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New provost for the new year
Thomas Rosenbaum, the University’s vice president for research and for Argonne National Laboratory, begins a five-year term as provost January 1, when former social-sciences dean Richard Saller returns to teaching. President Zimmer chose Rosenbaum, a physics professor and expert on quantum mechanics, in part because of his leadership in the University’s successful bid for Argonne. Rosenbaum has directed the University’s Materials Research Lab (1991–94) and the James Franck Institute (1995–2001), and he chairs Argonne’s Science Policy Council.

“ABD” for 55 years
When he received his doctorate at summer convocation, Herbert Baum, 79, became the oldest person to do so at Chicago. After leaving “all but dissertation” in 1951 Baum, AM’51, PhD’06, moved to California, where he helped nationalize the state’s strawberry market as CEO of Naturipe and chair of the California Strawberry Commission. Retiring in 1991, Baum turned his experience into The Quest for the Perfect Strawberry (2005), an analysis of the California strawberry business. When he wrote to economics professor James Heckman, hoping the book could serve as his dissertation, Heckman responded, “Please send copies.” Nobel laureates Heckman, Gary Becker, AM’53, PhD’55, and Milton Friedman, AM’33, in addition to professor Roger Myerson, formed his dissertation committee.

Fresh talent at Midway Studios...
The visual-arts department welcomed three internationally known artists this fall. Influenced by her upbringing in communist Cuba, Tania Bruguera creates politically focused video and digital productions. Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, a 2001 MacArthur fellow from Chicago, tackles identity and globalization through photography, sculpture, video, and installations. Los Angeles native Catherine Sullivan investigates cultural assimilation in theater and film installations, such as her 2002 Renaissance Society exhibit Five Economies (big hunt / little hunt).

... and a new building to match
The University has named five finalists in its competition to build a proposed 100,000-square-foot arts center south of the Midway. Competitors include Daniel Libeskind, planner of ground zero; Pritzker Architecture Prize–winners Hans Hollein of Austria, Fumihiko Maki of Japan, and Thom Mayne of Santa Monica; and New York–based Tod Williams and Billie Tsien. A jury will choose an architect for the $100 million center—which will house a performance hall, three black-box theaters, music practice rooms, and a recording studio—in January or February.

Religion writing rewarded
Two of three American Academy of Religion book awards went to Divinity School faculty this year. Jonathan Z. Smith, the Robert O. Anderson distinguished service professor in the humanities and the Divinity School, was recognized for Relating Religion: Essays in the Study of Religion (2004), a collection of essays written over the past 20 years. Dan Arnold, PhD’02, assistant professor of the philosophy of religion, was commended for his first book, Buddhists, Brahmins, and Belief: Epistemology in South Asian Philosophy of Religion (2005). Berkeley professor Daniel Boyarin also won for Border-Lines: The Partition of Judaeo-Christianity.

$10 million for cancer research
The Biological Science Division’s “Spark Discovery, Illuminate Life” campaign, which aims to translate research directly into improved patient care, announced it will hire new faculty for the Ben May Institute for Cancer Research, install MRI equipment for the radiology department, study the migration of cancer cells (metastasis), and build labs in the Knapp Center for Biomedical Discovery—all with the help of a $10 million gift from the Duchussois family, who in 1994 gave $21 million for the Duchussois Center for Advanced Medicine.

Skills for third-world medicine
The Pritzker School of Medicine’s infectious-disease and emergency-medicine sections launched a Geographical Medicine Scholars Program this fall. The 12-month global-health competency curriculum for residents, fellows, and medical-student trainees includes practice in South India and covers additional skills needed for clinical or research activities in international resource-limited settings.

Good business strategy
The Academy of Management, an international association devoted to studying management and organizations, gave GSB associate professor Matthew Bothner its 2006 Glueck Best Paper Award for new research in business policy and strategy. Along with Jeong-han Kang, of Cornell University, and Wonjea Lee, a Chicago doctoral student, Bothner coauthored “Status Volatility and Organizational Growth in the U.S. Venture Capital Industry.” The paper argued that a venture capitalist with highly volatile status was more likely to have an unfavorable economic outcome.

Chicago crew digs in Turkey
In August the Oriental Institute began a long-term excavation at the southeastern Turkey site of Zincirli, a flourishing Iron Age city-state later incorporated into the Assyrian Empire and abandoned in the seventh century BC. The project, headed by archaeology professor David Schloen, is expected to yield insights into the Late Bronze–Iron Age transition, the ethnolinguistic dynamics of regional city-states, and the Assyrian imperial administration.

Grammar goes digital...
On September 29 the University of Chicago Press unveiled an online version of the Chicago Manual of Style. Available at chicagomanualofstyle.org by subscription, the entire editing reference, in searchable format, joins the Chicago Style Q&A, which addresses reader’s thorny editorial questions as they arise via e-mail.

... while business follows suit
Graduate School of Business faculty will cease publishing the 84-year-old Journal of Business in November, citing the increasing specialization of business journals. The publication’s electronic archive will be available to registered readers of the Chicago Journals Web site (www.journals.uchicago.edu) in Spring 2007.

Washington comings and goings
In October GSB economics professor Dennis Carlton began a term as deputy assistant attorney general for economic analysis for the U.S. Department of Justice antitrust division. Meanwhile, after serving three years as chief economist for the International Monetary Fund (IMF), professor Raghuram Rajan returned to the GSB this fall. The IMF asked Rajan to stay for a second three-year term, but University rules don’t permit such an extended leave.

News with a BSD twist
The Medical and Biological Sciences Alumni Association has launched two alumni newsletters. The Spring issue of the BSD’s Imprint covered “The Crisis in Funding,” analyzing the decline in federal dollars for research and development, while the Pritzker Pulse featured an interview with Joycelyn Elders, U.S. Surgeon General during the Clinton administration and keynote speaker at Pritzker’s 2006 commencement. Both publications can be found online at bsdalumni.uchicago.edu.

Law students aid immigrant kids
Newly appointed law lecturer Maria Woltjen joined forces with the Law School’s Mandel Legal Aid Clinic to expand the Immigration Children’s Advocacy Project, which she founded in 2003. Under Woltjen’s direction, eight to ten law students serve as advocates to undocumented youth, most aged 16 or 17, who have been apprehended by authorities. Participating students must be proficient in Spanish, Mandarin, Hindi, or Gujarati to help pro-bono lawyers, who often aren’t bilingual.

Carilloneur goes international
University Carilloneur Wylie Crawford, MAT’70, has been elected president of the World Carillon Foundation. The organization represents 21 countries, about 600 carillons, and about the same number of carilloneurs. The Laura Spelman Rockefeller Carillon, in Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, is the second largest in the world.

New faces in ombudsperson office
Second-year SSA doctoral student Sarah Lickfelt stepped up to serve as the University’s student ombudsperson, replacing Victor M. Muñiz-Fraticelli, AM’03. First-year history PhD candidate Mehnaz Choudhury, AM’05, joins her as associate ombudsperson, taking the place of Kirk Schmink, AB’06. Both positions help resolve student grievances, particularly when other methods have been unsuccessful.

N. Korea may signal Doomsday
In October, when North Korea announced it had tested a nuclear weapon, Kennette Benedict, U-High’65, executive director of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, said the board would consider moving up the Doomsday Clock at its November meeting. Then at seven minutes to midnight, the clock hadn’t moved in four years. Both North Korea’s and Iran’s nuclear ambitions would factor into the decision to reset the clock, Benedict said in a statement.

Olympics could boost South Side
If Chicago wins its bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, Washington Park would be a cornerstone site, Mayor Richard M. Daley announced in September. By extension, said U of C’s vice president for community and government affairs Hank Webber, the events would shine an “extraordinarily positive” spotlight on the University. Daley’s announcement, Webber said, “creates an enormous opportunity to jump-start community development.”

Capital campaign hits $1.6 billion
As of October 6 the Chicago Initiative capital campaign passed the $1.6 billion mark on its way to raising $2 billion. Funds from the five-year effort, begun in 2002, go toward endowed chairs, faculty salaries, undergraduate financial aid, graduate fellowships, and community programs. The Chicago Initiative is the largest campaign in University history.

Divine java madness
This fall in the Divinity School coffee shop, the gods duked it out. The coffee shop, Grounds of Being, held a tip-jar–based Battle of the Gods between proclaimed deities including Jesus, Muhammad, the Mormon prophet and angel Moroni, Pythagoras, and J. K. Rowling. At press time four contenders remained: Michael Foucault, John Lennon, Optimus Prime (a Transformers action figure), and Poseidon.

Argonne adds board members
The U of C has named Deborah Wince-Smith and Mary Fanett Wheeler to Argonne National Laboratory’s 23-member board of governors. Wince-Smith is president of the Council on Competitiveness, and Fanett Wheeler is a professor of aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics, petroleum and geosystems engineering, and the Ernest and Virginia Cockrell chair of engineering at the University of Texas, Austin.