UChicago News

Two undergraduates recognized for academic excellence in STEM fields

Thu, 19 Apr 2018 13:01 -0500

Adel Rahman and Naomi Sweeting, third-years in the College, have been awarded Barry Goldwater Scholarships, awarded annually based on academic merit in natural sciences, mathematics, computer science and engineering.

The two students were nominated by the College and are among 211 scholars selected from a field of 1,280 applicants nationwide. The one- and two-year scholarships cover the cost of tuition, fees, books, and room and board up to $7,500 per year.

“As future scientists, engineers, technologists and mathematicians, UChicago’s students have the drive and dedication to make a meaningful impact on their fields,” said John W. Boyer, dean of the College. “We are proud that the Goldwater Foundation has recognized the work of Adel and Naomi, and we hope the award will give them the resources and encouragement to continue their academic pursuits.”

A physics and mathematics major, Rahman plans to pursue a doctorate in theoretical physics and conduct research focused on geometric and topological aspects of gravitational, high-energy and condensed matter physics. After pursuing his doctoral studies, he would like to teach at the university level.

“As a theorist, my work is somewhat disconnected from the real world, so it's easy to worry that people outside my field might not understand or care about what I am doing,” said Rahman. “Knowing that the Goldwater committee sees value in my research and aspirations has helped reaffirm my desire to keep pursuing my goals.”

Rahman is currently conducting research focused on general relativity. Under the guidance of Prof. Robert Wald, he is attempting to understand if, and if so, how, incoming gravitational radiation might alter the structure of a black hole and what consequences such an alteration might have. Rahman first developed an interest in general relativity when he took an introductory course on the subject from Wald. “I found the theory, in particular its elegant weaving of concrete physical ideas with high-powered mathematical machinery, to be both fascinating and profound.”

Rahman also has been engaged in a research project in mathematical hydrodynamics. Outside of the classroom, Rahman is a member of the Ransom Notes a cappella group and has served as a tutor for the Harper Tutors Program and the Department of Physics’ Bridge Program.

Sweeting is a mathematics major and history minor who plans to study number theory in graduate school. After earning a doctorate in theoretical math, Sweeting would like to teach at the university level.

Sweeting developed a love for math at a young age, and her interests were solidified through participation in math competitions at the middle school and high school level.

“I’ve always been fascinated by open problems—even ones that I knew were completely unapproachable,” said Sweeting. “I am amazed that with all the brilliance that has gone into mathematics for centuries and all the problems that have been solved, there are still simple mathematical questions that no one can answer. The thought of one day solving some of them myself has always been irresistible to me.”

Last summer, she completed an independent reading project about geometric measure theory and served as a teaching assistant at UChicago’s NSF Research Grant Summer Bootcamp, in which she planned curriculum and supervised student lectures. This summer, Sweeting will study number theory and arithmetic geometry at Emory University.

“I find number theory fascinating because it combines very concrete questions—many open problems could be understood by middle school students—with diverse and sophisticated methods drawn from very abstract areas of math.”

When she’s not engaged in math, Sweeting is a member of UChicago’s College Bowl team. She also participated in the European Civilization in Paris study abroad program.

Rahman and Sweeting were supported throughout their application process by the College Center for Scholarly Advancement, which supports undergraduates and College alumni through the highly competitive application processes for prestigious national scholarships and fellowships.

Fourth-year student, alumna named Marshall Scholars

Mon, 04 Dec 2017 11:00 -0600

Fourth-year Pradnya Narkhede and Valerie Gutmann, AB’17, have won Marshall Scholarships to pursue graduate studies in the United Kingdom next fall. The highly competitive scholarships, announced Dec. 4, will enable 43 American students to study at the graduate level in any field of their choosing.

Narkhede will use her Marshall Scholarship to combine two one-year degrees: the first, at the University of Edinburgh in science and technology in society, and the second at Imperial College London in plant chemical biology.

“This award provides me with an unrivaled opportunity to probe the relationship between science and sustainable development,” said Narkhede, who is particularly interested in the role of agriculture. “Equipped with the tools I hope to gain from my studies in the U.K., I aim to become a globally engaged scientist, contributing innovative discoveries that shape intelligent policy and improve people’s lives worldwide.”

Gutmann plans to pursue a two-year MPhil in comparative social policy at the University of Oxford. She hopes to eventually attend law school and study how social welfare policy can be most effectively designed to help the most vulnerable populations.

“I’m interested in the ways to use a legal degree and a policy perspective to design and implement social welfare policy—in ways that effectively augment human dignity, which is what underlies everything I care about,” Gutmann said. “This is an opportunity to comparatively study welfare systems, not just in the U.S. or the U.K. but in international societies more broadly.”

Narkhede and Gutmann are the 24th and 25th people affiliated with the University of Chicago to win Marshall Scholarships since 1986. It’s the first time since 2010 that the University has had two Marshall Scholars in a single year; it had three winners in 1999.

“We are thrilled for Pradnya and Valerie’s accomplishments,” said John W. Boyer, dean of the College. “Marshall Scholarships are awarded to students anticipated to be their country’s future intellectual leaders. Pradnya and Valerie’s rigorous pursuit of knowledge in global sustainability and social welfare policy epitomizes the scholarly leadership the University strives to foster. We are very proud of these students.”

The pursuit of global sustainability

Born and raised in rural India, Narkhede grew up visiting her family’s sugar cane farm—an experience that “beckoned an early fascination with the natural world,” she said. Years later that led to work that directly affects the lives of Indian farmers: Since May, Narkhede has served as a senior consultant at the Indian National Commission on Farmers, where she analyzes and designs initiatives to improve both environmental sustainability and agricultural productivity for smallholder growers. She also works to promote the use of science and appropriate technologies in attaining sustainable crop production.

In 2015, she founded and now directs Sustainable Soils, an initiative to serve remote Indian agricultural villages by providing soil testing for smallholder farmers and advice on crop rotation and fertilizer recommendations, while also engaging in the pilot installation of small-scale biogas and water-delivery systems. The award-winning program has garnered a $50,000 United Nations Development Programme sponsorship.

Narkhede also has received numerous research-related awards and fellowships. This past year, she spent several months as a research scholar at the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, which allowed her to conduct water research as part of an international collaboration between Blaustein, the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory. As part of that fellowship, she oversaw fieldwork in Uganda piloting an irrigation implementation project. Earlier this year she also won a Barry Goldwater Scholarship, an award that honors undergraduates in the natural sciences, mathematics, computer science and engineering.

Previously, Narkhede worked as a virtual research intern at the U.S. Department of Defense and was a 2016 Institute of Biophysical Dynamics Scholar with UChicago’s Department of Chemistry and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, researching single-cell epigenetics. She plans to graduate in June with honors in chemistry and biological chemistry.

During her time at UChicago, Narkhede has taken part in numerous clubs and activities, including serving as president of the group Out in STEM, treasurer and co-director of Women in Science—both committed to the inclusion of women and other underrepresented groups in the sciences—and as a teaching assistant in the Biological Sciences Division. She has participated as a varsity rower/coxswain with UChicago Crew and currently volunteers as manager of a local community garden that provides nutritional education and produce to low-income families in the Hyde Park and Woodlawn neighborhoods. She is also an award-winning pianist.

Chief among her activism, though, is her commitment to science: “In examining and engineering plant, microbial and other living systems, I hope to advance the prospects for food and energy security as well as human health by developing more stress-tolerant crops, robust sources of renewable biofuels and living factories for life-saving medicines,” Narkhede said. “There is incredible power in harnessing the tenets of biochemistry to promote sustainable development, and I hope to be at the forefront of this movement.”

Working to address housing issues

Gutmann became interested in social welfare issues, particularly housing, while a first-year student in the College. As a caseworker with Health Leads, a nonprofit that aims to address the social determinants of health, Gutmann volunteered at federally qualified health centers on Chicago’s South and West sides. She connected medical patients to social service agencies and charitable organizations in the city. “The most common problem patients faced was housing insecurity, and there was nothing I could do for them on that front,” said Gutmann.

“I grew up in a household that had a strong emphasis on what it meant to be physically together in a space, what it meant to understand home as a place of security and refuge and understanding and support,” said Gutmann, who was raised in suburban Long Grove, Ill. “That sense of home seemed really contrary to the kind of housing situations people were facing when they came to Health Leads for help.”

At UChicago, Gutmann took a class on housing, earned a grant from the Pozen Center for Human Rights and eventually decided to major in sociology with a focus on urban inequality. Gutmann wrote her BA thesis on the landmark 1966 case Gautreaux et al. v. Chicago Housing Authority, in which the courts ruled that the CHA was perpetuating racial segregation through its building practices. She examined the contemporary implications of the case, interviewing dozens of attorneys, housing advocates, residents and CHA employees.

Gutmann currently works as a reporting analyst for a private contractor of the CHA that administers 27,000 subsidized housing vouchers in Chicago. She said the job allows her to understand how the private and public sectors work together to serve the public—issues raised in the aftermath of the Gautreaux case.

“When they filed Gautreaux, the ACLU thought that the result would be the building of public housing developments in predominantly white neighborhoods. That didn’t happen. The CHA’s solution to desegregating wasn’t creating concentrations of poverty in more affluent places, it was de-concentrating poverty, which I think has a lot of really interesting sociological complications,” Gutmann said. “I wouldn’t have an appreciation for the work I’m doing now if I hadn’t studied the shift toward subsidized housing vouchers through the course of my thesis.”

While a UChicago student, Gutmann was a research assistant for two School of Social Service Administration scholars. Along with Assoc. Prof. Evelyn Brodkin, Gutmann examined legislative issues in Sweden and Denmark during the European refugee crisis. She also researched Puerto Rican musicians in Woodlawn during the mid-20th century as part of Assoc. Prof. Bill Sites’ upcoming book on music and community building.

The summer after her first year, Gutmann co-founded the nonprofit South Side in Focus, which aims to amplify the voices of South Side community members through public art exhibits. “With every opportunity my goal has been to listen and to learn, instead of assuming that I know what is best for people in situations I have never had to face,” Gutmann said.

Both scholars secured university nomination and application support through the College Center for Scholarly Advancement, which guides undergraduates and College alumni through rigorous application processes for nationally competitive fellowships. Additional support is provided by the British Awards faculty nomination committee; their ongoing service is a critical part of our students’ success at the national level.

Fourth-year student named Rhodes scholar

Thu, 30 Nov 2017 11:55 -0600

Lucas Tse, a fourth-year student in the College, has earned a Rhodes Scholarship for Hong Kong to study at the University of Oxford next fall. He hopes to pursue an MPhil in economic and social history, with aspirations for a career as a scholar and educator.

“There are ideals in both directions that attract me,” Tse wrote in an email from Hong Kong, where he has lived for 19 years and where he was visiting family. “I would like to further my academic training and take on the challenges of scholarship, and at the same time do work outside the university, especially in Hong Kong and in mainland China. Education asks that we build something together that can connect with real human beings.”

Since 1986, one Rhodes Scholar for Hong Kong is selected annually on the basis of intellect, character, leadership and commitment to service, to join the other Rhodes scholars around the world. Tse is the 52nd person affiliated with the University of Chicago to earn a Rhodes scholarship.

“We are tremendously proud of Lucas, as Rhodes Scholarships are awarded to students who demonstrate the highest levels of academic excellence, character and ambition,” said John W. Boyer, dean of the College. “The University of Chicago has a long history of fostering rigorous inquiry. We are delighted that Lucas’s pursuit of knowledge will continue to grow in preparation for a career as a scholar and educator.”

Tse has focused on philosophy and philology through the interdisciplinary Fundamentals major. That has afforded him close contact with UChicago scholars, whom he credits for guiding him “through philosophical and religious texts across traditions and helping me work toward an understanding of the core problems.” His Fundamentals paper is a philosophical reading of the Analects of Confucius, in which he examines moral transformation.

While at UChicago Tse has continued an interest in music. He studies voice privately and works with fellow student pianists to give recitals including works such as Schumann’s Dichterliebe, Fauré’s Cinq mélodies “de Venise” and Ravel’s Don Quichotte à Dulcinée. He also is a member of Chicago Chorale, the Rockefeller Chapel Choir and the Early Music Ensemble.

“Music is another way for people to communicate,” Tse said. “It is difficult and fulfilling to truly share an experience.”

Tse also teaches philosophy to youths aged 8 to 16 as part of the Civic Knowledge Project, a program that connects UChicago with South Side communities.

“The University has been an intellectual community for me,” Tse said. “I am often busy organizing and participating in reading groups. I have learned a lot by coming together with people from different academic backgrounds.”

Tse secured application support through the College Center for Scholarly Advancement, which guides undergraduates and College alumni through rigorous application processes for nationally competitive fellowships. Additional support is provided by the British Awards faculty nomination committee; their ongoing service is a critical part of students’ success at the national level.

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.

Fourth-year wins writing fellowship for fiction exploring emigration

Tue, 23 May 2017 16:20 -0500

Fourth-year Elinam Agbo began at the University of Chicago as a pre-med student majoring in Biological Sciences. But her plans began to change with each creative writing workshop she took.

“I’m in my sixth and seventh workshops now,” Agbo said. “I like the workshop environment. It makes me write and produce, and I learn quite a lot from my peers.”

Her commitment has paid off with Agbo being named the first recipient of the Les River Fellowship for Young Novelists. Her novel in progress, titled Canopy of Dreams, was the unanimous selection for the award, selected by UChicago faculty members who teach fiction.

Agbo will read from her work May 25 at the Creative Writing student reception. The event starts at 4:30 p.m. in the Logan Center for the Arts, Room 801.

"Canopy of Dreams is about a 12-year-old named June emigrating to the United States to join her mom who she hasn't seen since she was five,” Agbo said. “I was interested in trying to figure out what it's like to emigrate, especially at that critical age, without a solid knowledge of your origins.”

While the novel isn’t completely autobiographical, Agbo shares an immigrant story with her main character. Agbo moved to the United States from Ghana when she was ten, growing up in Kansas. Her parents now live in South Carolina, moving there just after she graduated from high school.

Agbo said home and belonging are important themes of the novel. “If you can’t trace where you’ve come from, or at least have firm footing in the past, how can you move forward?” she asked.

Agbo hasn’t been back to Ghana, but she has returned to it in her writing after being inspired during a workshop in her second year at UChicago. She had started working on a fantasy piece, but after an assigned reading evoked memories of Ghana, Agbo began working on more realistic stories, some of which evolved into what is now Canopy of Dreams.

Fiction lecturer Rachel DeWoskin, who nominated Agbo for the award, has gotten the chance to witness Agbo’s evolution as a writer as the two have worked together in four workshops over the last few years.

“Elinam is a uniquely brilliant person, and her work is ambitious and full of talent,” DeWoskin said. “The novel she’s working on is at once thematically deep, character-driven and propulsive.”

DeWoskin said one of the things that most impressed her about Agbo’s novel is her ability to give all her characters nuance and complexity.

“Modesty and humility are part of Elinam’s person, and they inform the humanity of her writing,” DeWoskin said. “She’s a person who is outward-thinking, and takes a lot of time considering other people, including her characters. Even the characters who behave badly in her novel are treated as fully-rendered human beings.”

For Agbo, DeWoskin’s encouragement has been a driving force in her work, especially in guiding her to think about the story she wants to tell.

“Rachel was encouraging in the beginning, just by the readings she had on the syllabus,” Agbo said. “I liked reading about immigrants, and I hadn’t done that intentionally before that first workshop. Since then, her sustained enthusiasm and support have definitely kept me writing. It’s a gift to have a mentor as versatile and accomplished as Rachel care so deeply about my work.”

The Les River Fellowship was established by Dorothy River in honor of her late husband, W. Leslie River, PhB’25. The $5,000 award is intended for “uninterrupted work or travel for research purposes.” Agbo will use fellowship to support her stay at two writing institutes this summer before starting the University of Michigan’s Master of Fine Arts program.

Truman scholar seeks career advocating for criminal justice reform

Wed, 12 Apr 2017 15:50 -0500

Third-year Soreti Teshome has been awarded a Harry S. Truman Scholarship, a nationally competitive award that supports exceptional students pursuing careers in public service.

Teshome was one of 62 students selected from a pool of 768 undergraduate candidates nationwide to win the prestigious award, which provides up to $30,000 toward graduate education. The news was announced April 12.

A double major in public policy and comparative race and ethnic studies, Teshome plans to pursue a law degree with a focus on public policy that will enable her to provide legal representation to those from marginalized communities.

“From arrest, to court processing, to sentencing, the justice system is primed to dole out the harshest outcomes to low-income minorities,” she said, citing a Sentencing Project statistic stating that 60 percent of the more than 2.2 million incarcerated individuals in the United States are people of color. “Legal advocacy is essential to challenging mass incarceration, but these efforts are limited by aspects of the justice system—such as plea bargaining and racially codified sentencing practices—that predispose people of color to incarceration. This is ultimately why my long-term interest is in policy reform.”

“Soreti’s selection as a Truman Scholar is evidence of her genuine commitment to public service, to the broader Chicago community and as an acknowledgement of her potential for success at the graduate level,” said John W. Boyer, dean of the College. “She exemplifies the best our College students have to offer as scholars and citizens.”

In 2015 Teshome was the recipient of the Pozen New Leaders Scholarship, which enabled her to work with the Illinois Justice Project, advocating for stronger training requirements for Illinois attorneys practicing in juvenile court. That internship led to her joining the Illinois Juvenile Justice Commission’s youth advisory board, for which she works to address the underutilization of juvenile record expungement in Illinois.

“Juvenile records are not as confidential as many people believe and can limit access to employment, housing and education,” Teshome said. “In Chicago, there are legal resources to help people navigate the expungement process. My work has involved trying to identify why these resources are underutilized and how they can become more accessible to the people who need them.”

Currently Teshome assists in the development and implementation of student programming and events at UChicago’s Office of Multicultural Student Affairs. She also serves on the OMSA student advisory council and as a mentor for the Institute of Politics’ Leaders of Color program. This summer the Pozen Human Rights Internship Program will fund her work as an investigative intern at the Brooklyn Defender Services in New York.

“Soreti is a uniquely passionate young person who already has a sound understanding of the impact that systems can have on individual lives,” said Era Laudermilk, deputy director of the Illinois Justice Project, who mentored Teshome during her internship. “She will no doubt use the scholarship to launch what will be an inevitably dynamic and successful career advocating for effective criminal justice reform.”

She was supported throughout her application process by the College Center for Scholarly Advancement, which supports undergraduates and College alumni through the highly competitive application processes for prestigious national scholarships and fellowships.

Two College students earn Goldwater Scholarships

Wed, 12 Apr 2017 13:37 -0500

Two third-years in the College have earned Barry Goldwater Scholarships, which honor undergraduates in the natural sciences, mathematics, computer science and engineering.

The Goldwater Foundation selected UChicago’s Pradnya Narkhede and Clare Singer along with 238 other students from a field of 1,286 applicants nationwide. The one- and two-year scholarships cover the cost of tuition, fees, books, and room and board up to $7,500 per year.

Narkhede is a chemistry and biochemistry major who plans to earn a doctorate in chemical biology and conduct research on characterizing and manipulating biochemical systems, with pharmaceutical and environmental implications. She also would like to teach at the university level.

“My goal is to lead a team of researchers in using chemistry to probe the mechanisms and dynamics of biological systems,” she said. “I also aim to become a professor and impart my passion for chemistry and biology to the next generation of budding scientists.”

Singer is a physics and mathematics major who plans to pursue a doctorate in geophysical and atmospheric sciences and conduct research on atmospheric climate dynamics with the goal of influencing international climate policy.

“I am looking to work in a scientific community that also has political connections,” Singer said. “I sense the urgency in my field and want to position myself such that my research can have the largest, fastest impact on policy reform regarding climate change and carbon emissions.”

“We are delighted that the Barry Goldwater Scholarship program has recognized the hard and innovative work of Clare and Pradnya,” said John W. Boyer, dean of the College. “Their research, in the fields of chemistry and physics, illustrates the ambitious and visionary creativity of our students in STEM fields.”

Conducting research in the field

Born in rural India, Narkhede said her interest in the natural world was kindled on her family’s farm, where she contemplated the effects of chemical use on sugar cane crops.

As a member of UChicago’s crew team, she became troubled by the impact of industrial pollution on the ecology on the Chicago River. The experience led to a summer internship conducting computation chemistry research with Friends of the Chicago River and DePaul University. She presented her findings to the Chicago Metropolitan Planning Council, for which she continues to collect and analyze data and advise on how to lower levels of bacterial and pharmacologically active compounds in the river.

“To study the river, a dynamic biological system of massive scale and complexity, through the lens of chemistry was unforgettable,” Narkhede said. “The work’s immediate relevance in preventing potentially grave environmental consequences stoked an insatiable passion for harnessing chemistry research to better the world.”

Narkhede is currently a data analytics intern at the U.S. Department of Defense and a 2016 Institute of Biophysical Dynamics Scholar with UChicago’s Department of Chemistry and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, researching single-cell epigenetics. She serves on the board of UChicago’s Women in Science and is a participant in Out in STEM, both groups committed to the inclusion of women and other underrepresented groups in the sciences.

As an undergraduate, Singer has worked with research groups in the Departments of Physics and Geophysical Sciences. Last summer she received funding from the Institute for Molecular Engineering to conduct chemical engineering research at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. She is currently vice president of the University of Chicago’s Society of Women in Physics, which aims to increase diversity and inclusion in the department through events that allow undergraduates to engage with students and faculty.

Singer said her interest in climate change began in sixth grade with a decision to become pescatarian. Her interests developed further in high school when she visited an experiment site in Iceland that used metal poles to track a glacier’s retreat. “It was one thing to read about ice melting, the planet warming and sea levels rising,” she said, “but seeing once-buried poles lying exposed on the ice with my own eyes was more powerful.”

Narkhede and Singer were supported throughout their application process by the College Center for Scholarly Advancement, which supports undergraduates and College alumni through the highly competitive application processes for prestigious national scholarships and fellowships.

Prof. David Awschalom awarded defense department grant for high-risk, high-payoff research

Wed, 29 Mar 2017 16:10 -0500

David Awschalom, the Liew Family Professor in Spintronics and Quantum Information, has been selected as a Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellow, which supports bold and ambitious research that can have revolutionary outcomes.

The fellowships are awarded annually by the Department of Defense to researchers at U.S. universities to conduct high-risk, high-payoff work that can transform disciplines, create new fields or disrupt accepted theories. It supports innovative basic research as well the development of the next generation of scientists and engineers.

Awschalom, a founding member of the University of Chicago’s Institute for Molecular Engineering, is a pioneer in semiconductor spintronics and quantum information engineering, performing experiments that explore photonics, electronics and semiconductor-based quantum information processing at the nanometer scale. As a Vannevar Bush Fellow, he will explore the quantum properties of two-dimensional matter as a potential foundation for quantum information processing technologies, receiving $3 million from the defense department for such research.

“I’m honored to be chosen for this fellowship, and extremely grateful for the confidence they’ve placed in our students to productively engage in an exciting new area of research,” Awschalom said. “This generous support will enable us to attract outstanding graduate students and postdoctoral researchers from various scientific disciplines to search for new quantum states in atomically engineered, two-dimensional matter. We hope to reveal their existence, investigate how they interact with each other and develop ways to control their behavior.”

The research will be done in collaboration with Jiwoong Park, professor of chemistry at UChicago; University graduate students and postdoctoral researchers; Nitin Samarth, professor of physics and the George A. and Margaret M. Downsbrough Department Head of Physics at Penn State University; and the Two-Dimensional Crystal Consortium at Penn State.

The defense department recently announced a total of 13 fellows, awarding up to $3 million to support basic research in core science and engineering disciplines that underpin future technologies such as nanoscience, applied mathematics and fluid dynamics.

The fellowship is named after Vannevar Bush, who served as the director of the Department of Defense’s Office of Scientific Research and Development during World War II. In his 1945 report to the U.S. President titled “Science, The Endless Frontier,” Bush called for an expansion of government support for science, and he pressed for the creation of the National Science Foundation. Bush was concerned about how scientific research supported by the department during WWII could be sustained with a focus on peacetime goals, believing that basic research was “the pacemaker of technological progress.”

Fourth-year to study applied mathematics with Churchill Scholarship

Thu, 26 Jan 2017 10:30 -0600

Fourth-year Seth Musser has won a Churchill Scholarship, the most prestigious foreign fellowship for students in the sciences. The scholarship offers Musser full funding to pursue a master’s degree in applied mathematics at the University of Cambridge, beginning in fall 2017.

Musser said the courses he will pursue at Cambridge will provide the mathematical foundation he needs to prepare him for research in high-energy theory—specifically, the quest to find string theory’s implications for the observable world and testing it and other theories proposing to unify the four fundamental forces.

“The opportunity to study at Cambridge is an unparalleled chance for me to spend an entire year solely focused on learning theory,” said Musser, who plans eventually to pursue a doctoral degree in theoretical physics. “The mathematics program is known for being exceptionally rigorous and for presenting things in elegant ways that emphasize symmetries. It will provide me a firm base on which to build future research.”

Musser, who will graduate this spring with honors from the College in mathematics and physics, is one of 15 scholars selected from the United States. He is the 14th UChicago student to win the award, which was announced Jan. 26.

“The Churchill Scholarship is a fitting recognition of Seth’s creativity and hard work, but also an intellectual curiosity that gives shape to his long-term interests in mathematics and theory,” said John W. Boyer, dean of the College. “We are very proud to see our undergraduates build their engagement with original research into plans for innovative graduate study and professional work. We commend Seth warmly on this accomplishment.”

Movie, Einstein provide early inspiration

Musser is currently pursuing research with William Irvine, associate professor of physics with the James Franck and Enrico Fermi institutes, conducting simulations to study how wings perform in a superfluid—a liquid with zero viscosity that flows without loss of kinetic energy.

“Seth demonstrates tremendous engagement with the research and great promise as a scientist,” Irvine said. “I have every confidence that he will flourish at Cambridge and beyond.”

Musser grew up in rural Myerstown, Penn., and said his interest in physics began in first grade while watching the movie “Home Alone,” in which the main character constructs a series of Rube Goldberg machines to deflect a pair of burglars after his parents left him on his own. “I was endlessly fascinated by those elaborate traps and mechanical systems,” he said.

At age 12, Musser read a biography of Albert Einstein and learned the theoretical physicist knew calculus by age 14. “I was worried,” Musser said. “In my mind, that meant I had two years to learn it.” He lobbied his local high school principal to let him take advanced math classes, sitting outside his office until he relented. “I had a fire lit under me,” Musser said, “being behind Einstein.”

Each summer at UChicago, Musser took part in the National Science Foundation’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates, a competitive program that funds undergraduate students pursuing scientific research. His original work on Riemann ellipsoids, produced during his second summer in the program, earned him a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship in spring 2016.

Musser has served as a mathematics tutor, leading twice-weekly tutorial sessions for students taking introductory calculus courses, and is now a reader in the Department of Mathematics.

Each year, the College may endorse up to two Churchill candidates for consideration at the national level. Musser was supported throughout his application process by the College Center for Scholarly Advancement, which supports all undergraduates and College alumni through the highly competitive application processes for prestigious national scholarships and fellowships.

Bridget Le Loup Collier appointed interim associate provost, overseeing Title IX compliance

Thu, 19 Jan 2017 16:05 -0600

Bridget Le Loup Collier has been appointed to serve as interim associate provost and director of the Office for Equal Opportunity Programs, with duties including oversight of Title IX compliance.

Collier will take on the new position on Jan. 24, when current Title IX Coordinator Sarah Wake will depart for a new role as associate general counsel at Northwestern University.

As dean of students and senior director of student engagement at the Graham School for Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies, Collier has overseen the support of diverse student enrollments and enhanced the experience of students through coordination of support services and staff development. Her duties included ensuring the school’s compliance with state and federal requirements including Title IX and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Provost Daniel Diermeier said Collier will provide leadership on issues of sexual misconduct and equal opportunity as the University begins a national search for a permanent associate provost.

“In recent years the University has made important strides in advancing our ongoing commitment to addressing issues related to sexual misconduct,” Diermeier said. “Bridget brings over 16 years of higher education administrative experience in program improvement, crisis response and student development. I am grateful that she has agreed to help continue our progress on these issues.”

Before joining UChicago in May of 2015, Collier served as chief of staff to the president and Title IX coordinator at Roosevelt University, managing compliance at an institution with more than 5,000 students. She is the founder and chair of the Chicagoland Title IX Consortium, an organization of 35 higher education institutions that seeks to enhance knowledge, understanding and application of Title IX policies and resources to advance gender parity and reduce sexual misconduct.

“The purpose of this role is to uphold the University’s standards of excellence so all members of our community can reach their full potential in an environment free of discrimination, sexual misconduct or harassment,” Collier said. “Sarah Wake has brought people together around these issues in a community-driven way, and I will strive to continue that effective approach.”

Collier holds a master’s of education in counseling and student affairs from Northern Arizona University and a doctorate in education and higher education administration from the University of Southern California. In her interim role, she has responsibility for coordinating University-wide compliance with UChicago’s Policy on Harassment, Discrimination, and Sexual Misconduct, with oversight of investigations performed under that policy, including Title IX investigations. She also will oversee the University’s compliance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, and will serve as equal opportunity coordinator and affirmative action officer, coordinating outreach to veterans and individuals with disabilities.

Diermeier thanked Wake for her leadership as Title IX coordinator, noting that she was “instrumental in strengthening University policy and leading a number of compliance improvements.” Among many advances during her tenure, the office has formed a student advisory board for sexual misconduct and has worked closely with advocacy groups and other stakeholders. Under Wake’s guidance the office also implemented mandatory sexual misconduct training for the entire UChicago community.

Rhodes scholar to examine higher education policy in southern Africa

Mon, 28 Nov 2016 15:30 -0600

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rhodes scholar to explore international politics and law

Sun, 20 Nov 2016 07:42 -0600

Joshua Pickar, a third-year student at the University of Chicago Law School, has won a Rhodes Scholarship to study at the University of Oxford next fall. He is one of 32 American students to earn the prestigious award and the 50th person affiliated with the University of Chicago to do so.

“We are so proud of Josh’s selection for this highly competitive scholarship,” said Thomas J. Miles, dean of the Law School. News of the award was announced Nov. 19. “His studies at the Law School, his membership in two student journals, his participation in several student organizations, as well as his keen interest in international law and politics, make him an ideal choice.”

Pickar, who plans to complete his law degree in spring 2017, will pursue master’s degrees in global governance and diplomacy, as well as in comparative social policy. Those degrees will help him fulfill his professional interests in international law and politics, he said, particularly his desire to strengthen international legal institutions to protect the world’s most vulnerable individuals.

“I’m interested in how we create international policies that favor human rights and the rule of law, and how human rights and national security bump up against one another,” Pickar said. “My goal is to ensure the creation of an international legal system that vindicates the rights of individuals,” he added, “protecting those whose governments fail them.”

Pickar has worked with asylum seekers at the U.S. Department of Justice, the global law firm Debevoise & Plimpton and at the International Refugee Assistance Program in Chicago. He drafted briefs to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and his advocacy resulted in the successful relocation to the United States of a gay Iraqi man who was persecuted in his homeland because of his sexuality.

At UChicago, he serves as president of the Jessup International Law Moot Court team, which participates in simulated oral arguments before the International Court of Justice, and is part of the Jenner & Block Supreme Court and Appellate Advocacy Clinic, which allows students to work on appellate and U.S. Supreme Court cases. Last year he worked on the staff of The University of Chicago Legal Forum and this year is on the staff of The Chicago Journal of International Law.

Those who know Pickar’s work expressed every confidence in his future success. “Josh possesses a deep interest in international institutions and a passion for global justice and the rule of law," said Daniel Abebe, deputy dean of the Law School, who had Pickar in two of his classes. “I have no doubt that, in the near future, he will be a leader in the fight for international human rights.”

Fluent in Russian, French and Spanish and possessing competency in German, Pickar also has studied Arabic and Italian. He said he hopes his language skills, as well as his passion for connecting with others, will position him for work in high-level policy and law, helping to fill what he sees as a gap in global justice: “While domestic judiciaries hold governments accountable through their judgments, no court performs the same function on the international scale,” Pickar said. “In the realms of discrimination, environmental impact and human rights, individuals are often left to the capricious will of their governments.”

A native of Lexington, Mass., Pickar received his bachelor's degree in 2014 from George Washington University, majoring in international affairs and security policy.

“I’m really excited to live abroad and to be in the U.K. at a time when there’s so much changing with international legal institutions and things like Brexit,” Pickar said. “Oxford has fascinating interdisciplinary centers, full of people with similar interests. I’m looking forward to talking with people and hearing what they’re thinking.”

Pickar received guidance and assistance in applying for the Rhodes Scholarship from the College Center for Scholarly Advancement, which supports undergraduates and alumni, as well as graduate candidates for the Rhodes, through the highly competitive application processes for national scholarships and fellowships.

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.

Nineteen graduate students win Fulbright Fellowships

Wed, 25 May 2016 14:50 -0500

University of Chicago graduate students continue to excel in the Fulbright U.S. Student Program competition. Nineteen students offered the fellowships to pursue research and teach English during the 2016-2017 academic year. A record 50 percent of all students who applied to the program received awards. An additional four students received alternate designations.

The newest cohort of Fulbright fellows features students with diverse academic backgrounds, including medicine, social work and sociology. Some students will use their Fulbrights to engage in doctoral dissertation research, while others will be pursuing post-master’s independent research or English teaching roles. They will be working around the globe, in places such as Jordan, France, China and Laos.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program is the country's largest educational exchange program, offering opportunities for students and young professionals to undertake international graduate study, advanced research, university teaching and school teaching worldwide. The program aims to facilitate cultural exchange and promote mutual understanding by supporting study or research abroad.

The 2016-2017 University of Chicago graduate student Fulbright Fellows, their fields of study and locations they will travel to are:

Jamal Abed-Rabbo, PhD student in History: Spain
Matthew (Jake) Fraser, PhD student in Germanic Studies: Germany
Andrea Haidar, master’s student in the School of Social Service Administration: Jordan
Miriam Hauser, master’s student in the School of Social Service Administration: Jordan
Varak Ketsamanian, master’s student in the Center for Middle Eastern Studies: Turkey
Roy Kimmey, PhD student in History: Hungary
Daniel Knorr, PhD student in History: China
David Lebovitz, PhD student in East Asian Languages and Civilizations: China
Deirdre Lyons, PhD student in History: France
Nabanjan Maitra, PhD student in the Divinity School, History of Religions: India
Moira O'Shea, PhD student in Sociology: Kyrgyzstan
Eric Phillips, PhD student in History: Austria
Emily Rap, PhD student in History: France
David Reher, PhD student in Romance Languages and Literature: Spain
Anatole Upart, PhD student in Art History: Italy
Joshua Vera, PhD student in History: Greece
Nancy Vue, master’s student in the School of Social Service Administration: Laos
Margaret Wang, MD student in the Pritzker School of Medicine: China
Tyler Wilkinson, Master's of Arts Program in the Humanities: France

Two students declined the fellowships to pursue other academic opportunities.

Graduate students who are interested in applying to the next Fulbright competition should contact Jessica Smith, Associate Director of Fellowships, at jessicasmith@uchicago.edu. College students should visit the Center for Scholarly Advancement website to learn more about the Fulbright process for undergraduates.

Prof. Augusta Read Thomas receives prestigious composer and cultural awards

Thu, 05 May 2016 15:26 -0500

University Professor of Composition Augusta Read Thomas has won the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra Composer’s Award for 2015-16, the oldest award of its kind in the nation honoring contemporary composers who have made significant contributions to the field of symphonic music, and who are “effective personal advocates of new approaches to the broadening of critical and appreciative standards."

Thomas will be honored at three concerts held between May 20-22 at the Fulton Opera House in Lancaster, Penn., during which the Lancaster Symphony will perform her orchestral works “Aureole” and “Prayer and Celebration,” conducted by Stephen Gunzenhauser.

“I am honored and humbled to receive this award and to join past recipients whom I have long admired and respected,” Thomas said. “Working with the members of the Lancaster Symphony will be a privilege and delight.”

In November, Thomas was awarded the Cultural Medal of Monaco, earning the honor Chevalier of the Order of Cultural Merit. Established in 1952 by Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, the award recognizes those “who have made a distinctive contribution to the arts, letters or science.” Thomas received the award at the Prince’s Palace in Monaco from Her Royal Highness Princess Caroline of Hanover, Princess of Monaco.

This fall Thomas is leading the Ear Taxi Festival, a six-day, first-of-its-kind new music festival celebrating the vibrant, classical contemporary music scene in Chicago. Running from Oct. 5-10 at six venues across the city, the festival will include performances by some of Chicago’s most innovative composers and performers in contemporary music.

For more information, visit http://www.eartaxifestival.com.

Samuel Boland, who worked on Ebola front lines, wins Marshall Scholarship

Tue, 24 Nov 2015 16:45 -0600

Fourth-year College student Samuel Boland has won a Marshall Scholarship, a prestigious award for graduate study that will take him to England next year to pursue a master’s degree in global public health with a focus on developing Africa.

Boland said the scholarship will allow him to pursue his interest in improving access to maternal and child health services and exploring innovative ways to strengthen the health system infrastructure in countries where it is inadequate. He will study for two years at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Boland returned to Chicago in September after working for nine months on the Ebola response in Sierra Leone. Stationed in the northwestern Port Loko and Kambia districts with the nongovernmental organization GOAL Global, he supported Ebola surveillance efforts and helped manage government teams responsible for tracking down suspect cases of the disease for referral to treatment centers.

“We are enormously proud of the intellectual leadership and creativity of students in the College, and Sam’s achievement is a testament to those qualities,” said John W. Boyer, dean of the College. “We have been inspired by Sam’s commitment to improve the lives of those affected by the devastation of the Ebola virus with his own talents and interests in medicine and health policy. We are extremely proud to see him pursue these goals as a Marshall Scholar.”

‘An incredibly powerful experience’

Arriving in Sierra Leone at the peak of the Ebola outbreak in January, Boland was on the front lines of the concerted eradication campaign that resulted in the country being declared Ebola transmission-free as of September. “To arrive to a situation where there were 500 cases a week and watch that drop to zero cases was an incredibly powerful experience,” Boland said. “I saw how a collection of people and institutions could come together as one team working against one enemy.”

Prior to his work in Sierra Leone, Boland completed internships in global public health in Kenya and South Sudan through Massachusetts General Hospital’s Division of Global Health and Human Rights. In Kenya, he was responsible for logistical and programmatic support at a rural community hospital; in South Sudan he oversaw midwifery trainings and facilitated the medical training program at Juba Teaching Hospital.

Boland was assisted in his Marshall application by the College Center for Scholarly Advancement, a new University office that informs undergraduates about national scholarship, fellowship and postgraduate opportunities and helps them through the highly competitive application processes. Following the completion of his degree, he plans to return to the United States to pursue a one-year post-baccalaureate, pre-med program, followed by medical school. The trajectory will afford him a “dual degree” perspective of both medicine and public health policy, which will position him well for global public health work.

‘The right thing to do’

A public policy major with a minor in human rights, Boland said his experiences in Africa have spurred in him an “ethical and moral imperative” to create health care systems that best meet the needs of vulnerable populations. While in Sierra Leone, he witnessed devastating loss of life, recalling a family that was quarantined for four months. “One after the other, someone in the family died,” Boland said. “Their household went from 19 members to nine.”

“Sam’s choice to work on the Ebola response in Sierra Leone is emblematic of his dedication to helping, as he puts it, ‘our human family,’ ” said Emily Lynn Osborn, associate professor of history and the College. “He is moved by an urgency to use his skill and talents to help others and to overcome differences of privilege, wealth and distance.”

Despite the emotional toll, Boland said forming bonds with others and helping save lives is what drives him. “There is a camaraderie that exists among those who have decided to put themselves at some risk to do work like this,” Boland said. “I saw colleagues who, in the midst of tragedy, were able to mitigate and alleviate a huge amount of suffering. I don’t know how I could go through such an experience and not decide that this is the right thing to do.”

This past April, Boland received a Harry S. Truman Scholarship, which supports students pursuing careers in public service. He is the University’s 22nd Marshall scholar since 1986.

Amy Kass, inspirational teacher who treasured a humanistic education, 1940–2015

Thu, 27 Aug 2015 12:50 -0500

During a teaching career that spanned 34 years at the University of Chicago, Amy Kass designed courses that addressed both the enduring questions of human existence and the urgent questions facing today’s young people by helping them see the relevance of classic texts to their everyday lives.

Among these was the “Ethics of Everyday Life: Courtship” course, which she co-created with her husband, Leon Kass, SB’58, MD’62. In the course she encouraged students to explore “inarticulate longings” and discover the purposes and virtues of courtship, love, sex and marriage through texts by such writers as Homer, Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Tolstoy, C.S. Lewis, Allan Bloom and even Miss Manners.

Amy Apfel Kass, AB'62, senior lecturer emerita in humanities, died on Aug. 19 at her home in Washington, D.C., after a 10-year battle with ovarian cancer and a short battle with leukemia. She was 74.

“Amy Kass was a wonderfully generous and engaged teacher of the humanities, who profoundly influenced and enriched the lives of several generations of students in the College,” said John W. Boyer, dean of the College and the Martin A. Ryerson Distinguished Service Professor of History. “Her contributions to the theory and practice of liberal education were manifold and outstanding. She left an extraordinary legacy of excellence and dedication to the highest educational ideals of the College.”

In an article published in the Wall Street Journal, Bret Stephens, AB'95, a Pulitzer-winning journalist, noted that Kass was one of the best teachers he ever had. “Mrs. Kass believed that at least one aim of a higher education is to provide students with a sextant of sorts, by which they might better discover what it is they should know about life, what they might hope for it and how they might go about getting it,” he wrote.

Born Amy Judith Apfel in 1940, Kass grew up in New York City and chose, against her parents' wishes, to attend the University of Chicago because the recruitment catalogue focused on ideas and contained no pictures. "But really what was distinctive about Chicago—it was a place where you didn’t have to apologize for being serious," she often said. She met her future husband on her first day on campus. Leon Kass, a student at what is now the Pritzker School of Medicine, happened to be on the Orientation Board, responsible for orienting new students. The two were married two years later, in 1961.

During a video interview in January 2014 with Bill Kristol, founder and editor of the Weekly Standard, Amy Kass spoke fondly of her experience at UChicago. “We spent the first three weeks discussing the Declaration of Independence,” she recalled. “And I was blown away. The conversations that it generated … really converted me to a way of thinking, a way of reading and a way of speaking,” she added.

After graduating from UChicago, Kass took a teaching job at a high school in Lincoln-Sudbury, Mass. She took time off in the summer of 1965, following the passage of the Voting Rights Act, to put her strong beliefs in civil rights into action. She and her husband traveled to Mississippi, where they spent a month mobilizing African Americans in rural Holmes County to register to vote, encouraging them to organize and defend their civil rights.

“Amy’s devotion to excellence in teaching was part of a larger moral vision that guided her throughout her life and shaped her character,” said Robert P. George, the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, and the Herbert W. Vaughan fellow at the Witherspoon Institute. “At the core of that vision was a sense of the profound and equal dignity of the human person.”

Re-inventing the rituals of courtship

Kass joined the UChicago faculty in 1976 as a lecturer in the Humanities Collegiate Division. Her husband Leon also joined the faculty for what would be a long and distinguished tenure; he currently is the Addie Clark Harding Professor Emeritus of Social Thought and the College. Amy and Leon Kass co-founded the “Human Being and Citizen” Common Core course devoted to the questions, “what is an excellent human being and what is an excellent citizen?” Amy Kass also was a stalwart teacher and advisor in the Fundamentals: Issues and Texts undergraduate major.

“Amy was an inspirational teacher for students and staff, believing so vehemently as she did in the value of a humanistic education,” said David Bevington, the Phyllis Fay Horton Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus. “She was no less dear and wonderful as a human being and colleague.”

Nathan Tarcov, professor of social thought and political science, agreed. “Amy was a rare and beloved teacher who inspired her students not only to respect the great books she taught but to respect themselves and each other,” said Tarcov.

At UChicago, Kass and her husband learned from their observations and through conversations that many young people went along from one unsatisfactory relationship to the next, often becoming “jaded and embittered.”

“There was a lot of talk about the failure of marriage, the divorce culture, the problems of single parenthood,” said Leon Kass during an interview with the Weekly Standard’s Kristol. “But there was absolutely no discussion whatsoever about how you get married and how you go about finding and winning the right one with whom you could make a life. And there were no cultural norms, there were no teachings.”

The Kasses decided to address the problem, both in writing and teaching. In 2000, the efforts led to the creation of a course, “Ethics of Everyday Life: Courtship,” which was based on an anthology the couple edited, Wing to Wing, Oar to Oar: Readings on Courting and Marrying. The book promotes what they called a higher kind of sex education designed to prepare hearts and minds for romance leading to lasting marriage.

Through the book, the Kasses sought to inspire young people to rediscover the blessings of marriage by reading classic and modern works on the subject, and re-inventing new forms of courting based on improved respect between men and women.

“Amy tried to help her students realize that what they longed for—intellectually, spiritually, even romantically—but too often felt they were denied by modern life, was only denied to them as long as they failed to really understand their longings,” wrote journalist Yuval Levin, who earned his PhD from the Committee on Social Thought at UChicago. “They could come to better understand them through the study of great works of literature.”

In 1980, after only four years of teaching in the College, Amy Kass won a Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. In 2010, Kass received the Norman Maclean Faculty Award, and the University subsequently created the Leon and Amy Kass Odyssey Scholarship Fund.

“Amy Kass was keenly interested in young people’s development as thoughtful human beings,” said Ralph Lerner, the Benjamin Franklin Professor Emeritus in Social Thought and the College, who co-taught several courses with Kass. “Her welcoming manner and easy smile never got the better of her intellectual rigor. Her success as a teacher may be measured by her many College students who strove to adopt for themselves the standard she held up before them: that when it comes to thinking, half-done is not well done.”

Kass retired in June 2010, and she discussed Herman Melville's Moby-Dick in her last class. When summarizing her UChicago career, she wrote that her lifelong mission was to teach people to “read great books slowly and critically, to refine their ideas, to enlarge their sympathies, and to aspire to a richer life beyond self-centered quests for gain, fame or power.”

Kass served on the National Council on the Humanities for the National Endowment for the Humanities, as a consultant to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Corporation for National and Community Service, and as a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.

She authored numerous articles and edited anthologies on American autobiography, and on the idea and practice of philanthropy. In addition to Wing to Wing, Oar to Oar, she and her husband also produced the anthology, What So Proudly We Hail: The American Soul in Story, Speech, and Song. They also produced e-curricula on The Meaning of America and The American Calendar.

Amy Kass is survived by her husband of 54 years, Leon Kass; her daughters, Sarah Kass and Miriam R. Kass; son-in-law, Robert Hochman; her granddaughters, Polly, Hannah, Naomi and Abigail; and her siblings, Dr. Roberta J. Apfel, Dr. Franklin J. Apfel and David J. Apfel.

From octopus development to Arctic change: graduate students pursue research at MBL

Fri, 21 Aug 2015 16:20 -0500

From octopus embryology to the proteins active in Arctic soil, University of Chicago graduate students are exploring a range of questions at the Marine Biological Laboratory this summer as recipients of a University of Chicago Graduate Student Research Award. Now in its second year, this program enables selected UChicago students to enroll in an MBL course or collaborate with an MBL research mentor. Here are this year’s award recipients.

Caroline Albertin spent several weeks at the MBL investigating octopus development, as a follow-up to her recent work on octopus genomics. Albertin is first author of the cover story in Nature on Aug. 12, which provides the first whole-genome analysis of an octopus (O. bimaculoides). This also represents the first complete sequencing of a cephalopod, a class of predatory molluscs that includes octopus, squid, cuttlefish and nautilus. A sixth-year graduate student in Cliff Ragsdale’s lab in organismal biology and anatomy at UChicago, Albertin plans to defend her thesis soon after incorporating this summer’s work. Her MBL research was sponsored by senior scientist Roger Hanlon; she also worked closely with research associate Stephen Senft.

Albertin is interested in the unusual body plans of the cephalopods. The octopus, with its large brain and eight arms capable of grasping objects, is constructed very differently than most other animals, even other molluscs. “By sequencing the genome, you get access to the whole [genetic] toolkit the animal has” to develop its body plan, said Albertin. Genomic analysis also allowed her to “get a broad look of how to build a cephalopod,” she said, and uncovered quite a few surprises.

Albertin’s octopus developmental studies at the MBL this summer complement her genomic research. “These are two different snapshots of the same species,” she said. She took advantage of healthy specimens in the MBL’s Marine Resources Center and a powerful scanning electron microscope (SEM), which gives “a very different view [of structure] compared to a light microscope or even a confocal microscope,” she said. “You see all kinds of surface detail that you wouldn’t normally get.” Albertin used the SEM to look at various octopus body tissues and a technique called in situ hybridization to determine which genes are expressed as those tissues develop. The SEM data will add another dimension to the broader question that interests Albertin: “How do you get from a single cell to an eye, a brain, an arm?”

Katherine Criswell attended the 2014 Embryology course as a UChicago Graduate Research Award recipient and returned to the MBL this summer, using part of her original award. Criswell is studying the development of skates: flat, cartilaginous fish that resemble stingrays. Using a technique called fate mapping, Criswell is tracking how skate embryos grow and investigating what undeveloped tissues will become in the mature skate. She’s particularly interested in how the spine and the vertebrae form.

Not many scientists study skates, but for Criswell’s research questions, it’s one of the best experimental systems. As a fourth-year graduate student with Michael Coates, professor of organismal biology and anatomy, Criswell sometimes has skates flown into the lab from a faraway ocean. However, she’s found it’s difficult to keep them healthy in the lab’s artificial seawater. In terms of experiments, “everything goes much more smoothly at the MBL,” Criswell said. She’s been able to collect a large amount of data with her MBL mentor, Whitman Center Investigator Andy Gillis of Dalhousie University, and she’ll analyze it over the winter.

This Chicago winter may be Criswell’s last, as she is about to graduate, but she hopes her work with skates—and her pilgrimages to the MBL—will continue. “The MBL has such a great, inspiring, positive and creative atmosphere,” she said. Wherever Criswell goes after graduation, the MBL will likely be part of the plan.

Samuel Miller, a fifth-year graduate student in Albert Colman’s lab in UChicago’s Department of the Geophysical Sciences, came to the MBL for its expertise in Arctic ecology. Miller studies frozen Arctic soils (permafrost) using proteomics, a method that investigates all the proteins present in a particular tissue, organism or environmental sample. He’s interested in how permafrost soil microbes are responding to global warming. As the permafrost warms, proteins produced by microbes degrade frozen organic matter in the soil, which releases greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide. Understanding the types of soil proteins present will shed light on the response of the Arctic carbon cycle to a rapidly changing climate.

Miller is also identifying the microbial genes that encode Arctic soil proteins. This metagenomic approach is an essential complement to proteomics, since the DNA in a soil sample indicates the range of proteins that can potentially be expressed. His Graduate Research Award is supporting metagenomic analysis at UChicago, as well as a week at the MBL working with senior scientists Anne Giblin and Gus Shaver, both MBL Arctic researchers. Giblin and Shaver have long experience conducting research at Toolik Field Station in Alaska, where Miller collected soil cores last year.

Darcy Ross also attended the Embryology course in 2014 and has returned to the MBL to continue her research. She is interested in the development of snail shells, specifically in the slipper snail (Crepidula fornicata). She wants to know how the shells form and what shell building involves, but the larger question behind her investigation concerns how shells have evolved.

The experiments Ross has designed can be conducted at UChicago, where she is a third-year graduate student of Neil Shubin, the Bensley Professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy. But the snails stay healthier in natural seawater at MBL, so Ross is working out of Shubin’s lab in the MBL’s Whitman Center this summer. Ross also has expert advice at the Marine Biological Laboratory.

“One of the embryology course faculty members, Jonathan Henry of the University of Illinois, is the snail guy,” Ross said. Henry, who is co-mentoring Ross’s MBL research, has developed techniques and protocols to explore these very small experimental subjects. Ross is using UV light and various drugs to determine which genes play a role in shell coiling, and she wants to know whether different species’ shells are built by disparate methods. “It’s time to start looking at the inside of the shell” and the story behind it, Ross said, “as well as the outside.”

Edes Prize winner explores contrasts in Xilitla, Mexico

Tue, 09 Jun 2015 11:47 -0500

Composer, performer and multimedia artist Francisco Castillo Trigueros, PhD’13, refers to his winning proposal for the 2015 Claire Rosen & Samuel Edes Prize for Emerging Artists as a song cycle that will depict the town of Xilitla in the mountainous Huasteca region of Mexico.

The annual $30,000 prize will allow Castillo Trigueros to pursue his vision, which will in fact be a transmedia take on the form, incorporating electronically processed field recordings, live performance by the Fonema Consort and visuals ranging from the documentary to the fully abstract.

“The text of the songs is going to be a combination of quotations that we’re going to get from interviews [with] locals and my own writings,” he explains. “The interviews are going to serve a couple of purposes. One is just to get an idea of what this place is for the locals, but two, actually as source material for the songs.”

His field recordings will stand on their own as sonic representations of Xilitla and the surrounding area, from the nearby Convent of St. Augustine to the Cave of Swallows, a 1,100-foot-deep, open chasm filled with birds. “Now it’s full of eco-tourists,” Castillo Trigueros remarks.

He says he hopes to treat the recordings as source material that can be converted into musical passages. “Let’s say the bells in the convent are transcribed and used as melody, in the flute or even in the voice.”

The Music Emerges from the Place

In the public imagination, Xilitla is generally synonymous with Las Pozas, “a surrealist sculpture garden by [British poet] Edward James,” which Castillo Trigueros visited as a tourist when he was about 15. “This very interesting garden lives in this town that is quite different, this completely concrete-made town. It’s not a wealthy town at all.”

Las Pozas is a dreamscape of a garden, planted with the intent of its structures, including its rounded functionless buttresses, to become overgrown as quickly as possible—an artificial ruin. It’s the work of a cultural outsider, and also a work meant to look like it’s unstuck from time, and maybe even not of this world. Castillo Trigueros was struck by “the shocking contrast between this kind of utopia created by this European artist, [as] compared to the much rougher reality that Xilitla is, the actual town.”

“To me,” Castillo Trigueros reflects, “these contrasts that we’re discussing in this town—and that we’re going to be observing in this town, and sharing—are actually commonplace. I feel like the town is a synthesis of Mexico, which is a country where you can have a nightmare within a dream.

“I don’t want to observe it in a way that’s, like, tourist,” Castillo Trigueros explains. “I don’t want to do the same thing that I’m criticizing,” namely what James did, imposing an outsiders’ view onto Xilitla. “I guess a little bit, my ideal version of this piece is that all of the music emerges from the place,” he explains. “The piece will be my piece. There’s no doubt that in the end it’s going to be my observation. But I am going to make a huge effort to make sure that that observation is as informed as possible.”

A Transformative Effect

“An important criterion for the Edes Prize is the potential for the artist’s project to have a transformative effect on his or her own work, as well as that of the arts at large,” explains Anthony Cheung, assistant professor of music and an Edes Prize jury member. “Xilitla promises to engage with the medium of electro-acoustic and intermedia composition, for which Francisco already has had much recognition.”

“It’s an immense honor to get a prize like this, and it’s a huge privilege.” Castillo Trigueros reflects. “In order for young artists to be able to tackle ambitious projects that will actually help them grow and help their voice grow, you need to have generous grants, generous prizes. All of a sudden, next year, I can actually dedicate myself to composing one piece,” he continues. “All of a sudden, you have this possibility of turning to what your goal in life is, which is just to write music, or to make art.”

“He [Castillo Trigueros] has a masterful and natural way with combining recorded and digitally processed sounds with acoustic ensembles, and already has collaborated with filmmakers in the past to create multimedia experiences that are intertwined and multi-layered,” Cheung notes, adding that he was excited to see those skills being applied to a subject so clearly personal to the artist.

“I have pieces that have relationships with Mexico, but this will actually be this thing about Mexico, which is very meaningful to me,” Castillo Trigueros agrees, “and I just would not be able to do it without this kind of support.”

UChicago celebrates the promise of Chicago youth

Fri, 22 May 2015 15:10 -0500

Though Daweed Abdiel always has been intellectually curious and a good student, college wasn’t always on his radar. Most of his older family members had started college but never finished. In his first two years of high school, “I wasn’t thinking about college too much,” he said. “I was a good student, but I had no direction.”

That changed after Abdiel joined the Upward Bound program offered through the Office of Special Programs-College Prep. Staff members who lead the program encouraged him to apply to colleges. “This program helped me determine I wanted a small liberal arts college.” With Upward Bound showing the way, he got what he wanted. In August, Abdiel will attend Denison University with the support of two prestigious awards: a Gates-Millennium Scholarship and a Posse Scholarship.

“We have young people who develop a real sense of confidence and self-awareness about who they are and their ability to meet challenges and be successful,” said Dovetta McKee, director of the Office of Special Programs-College Prep. “It changes their mindset about the leadership role they can play in their communities, and makes them models for young people who follow behind them,” she said.

Abdiel was one of about 60 Chicago high school seniors honored at the 2015 Student Recognition Night, sponsored by the Office of Civic Engagement. The seniors took part in one of two programs: Upward Bound or the Collegiate Scholars Program, which prepares talented Chicago Public Schools students to succeed in the nation’s top colleges and universities.

In addition, University students who have served with the Neighborhood Schools Program received recognition for their work in local public schools and community programs. All three efforts are part of UChicago Promise, the University’s multi-pronged effort to increase college access and success for Chicago youth.

Increasing college access and success starts young. The Neighborhood Schools Program connects 375 UChicago students with 3,000 students in the surrounding neighborhoods. Many are still grade-schoolers, and tutoring can make a real impact on their future prospects.

“We leaned on NSP quite a lot and they came through,” said Ed Kajor in a video shown at the event. Kajor, a learning behavior specialist at Burke Elementary in Washington Park, credits tutoring from volunteers like Amanda Weisler, a third-year sociology major, for boosting the school’s scores on standardized tests.

“Our program is one of a few that is truly receptive to local school needs, said Shaz Rasul, director of community programs in the Office of Civic Engagement. “If a principal tells us she needs help with third grade, we will find tutors for the third grade who can be available during the school day. This is important because schools are often judged by what happens in the classroom, not enrichment time after school.”

University students benefit, too. Real-world experience has led more than one NSP volunteer into a career in education, including Sara Stoelinga, clinical professor of the Committee on Education, who was honored at the event with the Don York Faculty Initiative Award, and keynote speaker Geoffrey Aladro AB’06, who is currently Miami-Dade’s Teacher of the Year. Stoelinga also received a 2015 Llewellyn John and Harriet Manchester Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.

When Aladro discovered his long-held dream of corporate work wasn’t all he thought it would be, he changed gears and chose teaching because of his NSP experiences. “I haven’t really worked since I became a teacher,” he told the crowd, “because I love my work.”

Fourth-year Jonathan Fifer, who volunteered with NSP throughout his College career, intends to follow in their footsteps. His next goal will be to earn a master’s degree from Teachers College, Columbia University, where he’ll study early childhood education. “I’ve always been interested in the little kids,” he said. “Even when they’re crying or being bad, you can see their thought process. I can’t be mad at them.”

While teaching high school students about the college application process gets them started on their higher education journey, the Upward Bound and Collegiate Scholars programs also support young people’s intellectual growth. Ivelise Colon, a Collegiate Scholar, has chosen Whittier College’s alternative liberal arts program, where she will design her own major, incorporating elements of psychology, sociology and early childhood education. “I want to do my own thing,” she said.

“The hallmark of Collegiate Scholars is the interaction with faculty. We are one of very few institutions in the country where there is intentional engagement between University faculty and public school students from across the city,” said Abel Ochoa, interim director of the Collegiate Scholars Program. “It really elevates a student’s frame of thinking to be taught by a professor who has written a textbook, done concrete research, or is considered a world-renowned expert in his field.”

Like Colon, Abdiel has seen his intellectual interests shift over time, from physics to chemistry with a generous side helping of economics and African-American Studies. He credits his Upward Bound mentors for exposing him to the Kavli Institute of Cosmological Physics and for staying the course with him as his interests evolved. “They won’t tell you what to do, but they’ll ask you questions,” he said. “They’ll help you find your passions.”

Third-year Samuel Boland wins prestigious Truman Scholarship

Mon, 20 Apr 2015 09:45 -0500

Third-year Samuel Boland has won a Harry S. Truman Scholarship, a nationally competitive award that supports exceptional students pursuing careers in public service.

Boland is one of 58 undergraduates selected from a pool of nearly 700 undergraduate candidates nationwide to win the prestigious award, which provides up to $30,000 for awardees’ graduate education.

“I am absolutely thrilled,” Boland wrote in an email from Sierra Leone, where he is working in an Ebola response program. “But more than anything else, I feel deep gratitude for the support I have received from the University, my family, friends and mentors.”

Boland has been living in Sierra Leone since early January, engrossed in the work he would like to pursue as a career—global public health, with a focus on maternal mortality. Stationed in the northern city of Kambia with the nongovernmental organization GOAL, Boland supports Ebola surveillance efforts and helps manage government teams responsible for tracking down suspect cases of the disease for referral to treatment centers.

Upon graduation in June 2016, Boland, a public policy major, plans to enroll in an accelerated one-year post-baccalaureate, pre-med program, followed by a dual graduate degree in medicine and public health. The choice to pursue both degrees is based on Boland’s past experiences working on public health projects in South Sudan, Kenya and Sierra Leone.

“The individuals I see effecting the greatest public service have consistently been dual-degree graduates,” Boland said. “Without an understanding of both human physiology and an appreciation for the socioeconomic determinants of health, public service through political advocacy and health policy is bound to fail.”

Recent Ebola outbreaks in Sierra Leone, as well as Guinea and Liberia, are the largest and most complex in history, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and have severely compromised the public health infrastructure.

Boland says comprehensive maternal care has all but disappeared from Sierra Leone due to the risk of Ebola transmission during managed births, and the country is currently experiencing the highest rate of maternal mortality worldwide. “I believe the best way to address maternal mortality in Sierra Leone is to eradicate Ebola,” he said.

In addition to his overseas global health work, Boland worked as a health educator and leadership council member at Peer Health Exchange, a Chicago nonprofit, where he taught sexual health workshops to teens and trained other university students to do the same. He also volunteered at Featherfist, an anti-homelessness organization on Chicago’s South Side, where he worked with a nine-person team doing policy review, spatial analysis and map-making and conducting interviews with Featherfist staff.

"Sam possesses an extraordinary commitment to public service, an uncanny work ethic and an absolutely first-rate analytical mind,” said Chad Broughton, a senior lecturer in Public Policy Studies who, as Boland’s instructor, oversaw his Featherfist experience. “He is nearly perfectly equipped for the next stage in what I am certain will be a successful career in medicine, research and international public health.”

Boland will finish his stay in Sierra Leone in July and will return to UChicago in the fall for his final year in the College. He says he is already looking forward to his next chance to embark on a public health project in the developing world—perhaps one day working with the World Health Organization or a nongovernmental organization.

The Truman Scholarship will help him meet those goals through its generous financial support, but it offers even more than that, he said. “This award supports me in my graduate education,” Boland added, “but even more so, it links me with an amazing community of individuals whom I look forward to calling lifelong friends and colleagues.”

Two students win grants from Davis Projects for Peace

Fri, 10 Apr 2015 11:55 -0500

Two UChicago students have won $10,000 grants from Davis Projects for Peace, an initiative that encourages students to design and implement grassroots summer projects that promote peace and address the root causes of conflict.

First-year master’s student Sujata Singh will travel to Nepal to teach computer skills in Alad, a remote village in the far western region of the country, where currently there is only one computer. Singh, who was born and raised in Kathmandu, plans to spend her grant money purchasing 10 computers that will serve 300 students at Shree Bhairab Secondary School.

She will help train the school’s 13 teachers, then provide a four-week computer course for ninth- and 10th-graders. “Going into this project, I thought ‘How can I make sure that these students have the world open to them?’” said Singh, a student in the Harris School of Public Policy, with a focus on women and poverty. “Computers and the Internet are such a big part of that, especially in today’s global world.”

Singh says the 10-year civil war in Nepal may have ended in 2006, but the country is still without a constitution and remains politically deadlocked. Rural villagers like those of Alad were traumatized and remain cut off from their society and the world at large—with little opportunity for education and jobs. “One of my main goals is community building from within,” she said. “Through education, the students can find ways to make their community stronger and give back to their society.”

Singh has not been back to Nepal in three years. During her stay, she plans to live among Alad’s villagers. “I’m expecting a bit of reverse culture shock, but I’m really looking forward to it,” she said. “I’m excited to go home with something to contribute.”

Alex Ding will return to Pelel Kindessa, in southwestern Senegal, for 10 weeks this summer to help establish community gardens, dig a freshwater well and build hygienic latrines. A first-year in the College, Ding spent seven months in the village last year after graduating from high school. There, she learned the local language, Pulaar, and came to a profound understanding of the villagers’ most basic needs.

Two months into her stay in the village, Ding’s host mother, a woman in her early 30s, died following the birth of twin girls. The death was attributed to chronic malnutrition and untreated anemia. “It was a preventable death,” Ding said. “They have a word for that in Pulaar that means ‘stupid death.’”

Through conversations with villagers, Ding learned that while access to medical care was an urgent need—the nearest hospital was nearly two hours away—access to basic nutrition might have prevented her host mother’s death. “They subsist on a diet of rice and corn,” Ding said, “and they understand that what they’re putting into their bodies is not enough.”

This summer Ding will use her Davis Prize grant to create a 2.5-acre year-round community vegetable garden that will provide the community with nutrient-rich foods. The idea came from the villagers themselves who already have taken leadership roles to make it happen. She also will work to promote better access to drinking water and better hygiene and sanitation practices through the construction of a freshwater well and improved latrines. Currently, the village has no running water or electricity.

Ding said the community is tightly knit, and neighbors come to each other’s aid. Nonetheless, hopelessness exists about their collective fate. “My ultimate goal is to challenge the ways Pelel residents relate to their condition, self-narrate their lives and imagine their futures,” she said. “I hope this project will empower them to tackle future challenges more effectively and inclusively.”

Now in its ninth year, Davis Projects for Peace was founded by international philanthropist Kathryn W. Davis, who donated $1 million on her 100th birthday in 2007 to start the program. The scholarship is open to undergraduates who are affiliated with Davis United World College Scholars Program partner schools and International Houses worldwide. Singh applied through her affiliation with International House at the University of Chicago, where she is also a recipient of a 2014-2015 residential fellowship.

Chicago Booth’s New Venture Challenge ranks among top accelerator programs in country

Fri, 20 Mar 2015 16:00 -0500

The premier startup program at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, the Edward L. Kaplan, ’71, New Venture Challenge, was recently named a top accelerator program in the United States.

The NVC, which is run by the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Chicago Booth, ranked fourth in research released by the Seed Accelerator Rankings Program. Independent accelerator programs Angelpad, MuckerLab and Techstars landed in the top three. Stanford University’s StartX, which ranked sixth, was the only other university accelerator program listed in the top 10.

“This ranking puts a spotlight on university accelerator programs,” said Steve Kaplan, faculty director of the Polsky Center and the Neubauer Family Distinguished Service Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance at Booth. “For the past 19 years, our NVC program has pioneered many of the same elements found in most accelerator programs today.”

This was the first year in which university accelerators were included in the annual research conducted by the Seed Accelerator Rankings Project. Accelerators are defined as a fixed-term, cohort-based program that includes mentorship, educational components and culminates in a public pitch event or demo day. Both independent and university accelerators meeting this definition were asked to submit information on companies that participated in their accelerator program between 2005 and 2014.

“We always knew university accelerator programs provided great educational opportunities for entrepreneurs,” said Yael Hochberg, managing director of the Seed Accelerator Rankings Project, and the Ralph S. O’Connor Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Rice University Jones Graduate School of Business. “By including universities in our research, our goal is to offer insights for the community and measure the impact and success these university programs provide.”

Notable NVC participants included in the Seed Accelerator Rankings Project research were Braintree, which was acquired by PayPal in 2013 for $800 million; GrubHub, which completed an IPO in April 2014 and whose market cap exceeds $3.8 billion; Bump Technologies, which was acquired by Google in 2013; and Simple Mills, which raised a seed round from Hyde Park Angels in July 2014.

“We are very proud of the work that goes into supporting our student entrepreneurs,” said Ellen Rudnick, MBA’73, executive director of the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. “In May 2016, we will mark a milestone as we celebrate 20 years of our NVC program.”

Fourth-year hopes fellowship will lead to career addressing disparities in education

Thu, 19 Mar 2015 13:15 -0500

When Mikaela Betts earned a scholarship in fifth grade to an exclusive California private school, her eyes were opened to educational disparities based on income—and on race.

Betts, whose mother is African American, was among only a few students of color; she found herself navigating a world of wealth and privilege very different from her public school upbringing. “I was one of the lucky few who got that opportunity, and I’m grateful,” said Betts, a fourth-year majoring in sociology and public policy. “But the experience made me very cognizant of the inequalities between school systems.”

Betts never forgot her public school peers, many of whom were also racial and ethnic minorities from low-income families. It bothered her that they would not enjoy the same resources and opportunities. “That’s when I decided I wanted to do something about public education,” Betts said. “And I’ve stuck with it ever since.”

Betts has won the Woodrow Wilson Rockefeller Brothers Fund Fellowship for Aspiring Teachers of Color—one of only eight fellows selected this year from a national pool of 48 applicants. The fellowship will provide a stipend to pursue a master’s degree in education as well as mentoring and professional training in a high-need public school.

Betts will attend the two-year University of Chicago Urban Teacher Education Program this fall, and after graduation she hopes to teach middle school English language arts in Chicago. “Middle school can be a ‘make you or break you’ kind of time,” Betts said. “It’s so important to show students how much they are valued; it’s an ideal time to get involved in their lives.”

She already has a taste of what that work would be like. Betts is a teacher’s assistant at Fiske Elementary School, a placement she received through UChicago’s Neighborhood Schools Program. For the past three years, she’s coached girls softball at the University of Chicago Woodlawn Charter School.

Eventually, Betts would like to move into an administrative role that would involve closer interaction with education policy. “She has great potential to teach, to instruct teachers, and to manage schools and even school systems,” said Ross M. Stolzenberg, professor of sociology, who served as Betts’ thesis advisor. “She shows outstanding motivation to use her social and intellectual skills to build organizations that help and protect others who have suffered from disadvantage.”

For now, Betts’ sights are set on effecting change in the classroom. “I’ve realized more and more the impact that a good education has on life outcomes,” she said. “I think the biggest crime is that there are such great disparities in education—I keep asking, ‘How do we make it better? How do we spread the wealth?’”

Yusef Al-Jarani wins Gates Cambridge Scholarship

Wed, 11 Feb 2015 13:20 -0600

Fourth-year College student Yusef Al-Jarani has won a Gates Cambridge Scholarship to study at the University of Cambridge beginning in the fall. One of 40 U.S. recipients chosen from a pool of some 800 applicants, Al-Jarani will complete an MPhil in development studies, focusing on the Middle East and North Africa.

The Gates Cambridge is awarded to students who exhibit academic excellence and leadership potential, and who demonstrate a commitment to improving others’ lives. Al-Jarani plans to work in economic development to help Arab youth find jobs. “I am grateful for this opportunity to help me get to where I want to be and help who I want to help,” Al-Jarani said.

Al-Jarani’s focus on the Arab world grew out of his childhood years traveling to Libya from his home in Troy, Ohio, to visit his father’s extended family. “As an Arab American you sort of can’t be divorced from the politics of the region,” he said.

Al-Jarani recalls the mood when longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi ruled the country. “My father would tell me not to look at anyone or speak to anyone because they could potentially be a state agent,” he said. “I remember a very authoritarian society.”

But during his most recent trip to Libya in September 2012—after Arab Spring uprisings led to Gaddafi’s overthrow—Al-Jarani saw possibilities for a new way forward. “People were the happiest I’d ever seen them,” he said. “They had suffered for so long and now was their chance to build a better life—it was a very inspirational experience for me.”

After completing his degree at Cambridge, Al-Jarani would like to develop small and medium-sized businesses in high-knowledge industries to help Middle Eastern and North African young people get jobs. He has in mind people like his cousin, a dentist, who graduated from his university with top honors but cannot find meaningful work.

“Youth in the Middle East and North Africa face very high unemployment rates, even though they are very well educated,” Al-Jarani said. “The opportunities simply are not there. I think there are ways for startup incubators and small business consultative services to help them grow their markets and create jobs.”

Al-Jarani says the bigotry and racism he has sometimes faced as an Arab Muslim growing up in the United States after 9/11 is partially what propelled him toward his goal. “In sixth grade, a girl came up to me on the playground and told me to go back to my own country,” he said. “I was born in Northern Virginia, my favorite music was hip-hop and I loved to watch Hollywood films,” he added. “I had never experienced this idea of myself as ‘Other.’ ”

That incident, however, prompted an exploration of his complex identity as both an American and a Muslim—“those two things aren’t mutually exclusive,” Al-Jarani said—and drew him closer to the region of his ancestry.

Al-Jarani is the recipient of a 2014 Harry S. Truman Scholarship. In 2013, he was awarded a U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship to study Arabic in Jordan, and he represented UChicago at the McDonald Cadet Leadership Conference at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He is co-founder of the Phoenix Development Fund, a Chicago-based nonprofit providing free business development services to organizations on the city’s South Side. Twenty University of Chicago students have received Gates Cambridge Scholarships since the award’s inception in 2001.

“Yusef is a brilliant young man with a strong sense of public service,” said his advisor Robert Pape, professor in political science and co-director of the Program for International Security Politics. “His knowledge and insights on the politics of Libya are especially penetrating. He has been a leader at Chicago, and I have every confidence will be a leader at Cambridge and much beyond.”