Career evolution

Neil Shubin, the Robert R. Bensley Distinguished Service Professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, has been nominated to serve as the next president of the National Academy of Sciences, which has recognized outstanding science and promoted public understanding of scientific fields since 1863. Shubin, a member of the academy since 2011, will begin his term on June 30, 2026. A scholar, educator, author, and science communicator, Shubin is known for his discovery of a 375-million-year-old fossil called Tiktaalik roseae—an important transitional form between fish and land animals and the subject of Shubin’s 2008 book Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body (Pantheon Books) and the Emmy Award–winning 2014 television series based on it.

Urban education support

Steven A. Kersten, JD’80, and his wife, Priscilla Kersten, have made a $25 million commitment to the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice’s Urban Education Institute (UEI). Steven Kersten is a University of Chicago trustee, and Priscilla Kersten is a member of the Crown Family School Council. The gift significantly expands UEI’s focus by increasing innovative research on K–12 education, training next-generation education leaders, and funding cross-disciplinary collaborations that strengthen schools and student outcomes. In recognition of the gift and the institute’s reenergized focus, UChicago has renamed UEI the Kersten Institute for Urban Education.

Biological breakthrough

A $21 million gift from philanthropist Thea Berggren will establish the Berggren Center for Quantum Biology and Medicine. Work at the center will merge quantum technology with biology, seeking to harness the power of quantum engineering—capable of the most sensitive measurements known to science—to peer inside the human body in unprecedented ways. The goal is to unlock insights into biology and disease that were previously out of reach, paving the way for new diagnostics and therapies. The Berggren Center will be housed within the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and will draw on UChicago’s renowned strengths in quantum science, biomedical research, and clinical care.

Holding court

Theater producer, artistic director, and performance curator Avery Willis Hoffman has been appointed the Marilyn F. Vitale Artistic Director of Court Theatre, effective November 1. Hoffman most recently served as the artistic director of the Brown Arts Institute and professor of the practice of arts and classics at Brown University. There she led the opening of the Lindemann Performing Arts Center and curated its first season. Previously Hoffman was program director at the Park Avenue Armory in New York. For nearly two decades, Hoffman has collaborated with director Peter Sellars on global theater, opera, and dance productions including Shakespeare’s Othello, Mozart’s Zaide, and Toni Morrison’s Desdemona.

Intelligent addition

Chicago Booth has added a new MBA concentration in artificial intelligence. Students in the new concentration will be required to complete three relevant courses from a selection including AI and Financial Information, AI for Good, Applied Artificial Intelligence, and Generative Thinking. “Through the new concentration, we will challenge students to think differently, not just about algorithms, but about how AI reshapes human capital, decision-making, and society itself. It’s here that cutting-edge computation meets deeply human insight,” said Sanjog Misra, the Charles H. Kellstadt Distinguished Service Professor of Marketing and Applied AI.

Quantum leadership

President Paul Alivisatos, AB’81, was among the speakers on quantum technology at a July 24 Capitol Hill briefing for staff members in congressional offices and federal agencies. The University organized the event—with speakers also including US Deputy Secretary of Commerce Paul Dabbar; Senator Todd Young, MBA’02 (R-IN); quantum experts from the University of Illinois and the University of Wisconsin; and leaders from the Chicago Quantum Exchange and several Midwest-based quantum companies—to showcase UChicago and the Midwest’s leadership in quantum. Alivisatos emphasized UChicago’s collaborations with other universities and national laboratories, and also underscored the need for ongoing investment and partnerships across academia, government, and industry.

Early success

Ewain Gwynne, a professor of mathematics, has received the 2025 New Horizons in Mathematics Prize for his work in conformal probability, which involves the study of probabilistic objects such as random curves and surfaces. The prize is given to early-career scientists and mathematicians who have already made a substantial impact on their fields and includes a $100,000 award. He plans to donate the entirety of the prize money to the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, a nonprofit focused on curing multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer.

Res judicata

For the first time in program history, UChicago took first place in the American Mock Trial Association’s National Tournament. The Maroons triumphed over Miami University in the final round of competition, held April 6 in Cleveland. Jack Martinez and Emberlynn St. Hilaire, both Class of 2026, alongside Ethan Donovan, AB’25, served as the team’s attorneys. Mateo Gjinali, Anderson Lynch, and Penelope Stinson (all Class of 2027) and Elijah Bullie, AB’25, portrayed witnesses.