From 1890 to the present, a steady stream of UChicago thinkers, scientists, activists, and artists have made the University’s reputation what it is while enriching the world. Can you identify these past great Chicago minds and match them with their achievements?

1. Championed free markets as an essential element of free societies.
2. Led the team behind the first controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.
3. Identified a link between gene mutations and certain cancers, changing the way we understand the disease.
4. Theorized the existence of black holes, changing our understanding of stellar evolution.
5. As a US representative for Hawaii, advocated for civil rights for all Americans and coauthored Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.
6. Forged a unique career as a performer, choreographer, and anthropologist, transforming contemporary dance.
7. Wrote oral histories that shined a light on ordinary Americans and won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.
8. As the University of Chicago’s first dean of women, advocated for women’s equality in higher education at a time when coeducation itself was contested.
9. Helped transform social work into a research-based discipline and shaped major US social welfare policy.
10. Led one of the United States’ most renowned newspapers through crisis and triumph.
11. Captivated readers with provocative philosophical examinations of contemporary culture.
12. Applied economic theory to life outside of markets, leading to insights about human behavior and transforming the social sciences.
13. Coedited an eight-volume edition of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and performed feats of code breaking in World War I.
14. Became known beyond the academy for insights into the history of Protestantism and the role of faith in American society.
15. Revolutionized our understanding of tornadoes and other severe weather events.
16. Excelled as a scholar of Hebrew and went on to build the University of Chicago from the ground up as its founding leader.
17. Published the pioneering and foundational book The Music of Black Americans: A History in 1971.
18. Won the Presidential Medal of Freedom for historical work illuminating the role of the Black struggle in shaping American society.
19. Mentored Martin Luther King Jr. and served as a spiritual and intellectual leader of the civil rights movement.
20. Performed research illuminating the electronic structure of semi-metals, earning the nickname the Queen of Carbon.

Answers

1. G Milton Friedman, AM’33, 1976 Economics Nobelist 
2. F Enrico Fermi, 1938 Physics Nobelist
3. E Janet Rowley, LAB’42, PhB’45, SB’46, MD’48
4. T Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, 1983 Physics Nobelist
5. M Patsy Takemoto Mink, JD’51
6. C Katherine Dunham, PhB’36
7. I Studs Terkel, PhB’32, JD’34
8. Q Marion Talbot
9. S Edith Abbott, PhD 1905
10. H Katharine Graham, AB’38
11. D Susan Sontag, AB’51
12. P Gary Becker, AM’53, PhD’55, 1992 Economics Nobelist
13. N Edith Rickert, PhD 1899
14. R Martin E. Marty, PhD’56
15. K Tetsuya Theodore Fujita
16. B William Rainey Harper
17. A Eileen Southern, AB’40, AM’41
18. L John Hope Franklin
19. O Benjamin Elijah Mays, AM’25, PhD’35
20. J Mildred Dresselhaus, PhD’59

Photo credits

1. Copyright 2026, The Chicago Maroon. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.
2. Town & Country Photographers, UChicago Photographic Archive, apf1-06023, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library
3. UChicago Photographic Archive, apf1-12884, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library
4. UChicago Photographic Archive, apf1-01654, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library
5. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ppmsca-78319
6. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ppmsca-05791
7. UChicago Photographic Archive, apf1-08275, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library
8. UChicago Photographic Archive, apf1-08125, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library
9. Waters, UChicago Photographic Archive, apf1-00003, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library
10. UChicago Photographic Archive, apf1-06483, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library
11. UChicago Photographic Archive, apf7-01309, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library
12. UChicago Photographic Archive, apf1-13339, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library
13. UChicago Photographic Archive, apf1-07134, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library
14. Omaha World-Herald>, UChicago Photographic Archive, apf1-12611, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library
15. UChicago Photographic Archive, apf1-09826, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library
16. UChicago Photographic Archive, apf1-03000-051, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library
17. Photography by Gill Photographers; courtesy the Center for Black Music Research, Columbia College Chicago (Eileen Southern Collection, box 44, folder 18)
18. UChicago Photographic Archive, apf1-09787, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library
19. NSF/Georgia Litwack