Water research
Water is life, but ever scarcer. The most promising approaches to a mounting global problem may be molecular.
Racial passing
A secret in her own family led Allyson Hobbs, AM’02, PhD’09, to uncover the hidden history of racial passing. Plus—Lost kin: An excerpt from A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life.
Clair C. Patterson
The impact of geochemist Clair C. Patterson, PhD’51, who determined the age of the earth and fought lead pollution.
Anna Chlumsky
It’s hard to say which was more liberating for Anna Chlumsky, AB’02: the moment she left acting, or the moment she came back.
Selma anniversary
A Divinity School event commemorates the 50th anniversary of Selma and explores the state of civil rights today.
Antiques
On Antiques Roadshow, appraiser Gary Piattoni, AB’83, teases out the stories that things want to tell.
Public architecture
Michael Murphy’s MASS Design Group strives to make an architecture of community cohesion.
Philip Glass
Notes on an intellectual and musical journey.
Wendy Freedman
Leading cosmologist Wendy Freedman trains a telescopic lens on the biggest questions in the universe.
Smart art
For its 40th anniversary, the Smart Museum offers inviting, unexpected avenues to approach art.
Media data
Chicago Booth economist Matthew Gentzkow sifts insights about the media from massive amounts of digital information.
Reviewing the NSA
A law professor offers an inside look at his experience on a presidential panel reviewing how the government protects national security and preserves civil liberties.
Campaign momentum
With a string of headline gifts since its public launch, the UChicago Campaign is gathering momentum.
Bernie Sanders
At the University in the 1960s, Bernie Sanders, AB’64, set out on a path that led to the Senate, and an unlikely place at the center.
Start-up sage
Chicago Booth clinical professor of entrepreneurship Waverly Deutsch brings theatrical and gaming influences to her teaching.
Heart Rx
The president of the American College of Cardiology advocates a plant-based diet as part of shifting heart disease treatment from “event” to “prevent” focused.
Spine tingling
Finally, a dinosaur that swam.
Mapping the South Side
High school students fan out to help the University’s Urban Health Initiative chart the resources in Chicago neighborhoods where there are too few.
Debut novelist
Novelist Matthew Thomas, AB’97, talks about learning to hear the story that wants to be told.
World War I illustration
French illustrators of World War I depicted the arena, the enemy, and the home front with bravura.
Claudia Goldin
Economic historian Claudia Goldin, AM’69, PhD’72, takes a detective’s joy in gathering clues, analyzing data, and reconstructing the stories behind social issues.
The Marine Biological Lab
Joining forces with the Marine Biological Laboratory, the University formalizes its long-standing links to a venerable scientific destination.
Maud Slye
Researcher Maud Slye’s (EX 1899) contentious career helped open the field of cancer genetics.
Up in the air
From balloon sculptures to an avant-garde video game, the art of Willy Chyr, AB’09, is all about the journey.
Aims of Education
Wayne Scott, AB’86, AM’89, remembers—and misremembers—his Aims of Education address.
Minds online
Neurobiologist Peggy Mason gives almost 55,000 students an online introduction to the brain.
Gary, Indiana
Chicago Harris’s Gary Project joins forces with a dynamic new mayor to reframe the Indiana steel town’s future.
Becker remembered
Reflections on the life and work of trailblazing economist Gary Becker.
Bret Stephens
Pulitzer Prize-winning Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stephens, AB’95, brings a UChicago intellectual spirit to the sword fight of political commentary.
Aspen Institute
How the University of Chicago, the great books craze, and a love of Goethe helped create the Aspen Institute.
Complex Oedipus
Philosopher Irad Kimhi teaches unhappiness in his own way.
Center in Delhi
A new home in India deepens the University’s historic academic connections to the country and concentrates its expertise on complex global problems.
Human nurture
Philosopher Jesse Prinz, PhD’97, trains a skeptical eye on biological accounts of our behavior, beliefs, and emotions.
Judith Nadler
Retiring University librarian Judith Nadler reflects on her prolific career.
Poetry
Poet, critic, and scholar Maureen McLane, PhD’97, argues for poetry that synthesizes, “with passion and knowledge,” what it means to be human. Plus—Three poems: An excerpt from This Blue.
Cloistered nuns
Cloistered nuns tell their stories.
Marine menagerie
Biology professor Michael LaBarbera has spent his career immersing students—and himself—in an underwater world and the unending adventure of science. Plus—Unplanned encounters: Surprise specimens in the lab.
Judith Grabiner
Mathematics historian Judith Victor Grabiner, SB’60, teaches math to the liberal arts masses.
Junk economy
Entrepreneurs meeting the demand for raw materials, not environmental virtue, drives the expansion of the recycling industry. Plus—Trash talker: Author Adam Minter, AB’93, weighs in on the wide world of waste.
Bygone Ethiopia
John Snyder traversed Ethiopia seeking inspiration for a screenplay. Instead he captured a landscape about to disappear.
Encyclopaedia editor
After more than three decades at Britannica, editor in chief Dale Hoiberg, AM’74, PhD’93, knows the encyclopedia business inside out.