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Germinal plans
The National Institutes of Health has tapped Argonne National Laboratory to run a $31 million germ lab. In a sealed chamber inside a sealed chamber, infectious diseases like flu and anthrax will go under the microscope. Scientists will study vaccines and drug treatments to protect against biological terrorist attacks. Named for U of C scientist Howard T. Ricketts, who discovered microbes that cause Rocky Mountain spotted fever and typhus, the lab will open in 2008.

Probing precociously
Physicist John Arrington and computer scientist Robert Ross, both Argonne National Laboratory staff members, and Dan Cziczo, SM’97, PhD’99, received the 2004 Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers, the highest governmental honor bestowed upon young scientists. Each of the 58 U.S. scientists honored will receive up to five years of funding to further their research.

Enterprising incumbent
Saul Levmore has been reappointed to a second five-year term as Law School dean. In his first term, beginning in 2001, Levmore spearheaded the ongoing $100 million capital campaign to boost student scholarships and revamp facilities. Levmore joined the law faculty in 1998.

Thrice entrusted
The University Board of Trustees elected Erroll Davis Jr., MBA’67, Kenneth Jacobs, AB’80, and Paul Yovovich, AB’74, MBA’75, as new members June 10. Davis, chairman and executive officer of Alliant Energy Corporation, established the College’s Anna Feldman Scholarship Fund to aid first-generation college students. Jacobs, deputy chairman of Lazard LLC, has arranged Jeff Metcalf Fellowships for College students. Yovovich, president and principal of Lake Capital, serves on several boards of public and private companies, including 3Com Corp, Archstone Consulting, Dutko, DVC Worldwide, and Huron Consulting Group.

Tech support
The National Science Foundation has awarded the University $48 million over the next five years to expand TeraGrid, a nationwide system of interconnected computers used by scientists and engineers in fields as diverse as disease diagnosis and weather forecasting. The NSF has granted the University, Argonne National Laboratory, and seven other institutions an additional $100 million to grow TeraGrid’s infrastructure.

Service economy
University Trustee James Dimon and his wife Judith Dimon, longtime advocates of urban school reform, gave a $1 million gift to the School of Social Service Administration to support its student and alumni work in community schools. The Dimons’ gift was announced at a May forum, “Working at the Intersection of Social Work and Education.”

Sophomore splendor
The American Medical Association named Aaron Horne Jr., AB’98, an AMA Foundation Minority Scholar. Horne, a second-year medical student who served as president of the Student National Medical Association, was one of ten American medical students to win the $10,000 scholarship. Horne is also working toward an MBA at Chicago.

School ties
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has given a $5 million grant to the University’s Center for Urban School Improvement, which operates the North Kenwood / Oakland Charter School and plans to open four other South Side charter schools in coming years, including Donoghue Charter School this fall.

Berlin calling
The German-based Anna-Monika Foundation has awarded Elliot S. Gershon, the Foundations Fund professor of psychiatry and human genetics, its namesake prize for his research on genes’ role in bipolar disorder. The foundation, which supports research on depression, will bring Gershon to Berlin in November to collect his 25,000-euro prize. In 2003 Gershon’s team published a landmark paper—the first to link depression with two overlapping genes on chromosome 13.

State school
Three 2005 Harris School graduates—Christian Deitch, Adelle Fay, and Nathan L. Macklin—were accepted to the Foreign Service, the first time in memory that three graduates have entered in the same year. In June Deitch and Fay headed to the National Foreign Affairs Training Center in Arlington, Virginia. Macklin’s training is on-site at the U.S. embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where he works on a human-rights report and monitors the October 2005 presidential elections.

Family-friendly art
The Smart Museum has won a $95,000 Museums for America grant from the Federal Institute of Museum and Library Services. The award will help launch the Families at the Smart Initiative, intended to increase family programming and reach out to more South Side communities.

Statistical status
The American Statistical Association presented Albert Madansky, AB’52, SM’55, PhD’58, the HGB Alexander professor emeritus and former deputy dean of the GSB, with the Founders Award, recognizing his 50 years of achievement in developing statistical methods and applications in business administration.

Divine ordination
Teresa Hord Owens, MDV’03, began her new post as dean of students in the Divinity School August 1. An ordained minister and active member of the South Side’s Salem Baptist Church, Owens most recently worked as special assistant to the president and CEO of the University Hospitals.