at the University of Chicago, died suddenly while playing tennis on May 4. He was 68 years old.

One of the world’s leading authorities on diagnostic imaging of liver disease, Baron enjoyed a distinguished career in research, education and patient care. He served as chairman of radiology at the University of Chicago from 2002 to 2011 as well as dean for clinical practice and head of the faculty practice plan from 2011 to 2013. Prior to that, Baron was chairman of radiology at the University of Pittsburgh and founding president and CEO of the University of Pittsburgh Physicians.

He also served on the board of the Radiological Society of North America from 2008 to 2016 and as president of the board for 2015 to 2016. At the time of his death, he was a member of the American College of Radiology’s board of chancellors and a past president of both the Society of Gastrointestinal Radiology and the Society of Computed Body Tomography and Magnetic Resonance.

“The radiology faculty benefitted during his chairmanship, from his thoughtful guidance and his ability and eagerness to mentor younger colleagues,” recalled David Paushter, who succeeded Baron as chairman of radiology at the University of Chicago. “He was a master educator and a lifelong learner—a role model for trainees and clinical peers alike.”

Baron published more than 150 peer-reviewed scientific articles, 53 book chapters and review articles, and was co-editor of the textbook Multislice-CT of the Abdomen. He provided quality and safety expertise on national and international levels, serving on the Joint Commission Professional Technical Advisory Committee from 2007 to 2011 and providing guidance to the International Atomic Energy Commission and the World Health Organization. He was a popular speaker, presenting hundreds of invited lectures throughout the world.

He served as a reviewer for several journals, including Radiology, The American Journal of Roentgenology, The Journal of Computer Assisted Tomography, Liver Transplantation, Gastroenterology, and European Radiology, and was an associate editor of Radiology from 1991 to 1996 and of Liver Transplantation from 2004 to 2009.

“He was a master educator and a lifelong learner—a role model for trainees and clinical peers alike.”Prof. David Paushter

He earned international honors for his research and teaching—noteworthy among these awards were the Gold Medal of the Asian Oceanian Society of Radiology in 2014, the Medal of Honor and honorary membership in the French Radiological Society in 2015, and honorary membership in the European Society of Radiology in 2017.

Despite steady international recognition, one of his most urgent, high-profile investigations was close to home. On June 4, 2003, the Baseball Hall of Fame asked Baron to perform diagnostic X-rays on the two bats that Cubs player Sammy Sosa had used, one to hit his 500th home run and one for home runs 64, 65 and 66 in 1998. There was reason for suspicion: Sosa had been caught the day before using a corked bat.

“The Hall of Fame wanted to hear good news,” Baron said at the time. “There was tension, but we could tell right away that the bats were clean. The baseball people were quite relieved.”

But, ever meticulous, Baron wasn’t done. The X-rays were persuasive, but in this case, absolute certainty required a CT scan. Fortunately, one scan of both bats quickly confirmed the benign diagnosis.

Richard Lewis Baron was born March 11, 1949, in Springfield, Mass. He graduated cum laude from Yale University in 1972 and earned his medical degree and election to the student honor society Alpha Omega Alpha at the Washington University School of Medicine in 1976. His internship in internal medicine at Yale University was followed by a residency in radiology and an abdominal radiology fellowship at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at Washington University. Later in his career, faced with increasing administrative duties, he pursued further education in the MBA program at the Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh.

A mentor and family man

“He was a mentor so many people, residents as well as senior faculty,” recalled colleague and close friend Stephen Montner, professor of radiology. “The people he worked with tended to become close friends. As a leader, he was firm but very fair. He was warm and generous with his friends and colleagues, who soon became friends. And I have to say, he always took the side of right. I never met a man with so much integrity.”

“He will be greatly missed,” said Valerie P. Jackson, chair of the Radiological Society of North America’s Board of Directors. She described Baron as an “internationally respected abdominal imaging radiologist and an outstanding administrator,” adding that he was also “humble, kind-hearted and always willing to mentor others.”

“Although Rich was recognized internationally as a gifted leader, educator, physician and scientist, his peers tend to focus on his altruism and mentorship,” said Paushter. “This matches my experience. He was a thoughtful friend who helped guide colleagues and trainees through the difficult decisions of academic medicine, telling us to ‘take the high road,’ which he always did. He was the same with patients, placing them at the epicenter of his professional universe, long before it came into vogue.”

Despite the demands of his career, “the man that we knew at home was totally devoted to his family,” said his wife, Shirley Baron. “His focus was never on himself but rather on those he loved. We knew him as warm, loving, patient, generous and always available when needed.”

“He brought his energy for fun and his enthusiasm to the smallest of tasks of everyday life,” she added, “including cooking with me or just doing errands together. Richard was passionate about travel, skiing, tennis, and photography, which he loved to share with the rest of us. He was ‘all in’ when something was important to him.”

“He was also a great dad,” she said, “consistent in his messages. ‘Do your best,’ he told his children. ‘Nobody can ask for more than that.’ The basic message was: ‘Try hard; take your time; don't give up; I'm here for you.’”

Baron is survived by his wife Shirley Baron; their son, Tim Baron; daughter, Christine Turner; and Baron’s brother John.

In lieu of flowers, the Baron family requests that donations in memory of Richard Baron be made to the RSNA Research & Education Foundation, to support a young radiology researcher in abdominal imaging.

—This story first appeared on the ScienceLife blog.

Kenton W. Rainey named chief of police for UCPD

Thu, 01 Jun 2017 16:15 -0500

Veteran Police Chief Kenton W. Rainey has been named the new chief of police for the University of Chicago Police Department, effective July 1.

As chief, Rainey will oversee the approximately 100 members of the full-service, professionally accredited police department and serve as the department’s representative on campus and in the neighboring communities. Rainey also will direct the UCPD’s policing initiatives, develop innovative crime prevention strategies and implement effective community policing programs.

Rainey will report to Eric M. Heath, associate vice president for the University’s Department of Safety & Security.

“One of the many valuable areas of expertise Kenton brings to the University of Chicago is his involvement with creating innovative, community-based policing strategies,” said Heath. “Throughout his law enforcement career, Kenton has worked in diverse communities, where he built strong and positive relationships with community members and successfully implemented new policing programs, resulting in effective policing efforts.”

Most recently Rainey served as the chief of police for the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Police Department until his retirement from the role at the end of last year. Rainey also has served as chief of police for the Fairfield, Calif. Police Department and commander of the airport police for the San Antonio Police Department, in addition to leadership roles with several other law enforcement agencies in California and Ohio.

"The University of Chicago is a world-class organization, and it is an honor and privilege for me to have been selected for this position,” said Rainey. “I’m excited to work with the members of the University’s police department, the University’s students, faculty and staff, and area community members so that together we can achieve our public safety mission.”

Rainey, who is originally from Chicago, is a graduate of California State University, Long Beach with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and the University of Phoenix with a master’s degree in organizational management.

Tanika Island Childress named CEO of the UChicago Charter School

Wed, 31 May 2017 16:04 -0500

Tanika Island Childress, a nationally distinguished educator and veteran leader at the University of Chicago Urban Education Institute, has been named CEO of the University of Chicago Charter School.

Island Childress will apply her wide-ranging expertise from more than two decades of teaching and leading to continuing the development of UChicago Charter as a model for fostering greater equity and excellence in urban education.

The appointment builds on Island Childress’s 16-year career at the Urban Education Institute, where she most recently served as director of the UChicago Urban Teacher Education Program. Earlier in her career, Island Childress served as the UChicago Charter School’s chief academic officer and director of the UChicago Charter North Kenwood/Oakland Campus, one of the highest-performing non-selective elementary schools in the city of Chicago.

During her tenure as director of the North Kenwood/Oakland Campus, Island Childress was recognized with a Community School Leadership Award in 2012 from the Federation of Community Schools and a Principal Achievement Award from the city of Chicago in 2013. She also has been recognized as a national leader in non-cognitive and academic development, serving as a member of the Aspen Institute’s Council of Distinguished Educators on Social, Emotional and Academic Development.

“I have big ambitions for UChicago Charter School students, which begin and end with my belief in their ability to learn, grow and succeed,” Island Childress said. “I hope to change the lives of many Chicago students by building on the UChicago Charter School’s strong culture of belief in students’ capabilities, and tradition of teacher learning and accountability grounded in research and data.”

Prior to joining UEI, Island Childress was an adjunct faculty member at Northwestern University’s Teaching Practicum and Field Experience Seminar. From 1997 to 2001, Island Childress was also the fourth-grade team leader for the Martin L. King Experimental Laboratory School in Evanston, Ill., where she took on the roles of Language Arts District Representative, School Literacy Committee member, Teachers as Readers Committee member and Sisterhood Project mentor.

“We are so fortunate to have Tanika’s depth of expertise at the helm of UChicago Charter School,” said Sian Beilock, executive vice provost of the University of Chicago and UChicago Charter School interim governing board chair. “Her vision, commitment and compassion will ensure we continue to help students across the South Side of Chicago realize their potential and achieve their goals, in school and in life.”

Island Childress’s appointment is part of UEI’s ambitious plan to improve schooling nationwide by conducting rigorous applied research, training exemplary teachers, operating a high-achieving public school, and designing school improvement tools and training for thousands of schools and classrooms across the United States.

The PreK-12 UChicago Charter School is designed to cultivate culturally aware critical thinkers and leaders, and prepare all of its students for college acceptance and graduation.

Its elementary model was recently the subject of a multi-year study that showed UChicago Charter is effectively addressing educational inequality and closing the achievement gap that has persisted between students of different racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. The study’s findings were published this year in the book The Ambitious Elementary School. UChicago Charter’s Woodlawn campus received a Level 1 school quality rating from the Chicago Public Schools district last year and will open a new high school facility next year with state-of-the-art engineering science labs, a media arts space and a college resource center.

Island Childress has been serving as the interim CEO of the UChicago Charter School since February and will continue developing UChicago Charter as a model of excellence in fostering high school achievement, college attainment and young adult success.

“Tanika brings a unique lens and extremely rare combination of experiences to her new role,” said Sara Ray Stoelinga, the Sara Liston Spurlark Director of UEI. “As the former director of UChicago’s Urban Teacher Education Program, she has deep expertise in what it takes to train and retain high quality teachers within some of the nation’s most distressed communities and challenging classroom environments. She also has a wealth of experience in working directly with UChicago Charter School leaders, teachers, students and families. She is a highly respected and visionary leader who has changed—and will continue to change—students’ educational and life trajectories for the better.”

Island Childress received her bachelor’s degree in education with a concentration in psychology from National Louis University in Chicago. She also earned a master’s degree in literacy education from Loyola University and received a leadership fellowship through the Urban Education Institute.

University to bestow three honorary degrees at Convocation

Thu, 25 May 2017 15:40 -0500

The University of Chicago will present honorary degrees to three distinguished scholars during Convocation on June 10.

The honorary degree recipients are Robert MacPherson, the Herman Weyl Professor of Mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study; Shaul Mukamel, Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Irvine; and Craig B. Thompson, president and CEO of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and professor at the Weill Cornell Medicine Graduate School of Medical Sciences.

Robert MacPherson, a mathematician whose prolific work has impacted many different areas in his field, will receive the honorary degree of doctor of science.

His early work was devoted to singularities. In his first work in topology, MacPherson defined Chern classes for singular varieties. After that he contributed to the Riemann-Roch formula for singular varieties, the definition of intersection homology, and the idea of a perversity. This work had large implications for mathematics, including algebraic geometry and representation theory.

MacPherson also developed the idea of deformation to the normal cone, and worked on its application to intersection theory. He made numerous other contributions throughout the field of mathematics, including the development of stratified Morse theory, and his work has had a great impact in pure topology. Also, as one of the leading pure mathematicians, he is working to break down barriers between pure and applied mathematics.

The University’s honorary degree is based on his later, less recognized work pertaining to locally symmetric spaces and the trace formula leading to the Fundamental lemma, stratified Morse theory and its many applications, combinatorics, and, most recently, applied topology.

MacPherson was recognized with the National Academy of Sciences Award for Mathematics and the AMS Steele Prize. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.

Shaul Mukamel, a theoretician whose groundbreaking work has changed and advanced the field of spectroscopy, will receive the honorary degree of doctor of science.

Mukamel has played a seminal role in research on molecule-light interactions and their consequences, with contributions to understanding complex electron and nuclear dynamics in molecules. His research has a great impact on the field of ultrafast nonlinear spectroscopy, with applications in physics, chemistry and biology.

His work has additionally created new subfields of ultrafast nonlinear spectroscopy, and provided ways to interpret essentially all experimental research in this field. Over a 40-year career, he has led the introduction of new concepts that illuminate the complexities associated with molecular electronic processes.

His research provided, for the first time, a framework and predictive theory that allowed for the unified description of many nonlinear experiments. His theory was also the first step in developing multidimensional optical and infrared spectroscopy, which revolutionized the way in which molecular spectroscopy has been performed in the 21st century.

Mukamel has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is fellow of the American Physical Society and the Optical Society of America. He has received the Hamburg Prize for Theoretical Physics, the Zewail Award of the American Society, the Meggers Award of the Optical Society of America and the University of Chicago’s Mullikan Prize Medal.

Craig B. Thompson, a leader in the field of cancer metabolism, will receive the honorary degree of doctor of science.

Thompson’s discoveries relating to the mechanism of cell metabolism have led to advances in the understanding of tumor growth and metabolic pathways. He served as director of the Gwen Knapp Center for Lupus and Immunology Research at the University of Chicago from 1993-99. Since then, he has focused on human cell epigenetics and, most recently, the identification of mutations that can be targeted in drug development.

In 2003, Thompson began studying the role of protein kinase B in cell growth and transformation. His research resulted in a detailed understanding of the mechanisms and consequences of metabolic reprogramming in cancer cells.

This groundbreaking work revealed that the major function of most cancer genes is to control cellular metabolism, and has led to new therapeutic approaches for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. His most recent work has investigated oncogenic mutations in metabolic enzymes.

Thompson has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences and is a recipient of the American College of Physicians Award for Medical Science. He has published, or has in press, more than 250 original articles, with over 60,000 citations for his work since 1999.

Musician and educator Steve Coleman to receive Jesse L. Rosenberger Medal

Mon, 22 May 2017 16:15 -0500

The University of Chicago will award the 2017 Jesse L. Rosenberger Medal to Steve Coleman, a composer, saxophonist, educator and native of the city’s South Side.

Coleman, who will receive the award at Convocation on June 10, is an artist known for his original, challenging compositions that draw inspiration not only from musical traditions around the globe, but from nature and scientific concepts. He has spent several decades conducting lengthy interviews with older jazz musicians in order to develop a deeper understanding of race relations and musical history and forms, among other topics.

Coleman is a leader in education and community building, providing instruction and opportunities for musicians to participate in workshops and collaborations across the country. He is founder of the M-Base Concepts, Inc., a nonprofit dedicated to using music as a tool to aid in the expansion of consciousness.

Over the last two years, Coleman and M-Base Concepts, Inc. have partnered with UChicago’s Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts and Arts + Public Life, along with the Rebuild Foundation, the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events and the Jazz Institute of Chicago to develop multi-week residencies focused on the importance of musical mentorship. His ensemble, Steve Coleman and Five Elements, focused on workshops, outreach on Chicago’s South Side and performances—the majority of which were free. They also led workshops with young musicians in the Chicago Public Schools and partnered with Free Write Arts and Literacy to visit a juvenile detention center, where the band talked about their lives and gave youth the opportunity to play various instruments.

Coleman has received a Doris Duke Impact Award and a Doris Duke Artist Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship and a MacArthur Fellowship.

Coleman is the 53rd recipient of the Rosenberger Medal, established in 1917 by Mr. and Mrs. Jesse L. Rosenberger in recognition of achievement through research, in authorship, in invention, for discovery, for unusual public service or for anything “deemed of great benefit to humanity.”

Members of the UChicago faculty nominate candidates for the Rosenberger Medal. The faculty Committee on Awards and Prizes then evaluates the nominations, which are voted upon by the Council of the University Senate.

Rosenberger Medalists are invited to give a public lecture or workshop during the following academic year.

Five UChicago faculty members elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Thu, 13 Apr 2017 08:48 -0500

Five members of the UChicago faculty are among the 228 members elected to the 2017 class of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences: Profs. Lenore Grenoble, Young-Kee Kim, Jonathan Lear, W. J. T. Mitchell and Tara Zahra.

Founded in 1780, the American Academy is one of the oldest and most prestigious honorary societies in country. It brings together leaders from academia, business and government to respond to some of the most pressing challenges facing the nation and the world.

Lenore Grenoble is the John Matthews Manly Distinguished Service Professor and chair of the Department of Linguistics. Grenoble specializes in Slavic and Arctic Indigenous languages, and conducts fieldwork in Siberia and Greenland. Her research focuses on contact linguistics, language shift and vitality, and on the study of language in its social and cultural contexts. An area of special focus is the status of minority and indigenous languages. She joined the UChicago faculty in 2007.

Grenoble is currently engaged in the documentation and description of the intersection of spatial orientation systems, landscape linguistics and place names in the Arctic. She is also one of four editors of a new digital series, Minority Languages in Europe, that is forthcoming.

Young-Kee Kim is the Louis Block Distinguished Service Professor in Physics and the College. She is also chair of the Department of Physics. An experimental physicist who focuses on particle physics to understand how the universe works, Kim has studied two of the most massive particles—the W boson and the top quark—at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, where she was deputy director. Her current research includes studying the Higgs boson and developing new approaches to future accelerators.

Kim is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Physical Society and Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and a recipient of the Ho-Am Prize. She is currently a member of the DESY Science Council in Germany, chair of the Circular Electron Positron Collider's International Advisory Committee in China, chair of the Rare Isotope Science Project’s International Advisory Committee in Korea, and a member of the American Physical Science’s board of directors and council. She joined the UChicago faculty in 2003.

Jonathan Lear is the John U. Nef Distinguished Service Professor in the Committee on Social Thought and the Department of Philosophy. He works primarily on philosophical conceptions of the human psyche, specifically the ethical significance of human imagination. He has written extensively on a broad range of philosophical topics, ranging from Aristotle (Aristotle: The Desire to Understand) to Native American culture (Radical Hope: Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation). A trained psychoanalyst, Lear has written extensively on the philosophical significance of talking cures. Lear’s most recent book is Wisdom Won From Illness (Harvard University Press, 2017). Lear received the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Distinguished Achievement Award in 2009.

Lear currently serves as the Roman Family Director of the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society, a research institute that brings together researchers from the University of Chicago and around the world to explore problems of serious human concern.

W. J. T. Mitchell is the Gaylord Donnelley Distinguished Service Professor of English and Art History. Mitchell’s research focuses on the history and theories of media, visual art and literature from antiquity to the present, with a particular focus on the relations of visual and verbal representations in the culture and iconology. A UChicago faculty member since 1978, he served as chair of the Department of English from 1988 to 1991. He has also been the editor for the interdisciplinary journal, Critical Inquiry, since 1978.

Mitchell has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Philosophical Society. With Mitchell as its editor, Critical Inquiry was recognized three times for outstanding achievement by the Conference of Editors of Learned Journals. His book, Picture Theory (1997) received the Gordon E. Laing Prize from the University of Chicago Press. His book What Do Pictures Want? (2004) won the James Russell Lowell Prize in 2005.

Tara Zahra is a professor in the Department of History and the College. Her field of interest is in transnational and comparative approaches to the history of modern Europe, particularly Central and Eastern Europe. Zahra is also co-chair for the executive committee of the Pozen Family Center for Human Rights. Her first book, Kidnapped Souls: National Indifference and the Battle of Children in the Bohemian Lands, 1900-1948 (Cornell, 2008), won several awards for European history. Her most recent book is The Great Departure: Mass Migration from Eastern Europe and the Making of the Free World (Norton, 2016).

Zahra received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2014 for “painting a more integrative picture of 20th-century European history.” Zahra joined the UChicago faculty in 2007.

Members of the 2017 class of the American Academy include Pulitzer Prize winners, MacArthur Fellows, Fields Medalists, Presidential Medal of Freedom and National Medal of Arts recipients, and winners of the Academy Awards, Emmy, Grammy and Tony awards.

“It is an honor to welcome this new class of exceptional women and men as part of our distinguished membership,” said Don Randel, chair of the American Academy’s board of directors. “Their talents and expertise will enrich the life of the Academy and strengthen our capacity to spread knowledge and understanding in service to the nation.”

The new class will be inducted at an Oct. 7 ceremony in Cambridge, Mass.

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.

John W. Boyer appointed to sixth term as dean of the College

Wed, 15 Mar 2017 10:00 -0500

John W. Boyer, AM’69, PhD’75, has been appointed to a sixth term as dean of the College, continuing an unprecedented 25-year tenure that has brought historic advances for UChicago’s undergraduate program.

Boyer’s term has been characterized by extensive increases in resources for undergraduates, including a transformation of career development and internship opportunities; the development of a comprehensive study abroad program; significant gains in admissions, diversity and student achievement; and a dramatic increase in financial aid.

“The success of the College is an essential part of the entire University’s strength, and John’s tireless efforts on behalf of the College have been essential to the remarkable undergraduate program we see today,” wrote President Robert J. Zimmer and Provost Daniel Diermeier in a message announcing the reappointment. “We are extremely fortunate that John will continue to provide leadership that reflects deep understanding of the College’s history and the highest ambitions for its future.”

“It is an extraordinary honor to be the dean of the College,” said Boyer, the Martin A. Ryerson Distinguished Service Professor of History and the College. “This is a remarkable community of highly motivated people who are extremely talented, and it is a pleasure to teach and to work with them.”

Boyer became the longest-serving dean of the College in the University’s history in 2002, when he was appointed to his third consecutive term. Among the many successes of his tenure, he is especially proud of improvements such as the construction of three major residence facilities in the last 15 years, the reinvention of the College houses and halls as central components of collegiate life, the strengthening of existing general-education courses and the creation of new programs in the Core, and the development of study abroad programs into a signature strength of the College.

Enhancements to admissions and student financial aid are among the most important developments of the last decade, Boyer said. The College has experienced extraordinary increases in its application and yield rates, and has significantly improved student retention. He has seen students benefit enormously from the Odyssey Scholarship Program, established in 2007 with a $100 million gift from an anonymous donor nicknamed “Homer,” followed by a $100 million expansion in 2016, launched with a $50 million gift and challenge from Harriet Heyman, AM’72, and her husband, Sir Michael Moritz. That has enabled a comprehensive approach to student support, which Boyer considers one of the best need-based aid structures for students from families with limited financial means.

“I myself came out of a working-class family,” Boyer said. “My father was a truck driver and an electrician, and my mother was a secretary in a steel mill. I have a significant personal commitment to helping people from modest circumstances gain access to and succeed at the University—not just to get in, but to flourish and to succeed.”

Combining liberal education and career development

Another key investment for Boyer has been in the growth of career development programs for undergraduate students, including the Jeff Metcalf Internship Program, which began in what Boyer describes as “a very modest way” in 1997. “The first year we started the Metcalf program, we had eight internships. This year we’ll have over 2,000,” Boyer said.

The College has also worked with Career Advancement to develop UChicago Careers In, a set of pre-professional training programs designed for students interested in areas such as business, education, entrepreneurship, health, journalism, arts and media, law, public policy and public service, and the STEM fields. The expansion of career opportunities complements the College’s rigorous emphasis on liberal arts, Boyer believes, creating a strong preparation for life after college.

“We now have a career office that’s more extensive and ambitious than most of our peers, and it represents a tremendously valuable investment in our students,” said Boyer.

Boyer’s fifth term, now nearing completion, has seen a number of important academic milestones for the College. It included the introduction of new undergraduate major programs in molecular engineering, computational and applied mathematics, neuroscience, and the development of a creative writing major that will begin next year—the first degree program in creative writing in the history of the University.

One of the College’s enduring strengths is the Core curriculum, which Boyer sees as central to maintaining a common intellectual vocabulary, even as upper-level students gain more academic choices in their specializations. He notes that a large proportion of the College’s science and social science majors take humanities courses beyond the Core requirements. “I think this comes back to our quality of student body—not only their academic talent, but the capaciousness of their understanding of what true learning is. So as long as the faculty is committed to designing and teaching the Core well, there will always be a Core.”

Describing his goals for the next five years, Boyer said he will continue working to develop student life and campus housing, including trying to increase the capacity of campus housing beyond the current 55 percent of all College students. He also hopes that the faculty will give serious thought to rethinking the boundary between undergraduate and graduate study, noting that many seniors are now taking courses at the graduate level. Another priority is a greater integration of field research into more of the College’s programs to give students more exposure to “the work of the world,” citing the Public Policy Practicum and Chicago Studies program’s Calumet Quarter, which provides field experience to environmental studies students, as two examples.

An historian who has written frequently on the history of the University, Boyer completed his book, The University of Chicago: A History in 2015, to coincide with the 125th anniversary of the University’s founding. He is currently working on his new book, Austria 1867-1983, which is part of the Oxford History of Modern Europe series. Boyer, who describes himself as a political and social historian, studies people who tried both to maintain and to change institutions, and he has a particular interest in the Habsburg Empire.

“I’ve probably learned more about how to administer a complex institution from writing about the empire than I have from writing about the University,” Boyer joked. “A university is a huge community of ambitious people who often don’t agree with each other. The job of a dean or department chair, or even a president or provost, is not to modulate discontent but to make it add up to something productive, transformational and forward-looking. I have enormous respect for those Habsburg civil servants who were able to keep the place running and prosperous for centuries.”

Five UChicago scholars awarded Sloan Research Fellowships

Tue, 21 Feb 2017 09:05 -0600

Five UChicago faculty members have earned 2017 Sloan Research Fellowships: Bryan Dickinson, assistant professor of chemistry; Suriyanarayanan Vaikuntanathan, assistant professor of chemistry; Joseph Vavra, associate professor of economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business; Abigail Vieregg, assistant professor of physics; and Alessandra Voena, associate professor of economics.

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation on Feb. 21 announced that it awarded fellowships to 126 early-career scholars in the United States and Canada, whose achievements and potential mark them as the next scientific leaders. Winners receive a $60,000 grant to further their research.

Fellowships, given annually since 1955, are awarded in close coordination with the scientific community. Candidates must be nominated by their fellow scientists, and fellows are selected by an independent panel of senior scholars on the basis of a candidate’s independent research accomplishments, creativity and potential.

Bryan Dickinson focuses his research on creating technologies to measure and control biological systems. His laboratory employs synthetic organic chemistry, molecular evolution and synthetic biology approaches. His research program is motivated by the idea that innovative molecular technologies can spawn biological discovery.

Currently, his group is focused on three primary areas: small molecule approaches to interrogate how lipid modifications on proteins regulate metabolic signaling and disease; developing new evolutionary tools for the rapid creation of therapeutics; and creating new synthetic biology approaches to study and control cell signaling by RNAs and proteins. His team recently developed small molecule imaging reagents to discover a new type of dynamic lipid signaling with possible ramification in cancer and metabolic disease. His team also unveiled a completely new platform for creating biosensors for broad applications in biotechnology and molecular evolution.

Dickinson joined the UChicago faculty in 2014.

Suriyanarayanan Vaikuntanathan specializes in theoretical chemistry and biophysics. He and his group develop and use tools of statistical mechanics to study the behavior of complex systems in physical chemistry, soft condensed matter physics and biophysics.

His research seeks to uncover the fundamental principles that allow microscopic biophysical and chemical systems—such as collections of molecular motors—to robustly self-assemble and perform functions even in noisy conditions. For instance, Vaikuntanathan’s current work has demonstrated how non-equilibrium growth dynamics can be harnessed for novel material self-assembly as well as how information processing mechanisms in biophysical circuits can be protected against rogue fluctuations.

Vaikuntanathan joined the UChicago faculty in 2014.

Joseph S. Vavra is a macroeconomist who studies monetary economics, labor and computational economics, as well as the ways durable consumption responds to stimulus, and how prices respond to exchange rate movements. His current research argues that monetary policy is less effective during volatile recessions. His recent papers include “Regional Heterogeneity and Monetary Policy,” co-authored with Erik Hurst, Martin Beraja and Andreas Fuster, which finds that the Federal Reserve’s move to pump money into the economy provided the least amount of stimulus to the areas hit hardest by the recession.

Vavra also is a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He joined the Chicago Booth faculty in 2012.

Abigail Vieregg is interested in answering questions about the nature of the universe at its highest energies through experimental work in particle astrophysics and cosmology. In particle astrophysics, she focuses on searching for the highest energy neutrinos that come from the most energetic sources in the universe. In cosmology, Vieregg works with a suite of telescopes at the South Pole to help determine what happened during the first moments after the Big Bang by measuring the polarization of the cosmic microwave background.

Vieregg was a NASA Earth and Space Sciences Graduate Fellow at UCLA and a National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs Postdoctoral Fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Vieregg joined the UChicago faculty in 2014.

Alessandra Voena is a labor and development economist whose research focuses primarily on the economics of the family. Her recent work includes examining the effects of the 1996 United States welfare reform on marriage and divorce, household decision-making around fertility and education in Zambia, and the economic consequences of the cultural norms around marriage in sub-Saharan Africa, India and Asia.

Voena has published research in The American Economics Review including on the important role German-Jewish emigrants played on innovation in the United States. She is currently a faculty research fellow at National Bureau of Economic Research and served as a Ruffolo Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School.

Voena joined the UChicago faculty in 2012.

Robert Gomer, chemist, longtime teacher and cherished colleague, 1924-2016

Wed, 11 Jan 2017 13:59 -0600

Prof. Emeritus Robert Gomer, a chemical physicist who pioneered techniques for studying molecules and taught at the University of Chicago for nearly a half-century, died Dec. 12 of complications related to Parkinson’s disease. He was 92.

In his research, Gomer studied the emission, diffusion and absorption of atoms and molecules on ultraclean surfaces. That work started, Gomer once wrote, “after hearing a seminar account of E.W. Muller’s field emission microscope. I built one and became active in developing this instrument as a tool for surface studies.”

Gomer was a pioneer in the modern discipline of surface physics and chemistry, said Steven Sibener, the Carl William Eisendrath Distinguished Service Professor in Chemistry and the James Franck Institute. “His lifelong work on the surface diffusion of atoms and adsorbates on metallic surfaces represent research that has withstood the test of time, and provided foundational information for the generations of researchers that followed in his areas of interest.”

Gomer first came to the University in 1950 as an instructor in the Department of Chemistry and the James Franck Institute. He served as director of the James Franck Institute from 1977 to 1983 and was named the Carl W. Eisendrath Distinguished Service Professor in 1984.

“Chicago offered a sense of belonging and a sense of being a part, however modestly, of a great adventure,” Gomer once wrote. Richard Gomer said his father will be fondly remembered for his collegiality.

“He viewed his colleagues and students as family,” said Richard Gomer, a professor of biology at Texas A&M University. “He loved having lunch with chemists and physicists daily at the Quad Club. It was a real meeting of the minds, but one that would often end with a game of billiards.”

After Gomer became a professor emeritus in 1996, he and his wife, Ann, organized regular interdisciplinary talks for faculty in their Hyde Park home. “This is the institution that became, about five years ago, the Robert and Ann Gomer lecture series, which I chair and which meets about six times a year,” said David Bevington, the Phyllis Fay Horton Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus. “Bob was a true inspiration to us all and will be greatly missed.”

Gomer approached science and research “as a contest with nature,” said Lanny Schmidt, Gomer’s former student and now a professor of chemical engineering and materials science at the University of Minnesota. “He personalized every problem in a way that made it fun to do research. The tedious tasks were still part of the overall contest.

“One time we were working on an intricate spot-welding problem,” Schmidt added. “Upon completion Bob said, ‘Now we’ve got Mother Nature right where we want her!’”

Richard Gomer recalls that his father was a tough grader who wasn’t afraid to give out Ds and Fs. “His only reason for doing this was to set high standards, as he always did for himself, as well as for others,” he said. “This inspired many people to pursue research. He spent a minimal amount of time in his office; he was constantly working in the lab.”

Critic of nuclear weapons

Born in Vienna, Austria in 1924, Gomer went to England in 1938 as a refugee child, came to the United States in 1940 and went to Pomona College. After serving in the U.S. Army, he received his PhD in chemistry at the University of Rochester in 1949.

Gomer was an outspoken opponent of the proliferation of nuclear weapons. He was a regular contributor to and chaired the editorial board of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, a journal founded by Manhattan Project physicists that covers policy issues related to the dangers of nuclear weapons.

In 1966, Gomer was one of four scientists who wrote a classified report for the Department of Defense about the potential use of nuclear weapons in the Vietnam War. “Tactical Nuclear Weapons in Southeast Asia” concluded that such strikes would be catastrophic for U.S. global interests. “It was our purpose to show that using nuclear weapons would be an immoral folly and set an awful precedent,” Gomer said.

Gomer was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1981. He was an Atomic Energy Commission Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University and an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow at UChicago. He also was a Guggenheim fellow at the University of Paris, and a Fulbright fellow at the Technical University of Vienna.

He won several awards, including the Bourke Lecturer from the Faraday Society, the Kendall Award in Colloid or Surface Science from the American Chemical Society, the Senior U.S. Scientist Award from the A. von Humboldt Society, and the Davisson-Germer Prize in Surface Physics from the American Physical Society.

He wrote Field Emission and Field Ionization (1961) and edited several scientific journals, including Applied Physics.

“We shared many conversations on the nature of atomic-level dynamics at interfaces,” Sibener said. “This topic and associated scientific advances remain at the forefront of science today, contributing many crucial ideas to what is now popularly referred to as the field of nanoscience.”

Gomer is survived by his wife, Anne; son Richard; daughter, Maria Luczkow; and grandchildren Katie, Anna and Julia.

Alison Gass appointed Dana Feitler Director of Smart Museum of Art

Mon, 09 Jan 2017 09:41 -0600

Alison Gass, a leading curator of contemporary art and a senior leader at university museums, has been appointed the director of the University of Chicago’s Smart Museum of Art.

Gass will serve as the Dana Feitler Director of the Smart Museum starting May 1, leading the University’s fine arts museum and its thought-provoking exhibitions, distinctive public and arts education programs, varied collaborations with students and faculty, and exquisite collection of more than 15,000 objects.

Gass has been the chief curator and associate director for exhibitions and collections at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University since 2014. Prior to that, she was a member of the leadership team that opened the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University, including serving as the museum’s acting director.

“Ali is an accomplished curator with a strong understanding of the impact a university museum has on campus and in the broader community. Her appointment is essential to growing the arts at the University of Chicago and expanding their role in scholarship and public life,” Provost Daniel Diermeier said.

“I am excited by the University’s commitment to visual arts, interdisciplinary exploration and community engagement,” Gass said. “I look forward to shaping what it means to be a great art museum at a top research university, while helping to define the role of the Smart in the constellation of world-class art museums in Chicago and beyond.”

Gass has curated major exhibitions at the Cantor Arts Center, Broad Art Museum and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. She was featured in a 2010 New York Times article highlighting “the new guard of curators,” and is a fellow this year at the Center for Curatorial Leadership. Gass has taught at institutions including the California College of the Arts and the City College of New York.

At the Cantor Arts Center, Gass led the development of an academically engaged exhibitions program, overseeing a re-installation of the museum’s permanent collection. She also organized a major public commission and exhibition project with Trevor Paglen set for later this month. While at the Broad Art Museum, Gass helped establish a global contemporary art program featuring Imran Qureshi, Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Hope Gangloff, Teresita Fernandez, Sharon Hayes and others.

“Ali brings a global outlook and strong passion for art and learning to the Smart and its diverse and interesting collection. I look forward to seeing her elevate the museum and expand its impact at the University and in the community,” said Pamela Hoehn-Saric, MAT’81, chair of the Smart Museum’s Board of Governors.

While Gass has focused on contemporary art as a curator, her approach is rooted in putting art into context and viewing works through the lens of history. Gass traces her interest in curation to the first art history class she took as an undergraduate at Columbia University. In exhibitions, Gass said she focuses on making art feel vital to people’s perspectives on their place in the world. That includes pioneering a residency for artists at the Broad Art Museum focused on land, food, water and energy that connected to Michigan State University’s history as a land grant university and the continued role of agricultural studies.

“Beyond her impeccable taste and daring talent-scouting as a contemporary art curator, Ali Gass understands university art museums and their unique strength to draw on cutting-edge thinking and research done by students and faculty,” said Prof. Christine Mehring, chair of UChicago’s Department of Art History. “She will take the Smart—along with the visual arts that are now bubbling everywhere at the University—into an ambitious future.”

Gass earned her bachelor’s degree from Columbia and holds a graduate degree in art history from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. She began her curatorial career at the Jewish Museum in New York City, then became an assistant curator at SFMOMA. While there, Gass curated the New Work series and a Paul Klee Cubism exhibition.

Steve Coleman mentors aspiring musicians in Logan residency

Thu, 01 Dec 2016 14:30 -0600

Chicago-born jazz musician Steve Coleman will tell you that he’s had a handful of exceptional mentors during his decades-long career. So when the alto saxophonist and composer got a call near the end of 2014 informing him that he had received a MacArthur Fellowship, Coleman knew he wanted to do the same for the next generation.

In that spirit of mentorship and community building, Coleman, together with his Five Elements band, recently completed a two-week residency hosted by the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago, with emphasis on teaching and performing the improvisational jazz that has defined his career. Coleman and bandmates Jonathan Finlayson, Anthony Tidd, Miles Okazaki and Sean Rickman led workshops for students at UChicago and worked with young musicians in the Chicago Public Schools.

Coleman and his colleagues also spent time at the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center, playing music and answering questions about their careers. “I think people respond better when they see people who look like them, or who maybe have come from the same type of situation,” Coleman said. “One kid told me he grew up right around where I grew up.”

Coleman first started playing music as a student at South Shore High School, not far from UChicago’s campus. That grew into a career that has spanned four decades and several continents, with Coleman in his work exploring philosophy, the relationship language has with music and improvisational computer software. He leads the nonprofit M-Base Concepts, Inc., and has received a Doris Duke Impact and a Doris Duke Artist Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship and a MacArthur Fellowship.

Coleman’s time at UChicago is part of an expanding set of residencies at the Logan Center that bring artists together with students, faculty and the community, often around the creation of new work. Artists-in-residence have included composer and UChicago alumnus Philip Glass, actress/playwright Anna Deavere Smith, and French filmmaker and artist Agnès Varda. UChicago’s Theater and Performance Studies’ residency program Chicago Performance Lab invites emerging and established ensembles to spend a month in residence at the Logan Center to develop new work and perform throughout Chicago. Jazz flutist Nicole Mitchell is currently in residence, and artist Kapwani Kiwanga’s site specific exhibition opens in January 2017 at the Logan Center.

A passion for music and helping others

Coleman first was a resident at Logan in 2015 and came back again this fall. His talents mesh well with the Logan Center, contributing to the cultural vitality of the South Side through community partnerships and through helping to grow the center’s emerging reputation as a hub for jazz, said Bill Michel, executive director of UChicago Arts and the Logan Center.

“Steve is passionate about both his music and helping others,” Michel said. “He brings a wonderful energy and willingness to explore different avenues and partnerships.”

The residency included partnering with M-Base, Free Write Arts and Literacy, Arts + Public Life at the University of Chicago, the Rebuild Foundation, and the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, as well as the Jazz Institute of Chicago. The Reva and David Logan Foundation provided significant support for the residency.

Coleman’s residency culminated in a performance at the Logan Center Performance Hall. Of the band’s seven public performances during the two-week period, including appearances at venues like the Arts Incubator, Stony Island Arts Bank and the Dorchester Art + Housing Collaborative, five were free; Coleman wanted to make sure that those who weren’t familiar with his music could have a chance to see him play.

“When you come and you try to have a sustained presence, that makes a different kind of impact than when you just come for one day and then split,” Coleman said. “If people know you’re coming back, it’s a big deal.”

Reflecting on his career, Coleman said he owes a lot to mentors of his own, like Thad Jones, Sam Rivers, Von Freeman and Doug Hammond. Community building is something he has pursued during his career, doing residencies since the mid-’90s, frequently without outside financial support. He says that a main goal of his MacArthur Fellowship is to draw attention to his outreach work, in hopes that he can keep securing financial backing to fund residencies and mentorship opportunities in the future.

During his Logan residency, Coleman said his work with youth at the juvenile detention center stood out. Coleman and his bandmates partnered with Free Write Arts and Literacy for a visit to the detention center, where they were joined by Grammy-nominated rapper and spoken-word artist Kokayi, a longtime collaborator and occasional band member with Coleman. The musicians encouraged youth to try out instruments like the drums and bass, and talked about their own lives and careers.

“At the end, they said they were really, really inspired, and they were really happy that we came,” Coleman said. “Sometimes one visit like that could change the whole thing around.”

Prof. Neil Shubin honored for research on limbs, organ evolution

Wed, 02 Nov 2016 14:30 -0500

Neil Shubin, the Robert Bensley Distinguished Service Professor in Organismal Biology and Anatomy, has been selected to receive the Addison Emery Verrill Medal from the Yale Peabody Museum at a Nov. 4 ceremony.

The Verrill Medal, created in 1959 to honor “signal practitioners in the arts of natural history and natural sciences,” is named for the late Addison Emery Verrill, Yale’s first professor of zoology and one of the Peabody Museum’s first curators. He described more than 1,000 species across virtually every major taxonomic group.

Shubin was selected for his research on the evolution of new organs, especially limbs. He has discovered some of the earliest mammals, crocodiles, dinosaurs, frogs and salamanders in the fossil record. He uses their anatomy to explore hypotheses about the genetic and developmental processes that led to anatomical transformations. One of his most significant discoveries, the 375-million-year-old Tiktaalik roseae fossil, is an important transitional form between fish and land animals.

Elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2011, Shubin has written two popular science books: the best-selling Your Inner Fish (2008), named best book of the year by the National Academy of Sciences and made into a celebrated PBS series, and The Universe Within: The Deep History of the Human Body (2013). He has conducted fieldwork in much of North America, including Greenland, as well as China and Africa, and is preparing to hunt fossils in Antarctica this December.

Also receiving Verrill Medals will be May Berenbaum from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Naomi Pierce of Harvard University and Geerat Vermeij from the University of California at Davis. Since the award’s inception, there have been 18 recipients.

Alison Winter, historian of science, 1965-2016

Fri, 24 Jun 2016 13:25 -0500

Editor’s note: A memorial service for Alison Winter will be held Nov. 2 at 4 p.m. in Rockefeller Memorial Chapel

Alison Winter, a historian of science and medicine whose book on memory won the University of Chicago Press’s top honor, died Wednesday of a brain tumor. She was 50 years old.

Winter, AB’87, was a professor of history whose research often focused in areas of science and medicine that were unorthodox and less traveled. She explored how 19th-century mesmerism catalyzed efforts to define and demarcate science in Mesmerized: Powers of Mind in Victorian Britain and the cultural and scientific history of human understanding of memory in Memory: Fragments of a Modern History, which won the UChicago Press’s Gordon J. Laing Prize in 2014.

She was dedicated to supporting the next generation of scholars.Prof. Robert Richards

Winter taught undergraduates in the history of medicine, film and gender studies, guided doctoral students in their dissertations, and mentored postdoctoral fellows at the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics. Students described her as a generous critic and strong advocate. Even after becoming ill, Winter continued to co-teach an undergraduate seminar in history of science via video chat – first from home and later from the hospital.

“She was dedicated to supporting the next generation of scholars,” said Robert Richards, the Morris Fishbein Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Science and Medicine. “She loved finding a wedge in an intellectual exchange and pushing it. But you could never get mad at her. She always had a sly smile.”

Winter first arrived at UChicago in 1983 as an undergraduate. Richards said Winter’s father, who taught mathematics at the University of Michigan, wanted her to major in science. She was interested in English literature. The compromise was the history of science, which quickly became Winter’s passion.

Winter received a master’s degree and doctorate from the University of Cambridge. It was there she met her husband Adrian Johns, who is the Allan Grant Maclear Professor of History at UChicago.

Winter’s dissertation on mesmerism became her first book Mesmerized, which the UChicago Press published in 1998. Alex Owen writing in the journal Victorian Studies described it as a tour de force that requires “a reevaluation of precisely what constituted ‘center’ and ‘margin’ during a period in which many Victorian intellectuals and public figures experimented with mesmerism.”

After Cambridge, Winter taught at the California Institute of Technology before returning to UChicago in 2001.

Winter was awarded fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim, Andrew W. Mellon and National Science foundations, contributing to the research for Memory. In the book, she explores how scientists grope for metaphors to explain such an elusive subject, and how those metaphors evolved to reflect changing technology—from memory as a filing cabinet to a reel of film available for playback.

Doctoral students of Winter said she had a unique ability to balance criticism and encouragement, asking key questions to guide research rather than direct it. Caitjan Gainty, AM’05, PhD’12, remembers pulling up rugs with Winter at her home in Hyde Park, discussing future intellectual projects and talking about Winter’s fascination with a light-therapy enthusiast who once owned the property.

“She had confidence in me as a scholar before I even understood what it meant to do that kind of work,” said Gainty, lecturer in the history of science, technology and medicine at King’s College London.

Winter is survived by Johns and their four children, David, Lizzie, Zoe, and Benjamin; her mother, Judy Swartz, and stepfathers David Ballou and Fred Swartz; her father, David Winter, and stepmother, Michele Weipert-Winter; and her brother, Jonathan Ballou.

A memorial service for Winter is planned for Autumn Quarter.

Jack W. Fuller, journalism leader and University Trustee, 1946-2016

Fri, 24 Jun 2016 12:11 -0500

Jack W. Fuller set a standard of integrity and accomplishment for a generation of Chicago journalists, rising from his first junior job at the Chicago Tribune at age 16 to become a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer for the newspaper, and ultimately the leader of Tribune Co.’s publishing division.

Fuller, 69, who served on the University of Chicago Board of Trustees since 1994, died June 21 at his Chicago home, after a diagnosis of cancer several months ago.

“Jack had a distinguished career as a journalist, author and business executive,” said President Robert J. Zimmer. “He had a personal commitment to higher education, and his wide-ranging interests, balanced judgment and wisdom made him an invaluable presence on the University’s board. He was a wonderful colleague and friend whose loss will be felt deeply in the University community.”

“Jack was a respected voice on our board for 22 years,” said Joseph Neubauer, MBA’65, chairman of the University’s Board of Trustees. “He had an innate understanding of issues affecting Chicago, and his vision also encompassed our history and future in a national and international context. Those are among the many reasons why he will be greatly missed.”

A Chicago native, Fuller earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University in 1968 before serving in the U.S. Army as a Vietnam correspondent for Pacific Stars and Stripes. After leaving the army he received a law degree from Yale University in 1973.

For two years, Fuller worked as a general assignment reporter at the Tribune, then left to serve as special assistant to U.S. Attorney General Edward Levi, who had been president of the University of Chicago from 1968 to 1975. Fuller returned to the Tribune’s Washington bureau and became an editorial writer in 1978. He was named editorial page editor in 1981.

Fuller won the Pulitzer Prize in 1986 for a series of editorials on constitutional issues. He became a mentor for many writers and future leaders of the newspaper, including current editor and publisher Bruce Dold and former editor Ann Marie Lipinski, now the curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. In 1989, Fuller was promoted to vice president and editor of the Tribune. He held that role until 1997, when he became president of Tribune Publishing.

Five of Fuller’s books were published by the University of Chicago Press, including Restoring Justice (2013), an edited volume of speeches by Edward Levi that chronicled his work rebuilding a discredited Department of Justice after Watergate. He published eight novels and numerous short stories, and continued to write opinion pieces and other articles for the Tribune and other outlets. He also taught a course in creative writing at UChicago.

Fuller retired from the Tribune Co. in 2004. He was a director of the MacArthur Foundation and a member of the Special Committee on editorial standards at Dow Jones & Co. He was also a past president of the Inter American Press Association, which works to monitor and safeguard freedom of expression in the Western Hemisphere.

Fuller served on the University’s Board of Trustees from 1994 onward. He was Board Vice Chair from 2009 to 2012; chair of the Community and Civic Affairs, External Relations, and University Relations committees, and served on many other committees including the Executive Committee from 2005 to 2013. He was a life member of the Humanities Visiting Committee.

Fuller is survived by his wife, Debra Moskovits, PhD’85, and two children from a previous marriage, son Timothy and daughter Katherine Ryan. Plans for a memorial service are pending.

University to celebrate Spring Convocation on June 11

Mon, 06 Jun 2016 16:30 -0500

The University of Chicago is preparing for its 527th Convocation on Saturday, June 11.

The daylong celebration will begin with the University-wide Convocation ceremony starting at 9:15 a.m. in the Main Quadrangle. An estimated 15,000 family, friends and colleagues are anticipated.

The morning ceremony will include President Robert J. Zimmer conferring degrees to groups of students by academic program and degree type. Later in the day, the College and graduate divisions and schools will hold individual ceremonies in which diplomas will be presented. The University is scheduled to award a total of 3,467 degrees.

For those unable to attend, the morning Convocation and College diploma ceremonies will webcast live at news.uchicago.edu/webcast. Follow the day’s events on social media using #uchicago2016.

This year’s Convocation speaker is David Nirenberg, dean of Division of the Social Sciences and the Deborah R. and Edgar D. Jannotta Professor of Medieval History and Social Thought. Nirenberg, whose field specialties include the Christians, Jews and Muslims of medieval Europe and medieval ideas about communication and social relations, has entitled his address “A Time of Mind.”

The University will award three honorary degrees: The recipients are Frances H. Arnold, a founding figure in the field of molecular engineering in biological systems; J. Patrick Olivelle, a scholar of Sanskrit and Pali literature and South Asian religions; and Andrew M. Alper, chairman of UChicago’s Board of Trustees from 2009 to 2015.

Additional honors include the Benton Medal for Distinguished Public Service, which will be awarded to Harvard University Professor James Anderson; and the Jesse L. Rosenberger Medal for Outstanding Achievement in the Creative and Performing Arts, which will be awarded to local artist Kerry James Marshall.

During the ceremonies held by the divisions and schools, the University will recognize faculty members and graduate students for excellence in teaching with presentations of the Llewellyn John and Harriet Manchester Quantrell Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, Wayne C. Booth Graduate Student Prizes for Excellence in Teaching, and Faculty Awards for Excellence in Graduate Teaching and Mentoring.

At the College diploma ceremony, the tradition of student speakers will continue with this year’s selection of Hannah Gitlin, Konje Machini and Kristopher Pittard.

The celebration continues UChicago’s long tradition of holding convocations to bring together the community to mark individual achievement and institutional continuity. A full schedule of events and details on transportation and parking can be found at convocation.uchicago.edu. Convocation shuttles can be tracked at uchicago.transloc.com.

Certain streets will be closed for parts of Convocation weekend. Ellis Avenue from 57th Street to 59th Street will be closed from 5 p.m. Friday to 8 p.m. Saturday. In addition, 57th Street from Ellis Avenue to University Avenue will be closed from 4 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, along with University Avenue from 57th Street to 59th Street.

Please note that all bags are subject to inspection before entering the Main Quadrangle. Items that may disrupt other guests from seeing or hearing the ceremony are not permitted inside the Quadrangle.

University to bestow three honorary degrees at 527th Convocation

Fri, 03 Jun 2016 13:25 -0500

The University of Chicago will present honorary degrees to two distinguished scholars and one University of Chicago Trustee during the 527th Convocation on Saturday, June 11.

The honorary degree recipients are Andrew M. Alper, AB’80, MBA’81, former chairman of the University of Chicago Board of Trustees; Frances H. Arnold, the Dick and Barbara Dickinson Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering and Biochemistry at the California Institute of Technology; and J. Patrick Olivelle, the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Professor Emeritus at the University of Texas at Austin.

Andrew M. Alper, who served as chairman of UChicago’s Board of Trustees from 2009-2015, will receive a doctor of laws honorary degree in recognition of his service to the University.

Alper started his career on Wall Street at Goldman Sachs, where he spent 21 years as an investment banker, co-head of the Financial Institutions Group, and chief operating officer of the Investment Banking Division. In early 2002, he was appointed president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation and chairman of the New York City Industrial Development Agency. Alper was responsible for developing strategies to bring jobs and economic growth back to the city in the aftermath of 9/11. Currently he manages his family office, Alper Investments, Inc.

Alper’s involvement with the University is characterized by many years of distinguished service and philanthropic commitment. He was awarded the Young Alumni Service Citation in 1993 and the Distinguished Public Service/Public Sector Award in 2004. Alper was elected a member of the University’s Board of Trustees in 1999. In 2005 he became campaign chairman for the University’s most ambitious capital campaign at the time, the Chicago Initiative, leading to a record-breaking completion with a total of $2.38 billion. After serving for six years as vice chair, he was elected chair in 2009.

Alper helped the University launch the public phase of its current $4.5 billion campaign, The University of Chicago Campaign: Inquiry and Impact, which already has achieved half of its goal. He continues to serve the University as a member of the Board of Trustees and is a life member of the Chicago Booth Council and a trustee of the University of Chicago Medical Center.

Frances H. Arnold, a highly influential founding figure in the field of molecular engineering in biological systems, will receive a doctor of science honorary degree.

Arnold has developed a number of fundamental insights and approaches that have been translated to application and societal impact in green chemistry and biofuels.

Arnold pioneered the novel concept of directed evolution starting in the late 1990s. She undertook extensive work to develop the field of directed evolution, in which molecular biological methods are employed to put selective pressure on a biomolecule to iteratively move from its starting function to a potentially entirely new function. Through this work, Arnold developed a new approach for biomolecular discovery.

The concept of directed evolution has been adopted widely by academia and industry alike, the latter especially for the development of new biocatalysts for synthesis of biofuels and the environmentally friendly production of chemicals.Arnold has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences. She also has been inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and earned awards such as the ENI Prize in Renewable and Non-Conventional Energy, the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, and the Charles Stark Draper Prize.

J. Patrick Olivelle, a prolific scholar of Sanskrit and Pali literature and South Asian religions, will receive a doctor of humane letters honorary degree.

Olivelle’s work has come to define the field of Indology as it is currently understood, transforming the scholarly world’s understanding of fundamental concepts in India and helping reorient contemporary perceptions of its past.

Over the course of the past 40 years, Olivelle has produced a major synthesis of the overlapping and often contending religious and learned cultures of classical Indian civilization. Much of his work has concentrated on one particular and especially significant area of this wider field, what might be termed “classical Brahmanism.”

He has translated works of the Buddhist poet Aśvaghoṣa—the earliest classical Sanskrit poet whose works survive—and several works on the animal fables of the Pañcatantra. Most recently, he has directed his attention to one of the major historical figures of early India, the philo-Buddhist Maurya king Aśoka.

Olivelle has won several prestigious fellowships, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Humanities Senior Fellowship and an American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship. He served as president of the American Oriental Society from 2005 to 2006.

Scientist James Anderson, artist Kerry James Marshall to receive Benton, Rosenberger medals

Fri, 03 Jun 2016 13:25 -0500

The University will award the Benton Medal for Distinguished Public Service to James Anderson, the Phillip S. Weld Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry at Harvard University, and the Jesse L. Rosenberger Medal for Outstanding Achievement in the Creative and Performing Arts to local artist Kerry James Marshall. The recipients will receive their honors at the University of Chicago’s 527th Convocation on Saturday, June 11.

Members of the UChicago faculty nominate candidates for the Benton and Rosenberger medals. The Committee on Awards and Prizes then evaluates the nominations, which are finally voted upon by the Council of the University Senate.

The University president extends an invitation to the Benton and Rosenberger nominees to receive their medals during Spring Convocation. The nominees also are invited to give a public lecture or workshop the following academic year.

James Anderson, 2016 Benton Medal

Anderson is described as a pioneer of in situ measurements of ozone chemistry and a scientific leader who helped forge broad international consensus on potential risks to Earth's ozone layer.

Anderson’s work on the ozone hole prompted the development of the Montreal Protocol, an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer and phase out the production of numerous substances that deplete it. More recently, Anderson has linked ozone chemistry to climate change.

For three decades, Anderson has led an eminent research program, exploring the chemical, global and societal impacts of catalytic ozone loss in the upper atmosphere. He pioneered in situ detection of catalytically active radicals in the atmosphere and conducted the first airborne measurements of free radicals in the stratosphere. He followed that work with the first measurements of halogen radicals, injected into the stratosphere from the breakdown of CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons).

Combining these measurements, Anderson then conducted pivotal field experiments that conclusively demonstrated that chlorine radicals were responsible for catalytic ozone depletion in the polar stratosphere, colloquially known as “the ozone hole.” Such a suite of precise and complete measurements had never before been conducted in the harsh environment of the winter polar stratosphere.

Turning his attention to climate change in 2000, Anderson began a decade-long effort to elucidate mechanisms of water vapor transport through the tropical tropopause transition layer and into the stratosphere. Through that research, he unexpectedly found that strong convective systems in the tropics inject water high into the stratosphere. He further demonstrated that this water vapor is responsible for mid-latitude ozone loss.

Anderson was able to link ozone loss and climate change in an incontrovertible way. His finding explained the microscopic origin of the thinning of the ozone layer over the most heavily populated portions of the planet and showed that climate change has immediate implications for human health.

Throughout his career, Anderson has championed environmental stewardship by creating data sets that clearly prove how human activities effect change in the atmosphere surrounding our planet. His work spans precise laboratory measurements, airborne field campaigns, and policy initiatives on the national and international stage.

Kerry James Marshall, 2016 Jesse L. Rosenberger Medal

Marshall is recognized as an artist who has shifted how the contemporary art world looks at questions of representation and identity.

Marshall addresses representation in at least two different ways: He attends to the quality of visual representation within painting, as his work focuses on the figure and landscape, and he also focuses on the kinds of images that are represented in museums and galleries. His stated mission is to populate museums and galleries with representations of people of color throughout the United States and around the world.

Marshall was born in Alabama in 1955, and grew up in Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. A 1978 graduate of the Otis College of Art and Design, he currently lives and works in Chicago.

Marshall is considered to be an inspired and imaginative chronicler of the African American experience, who uses painting, sculptural installations, collage, video and photography to comment on the history of black identity both in the United States and in Western art. He is well known for paintings that focus on black subjects historically excluded from the artistic canon, and he has explored issues of race and history through imagery ranging from abstraction to comics.

A recipient of a 1997 MacArthur Fellowship, Marshall currently serves on the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. He has been featured on the PBS Art 21 series, which profiles the most important artists of the 21st century.

In 2007, the art magazine Artforum noted that Marshall was the “star” of Documenta 12, the renowned international survey of contemporary art, which takes place every five years. His work has been profiled in many international art magazines and journals, and numerous monographic publications have been dedicated to his work. In addition to exhibiting in the United States, Marshall’s work has been shown in Vienna, Belgium, Denmark and Spain.

A mainstay of the Chicago art scene for more than 30 years, Marshall is currently the subject of a major survey exhibition at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art. The exhibition, which opened April 23, is on view through Sept. 25. The exhibition will then travel to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and then to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.

Marshall’s work is also represented in UChicago’s Smart Museum of Art along with numerous major public collections, including those of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Birmingham Museum of Art; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Art Institute of Chicago; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

University of Chicago Board of Trustees elects two new members

Tue, 03 May 2016 11:00 -0500

At its recent meeting, the University of Chicago Board of Trustees elected new members Frank A. Baker II, AB’94, co-founder and managing partner of Siris Capital Group, LLC, and Guru Ramakrishnan, MBA’88, founder and CEO of the Meru Capital Group. Baker and Ramakrishnan begin their five-year terms at the May board meeting.

“Frank and Guru have shown extraordinary commitment for many years to the University of Chicago community and the University’s vital work of research, education and impact,” said Board Chairman Joseph Neubauer, MBA’65. “We look forward to benefitting from their dedication, experience, and professional insights in the years ahead.”

Frank A. Baker II

Baker is co-founder and managing partner of Siris Capital Group, LLC. Siris is a $2.4 billion private equity firm focused on value and control equity investments in data, telecommunications, technology and technology-enabled business service companies.

Prior to forming Siris Capital, Baker was a Managing Director at Ripplewood Holdings, LLC, a global private equity firm. He started his career in investment banking at Goldman Sachs & Co. in the Mergers and Acquisitions Group.

Baker has been a major supporter of the College, including the New Leaders Odyssey Scholarships. In March 2016, University recognized a gift of $7 million for the Odyssey program from Baker and his wife, Laura Day. In addition, Baker serves as a member of the College and Student Activities Visiting Committee at the University of Chicago. Baker is a board member of Sponsors for Educational Opportunity and is a former board member of the Dance Theatre of Harlem.

Guru Ramakrishnan

Ramakrishnan is the founder and CEO of Meru Capital Group, a hedge fund adviser based in New York.

Prior to Meru Capital, Ramakrishnan was CEO and co-CIO at Old Lane, LP, a $4.5 billion investment management firm. He co-founded Old Lane in 2005 and built out both the hedge fund and the India private-equity businesses that launched in 2006. Following the sale of Old Lane to Citigroup in 2007 for $900 million, Ramakrishnan went on to become a member of Citigroup’s management committee.

Before co-founding Old Lane, Ramakrishnan was a managing director at Morgan Stanley & Co. in New York, where he was responsible for global equity trading and products. During his 17 years at Morgan Stanley, Ramakrishnan worked in capital markets, investment banking, and the sales and trading side of the business.

Ramakrishnan is a contributing writer to several publications, including the South China Morning Post, Business Line and The Economic Times. From 2005 to 2007, he served on the board of directors of Diversified Global Asset Management, a leading alternatives investment firm, before it was sold to Citigroup in 2007.

He currently serves on the University of Chicago Campaign Council and the New York Roundtable. A member of the Harper Society and Founder’s Circle, Ramakrishnan has provided support to the Division of the Humanities and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Several new members join Fermilab board of directors

Mon, 07 Dec 2015 11:30 -0600

The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is a U.S. Department of Energy laboratory, the leading institution for particle physics research in the United States and one of the leading such institutions in the world. For decades, work at Fermilab has led to fundamental discoveries about the elementary building blocks of the universe and likewise about the evolution of the universe. Planning is now underway for Fermilab to build a major facility for the study of neutrinos, one of the most mysterious particles in the universe, enabling it to launch the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment.

Since the start of 2015, Fermi Research Alliance LLC, a partnership between the University of Chicago and Universities Research Association, has appointed several distinguished new members to its board of directors. Members of the board serve as ambassadors and advisers in support of Fermilab’s ambitious research agenda and play a leading role in the advancement of scientific objectives.

“We are very pleased to welcome these distinguished leaders to the board of directors,” said President Robert J. Zimmer, who chairs the Fermilab board. “Their collective expertise and accomplishments will help to facilitate the lab’s work as a leader in fundamental scientific discovery.”

The newest members of the board are:

Sam Pitroda, former adviser to the prime minister of India on public information, infrastructure and innovation
Steven M. Ritz, professor of physics and director of the Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics, University of California, Santa Cruz
Maxine Savitz, vice-chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology
F. Quinn Stepan, chairman of Stepan Company
John Womersley, chief executive officer of the Science and Technology Facilities Council

Members that will join in January 2016 are:

Kate Gregory, (rear admiral of the U.S. Navy, ret.), former commander of Naval Facilities Engineering Command and chief of civil engineers
Rolf-Dieter Heuer, president-elect of the German Physical Society and director-general of CERN, 2009-15

“It is a privilege to be working for such an esteemed group,” said Fermilab Director Nigel Lockyer. “Their engagement reflects well on our laboratory's past achievements and bodes well for our future successes.”

Fermi Research Alliance LLC, the operator of Fermilab for the U.S. Department of Energy, announced in August 2014 that it would restructure its board to better support the laboratory and advance Fermilab’s position as a global leader in high-energy physics—neutrino science in particular. These new members will serve three-year terms as members of the board of directors, which will eventually include up to 15 global business, academic and public leaders.

“This is an exciting time for particle physics in the United States and abroad. Fermilab has all the right ingredients to continue to make important discoveries about our world, train the next generation of scientists and develop cutting-edge technologies that drive innovation and grow the economy. The new board will help us in this endeavor,” said Lou Anna K. Simon, vice chair of the Fermi Research Alliance and president of Michigan State University.