Support for Chicago Booth

Entrepreneur and investor Konstantin Sokolov, MBA’05, has made a $100 million gift to the University of Chicago, in support of the Executive MBA Program at the Booth School of Business. In honor of his commitment, the program will be renamed the Sokolov Executive MBA Program and a new clinical professorship will be established for a scholar who teaches Executive MBA students. Sokolov’s gift will strengthen the school’s ability to attract the most talented Executive MBA students from around the globe and help the program enhance its approach to fostering alumni and corporate connections for those students.

So happy together

The University of Chicago has announced that the Division of the Humanities and UChicago Arts have been unified into the new Division of the Arts & Humanities. All academic departments that were previously part of the Division of the Humanities are now joined by multiple arts units within the new division. In a message to the UChicago community on April 9, President Paul Alivisatos, AB’81, and Provost Katherine Baicker called the change “an important step in bringing together these closely connected disciplines in new and meaningful ways.”

Law School leader

Adam Chilton, the Howard G. Krane Professor of Law and the Walter Mander Research Scholar, has been appointed dean of the Law School, effective July 1. Chilton conducts research at the intersection of international law, comparative law, and empirical legal studies that addresses a broad array of global and domestic legal issues, including constitutional design, human rights, judicial behavior, and legal education. He succeeds Thomas J. Miles, AM’96, PhD’00, the Clifton R. Musser Professor of Law and Economics, who became dean of the Law School in 2015.

Prizes for pedagogy

The 2025 winners of the Llewellyn John and Harriet Manchester Quantrell Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching are David Cash, professor of computer science; Eleonory Gilburd, AB’98, associate professor of history; Lenore Grenoble, the John Matthews Manly Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Linguistics; and Cathy Pfister, professor of ecology and evolution. Faculty Awards for Excellence in PhD Teaching and Mentoring went to John Birge, the Hobart W. Williams Distinguished Service Professor of Operations Management; Bryan Dickinson, professor of chemistry and in the UChicago Comprehensive Cancer Center; Timothy Harrison, associate professor of English and in the John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought; Kay Macleod, the Hospira Foundation Professor in the Ben May Department for Cancer Research; and Alex Shaw, associate professor of psychology.

All adding up

Frank Calegari, professor of mathematics, was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honorary societies. Calegari’s research is in the area of algebraic number theory. He is particularly interested in the Langlands program, a set of mathematical ideas that has been called the “grand unified theory of mathematics.”

One for the books

Jenny Trinitapoli, professor of sociology, received the 2025 Gordon J. Laing Award for An Epidemic of Uncertainty: Navigating HIV and Young Adulthood in Malawi (University of Chicago Press, 2023). The Laing Award has been given annually since 1963 to the faculty author, editor, or translator whose book, published in the last three years, has brought the greatest distinction to the University of Chicago Press. Trinitapoli’s book explores how young adults in Malawi—about half of whom at any given time do not know their HIV status—handle choices about relationships, sex, and family.

Public servant

Rising College fourth-year Luke Magyar has received a Harry S. Truman Scholarship, which provides funding for students pursuing careers in public service. Magyar, a US Marine Corps veteran, plans to pursue a master’s in public policy and a career with the US Department of State. Since 2023 he has been director of advocacy and outreach at the Corioli Institute, which works to reintegrate individuals who have been part of armed groups into civilian life.

Scientific advancement

Two University of Chicago researchers were named 2024 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for their distinguished contributions to the sciences. Di-Jia Liu, PhD’87, a senior scientist at Argonne National Laboratory and in the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, and Tobin Sosnick, the William B. Graham Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, were among the 471 fellows elected this year.

Universal acclaim

Wendy Freedman, the John and Marion Sullivan University Professor in Astronomy and Astrophysics and the College, was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2025. Freedman was recognized for her efforts to measure the Hubble constant, the rate at which the universe is expanding.

Guggenheim fellows

Three UChicago scholars were awarded 2025 Guggenheim Fellowships: Theaster Gates, professor in the Department of Visual Arts; Richie Hofmann, a poet and lecturer in the Arts & Humanities Collegiate Division; and Marcus Kronforst, professor of ecology and evolution. To read about alumni fellows, see Notes.