Opening words

Scenes and voices from the inauguration of President Paul Alivisatos, AB’81.

One hundred years of global aid

A course tackles the history of efforts to do good abroad.

Comic relief

With Work in Progress, Abby McEnany, AB’92, created an unconventional sitcom for anyone who feels different.

Optimal quitting

An economist’s advice on when to fold your hand in favor of the next opportunity.

Interior monologue

Decorator and pulp writer Richard Himmel, EX’42 (1920–2000), had a private eye for design.

C Vitae: Freedom-minded

John A. Peoples Jr., AM’51, PhD’61, helped Jackson State endure and thrive after tragedy.

Magnifying vision

As a scientist, Paul Alivisatos, AB’81, studies ultrasmall structures. As UChicago’s 14th president, he sees big opportunities.

In Memoriam: Change agent

Remembering Hugo Sonnenschein, 1940–2021.

Board work

A photographer captures the beauty of mathematicians’ chalk experiments.

Legacy: Undercover man

Sam Greenlee, EX’57 (1930–2014), distinguished himself as a Foreign Service Officer, then found his true mission as a radical writer.

A measure of pleasure

For nearly two decades psychologist Andrea King has followed a group of social drinkers to find out why only some develop alcohol use disorder.

Abiding convictions

Punishment doesn’t end after incarceration, writes Crown Family School associate professor Reuben Jonathan Miller, AM’07. Plus: An excerpt from Halfway Home: Race, Punishment, and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration.

Executive dreaming

In Sleeping Presidents, artist and writer John Ransom Phillips, ABʼ60, PhDʼ66, takes viewers inside the minds of (almost) every one from George Washington to Joe Biden.

Glimpses: A questioning life

Leon Kass, LAB’54, SB’58, MD’62, continues the conversation.

Defining figure

President Robert J. Zimmer transformed the University of Chicago by affirming its core values.

A world apart

The many lives of quarantine.

Alternative history

The Chicago Journal—rival to the Maroon, free South Side weekly, journalism and business talent incubator—had a memorable eight-year run.

Legacy: Note by note

Eileen Southern, AB’40, AM’41 (1920–2002), rewrote the history of American music.

An Aeneid for our time

Shadi Bartsch-Zimmer’s new translation lets today’s reader hear Vergil as the Romans did. Plus: An excerpt from Book I of The Aeneid.

Out of the past

In the 1950s, a pair of young alumni set out on Route 66 and captured a workaday America now vanished.

The parenting trap

For some parents, life is a rat race they want their children to win. For others, it’s a race they’ve already lost. Why macroeconomics plays a role.

Glimpses: Travelogue

W. J. T. Mitchell looks at endings and beginnings.

Course Work: Experimental theater

Scenes from a minicourse at the Harry L. Davis Center for Leadership.

All together now

A historic campaign brought thousands together to invest in UChicago values.

Love thy neighbor

David Nirenberg studies the intertwined—and sometimes violent—histories of faith communities.

Soul primer

An Arts Incubator exhibition uses the Black ABCs to chronicle the lives of South Siders.

Legacy: Singing for the pine trees are stormy winds

Meteorologist Tetsuya Theodore Fujita (1920–1998) led a tempestuous career.

Pilot program

The Chicago school of meteorology found and made waves. Plus: A Change of Climate.”

Trials by fire

While the mysterious new disease spread, UChicago Medicine researchers brought long-held expertise to a new common cause: helping COVID-19 patients.

Racism, policing, and protest

Five faculty members on a critical moment in US history.

Situational ethics

The business of capitalism during COVID-19.

The new rites of spring

Scenes from a convocation like no other.

Legacy: Precedent setting

Joseph Sax, JD’59 (1936–2014), helped establish the courts as a front line for environmental activism.

Together in spirit

How the University is responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Image of health

Professor and entrepreneur Maryellen Giger, PhD’85, brings computer-aided breast cancer detection and diagnosis from bench to bedside.

Glimpses: Between the lines

Brent Staples, AM’76, PhD’82, goes behind the work that earned him one of journalism’s highest honors.

Course work: Crash course

College students examine ideas and stories of the 2008 Great Recession.

C vitae: A coach’s coach

Soccer player Len Oliver, PhD’70, put his own spin on teaching the sport and training its leaders.