Chicago Journal ::

High school for Woodlawn
The U of C Charter School project opens a new high school in Woodlawn this fall, admitting 110 ninth-graders. When the first senior class graduates in spring 2010, Woodlawn High School and its accompanying middle school will enroll 590 students, most from the neighborhood. Supported by Chicagoans Ken and Anne Griffin and a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the college-preparatory school will also offer professional-development activities for teachers and principals.

School spirit gets $5 million boost
Making undergraduate life enjoyable was the impetus behind a $5 million gift from Bernard DelGiorno, AB’54, AB’55, MBA’55. The gift, announced in the April 7 Wall Street Journal, will help to establish a Center for the Creative and Performing Arts, renovate Stagg Field, and build a residence hall for 900 undergrads.

Wildcat prize to Maroon econ prof
Economist Lars Peter Hansen has won Northwestern University’s 2006 Erwin Plein Nemmers Prize in Economics. The award, which carries a $150,000 stipend, recognizes Hansen’s work relating economic theory to macroeconomic and asset-market behavior and his innovations in modeling optimal policy under uncertainty. Hansen will deliver public lectures and participate in other scholarly activities at Northwestern in fall 2007.

Big roll-out for big-science facility
The Ellen and Melvin Gordon Center for Integrative Science was formally dedicated April 26, recognizing a $25 million gift from the Gordons (she is president of Tootsie Roll Industries and he is chairman of the board). Tours of the $200 million building—the University’s largest science facility, housing researchers whose work blurs the boundaries between biology, chemistry, and physics—were followed by seminars and a keynote speech by Nobel laureate Thomas Cech, who heads the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Career woman
After five years as associate dean of students in the University and director of Career Advising and Planning Services, Liz Michaels, AB’88, MBA’06, has joined Morningstar’s Ibbotson unit as a vice president. At Chicago Michaels helped create a stronger U of C careers network among alumni and students; produced outcome surveys for College and graduate students that led to targeted support programs; and increased intra- and inter-university collaboration in support of Chicago students. The search for Michaels’ successor is expected to be completed by autumn quarter.

Cited for violations—and response
In early March the Department of Energy (DOE) cited Argonne National Laboratory, operated by the University since 1946, for nuclear safety violations. The problems, identified in reviews over the past several years, did not cause radiation injuries or other incidents, and in its preliminary notice, the DOE added that it was “impressed and encouraged by the aggressive and proactive actions” that Robert Rosner, Argonne’s director since April 2005, has taken to correct the problems. Bidding on the project was set to close June 2.

Knight of cheerful countenance
Françoise Meltzer, the Mabel Greene Myers professor in comparative literature and the College, has been named by the French government Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques (Knight in the Order of the Academic Palms). Meltzer—who, with Professors Philippe Desan and Thomas Pavel in Romance languages & literatures, is one of three Chicago faculty to hold the honor—was recognized for her work on contemporary critical theory and 19th-century French literature.

Trio of fellows
Among the 175 new fellows elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences this April were three Chicago faculty: Michael C. Dawson, professor in political science and the College: Reid Hastie, professor of behavioral science; and Michael Murrin, the David B. and Clara E. Stern professor in humanities. The fellows and 20 new honorary foreign members will be inducted at an October 7 ceremony in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Legal writ
Ever wanted to get in on conversations between some of Chicago’s top legal minds? The Law School’s faculty blog features daily posts on current affairs by the likes of Cass Sunstein, Saul Levmore, Geoffrey Stone, JD’71, Randy Picker, Judge Richard Posner, his son and professor Eric Posner, and more. The blog (uchicagolaw.typepad.com/faculty/) began last September, designed—its opening post said—as “a forum in which to exchange nascent ideas with each other and also a wider audience, and to hear feedback about which ideas are compelling and which could use some re-tooling.”

Man of faith and fiction
The eminent (and invented) theologian Franz Bibfeldt once again missed the annual Divinity School lecture given in his name. Ever since writing a doctoral thesis on the missing year zero between 1 BC and AD 1, “Bibfeldt’s schedule is frequently one year off,” explained Martin Marty, PhD’56, the Fairfax M. Cone distinguished service professor emeritus—and architect of Bibfeldt’s legend. Bibfeldt in absentia, this year’s speaker, assistant professor of Judaic history James Robinson, expounded on “The Argument from Barking Dogs: Remarks on Bibfeldt and the Theology of Subaltern Species.”

Researchers honored
Two of 72 new members of the National Academy of Sciences, recognized for continuing achievements in original research, are Chicago faculty: Francisco Bezanilla, professor and Pritzker scholar in the Pritzker School of Medicine’s Institute of Molecular Pediatric Sciences, and Melvin Shochet, the Elaine M. and Samuel D. Kersten Jr. distinguished service professor in physical sciences and professor in physics and the Enrico Fermi Institute.