For the record
Harris School gets new leaders
Colm O’Muircheartaigh has been named dean of the Harris School of Public Policy Studies, effective July 1. An applied statistician and a longtime Harris School professor, O’Muircheartaigh is a senior fellow at the National Opinion Research Center (NORC). Dan Black, also a Harris School professor and a NORC senior fellow, becomes deputy dean.
Nimocks makes partner
After two decades as the University’s police chief, Rudolph Nimocks has been appointed director of community partnerships, reporting to Vice President for Civic Engagement Ann Marie Lipinski. A Woodlawn resident and a law-enforcement official for the city and the University since the 1950s, Nimocks works to expand collaboration with surrounding community organizations. Marlon Lynch, associate vice president for safety and security, has assumed police-chief duties.
A Jewish genius grant
Daniel Libenson, executive director of the University’s Newberger Hillel Center, has received a 2009 AVI CHAI Fellowship, considered “the Jewish community’s version of the MacArthur Foundation’s genius award.” Libenson plans to use the grant—$225,000 over three years—to create “a think tank and a living laboratory” for Jewish scholars and practitioners.
GI Joe celebrates 100
Joseph B. Kirsner, PhD’42, known as “GI Joe” for his seven decades of gastrointestinal research, celebrated his upcoming 100th birthday—he was born September 21, 1909—with the American Gastroenterological Association during May’s Digestive Disease Week. A specialist in inflammatory-bowel disease whose 800-page textbook on the subject has been published in six editions, Kirsner has won every award in his field, save one he is ineligible for—named after him. He has been a faculty member at the University of Chicago Medical Center since 1935.
Pippin’s in
Robert Pippin, the Evelyn Stefansson Nef distinguished service professor in social thought, philosophy, and the College, has been elected to the nation’s oldest learned society, the American Philosophical Society. One of only 14 philosophers among its 1,000 members, Pippin is known for his interdisciplinary work on modernity and its effect on the philosophical tradition.
Nussbaum has the ‘rights’ stuff
The American Philosophical Society has awarded the 2009 Henry M. Phillips Prize in Jurisprudence to Martha Nussbaum. The Society cited Nussbaum’s innovative “capabilities approach,” which can be applied to assessing justice, such as women’s rights in developing countries, the rights of the disabled and the impaired, and the rights of animal species.
They’d like to thank the Academy
Nine Chicago faculty members were elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in April: Andrew Abbott, AM’75, PhD’82 (sociology); Spencer Janney Bloch and Robert Fefferman (mathematics); Craig Hogan (astrophysics); Norman Nie (political science); Raghuram Rajan (finance); Neil Shubin (anatomy); Robert von Hallberg (comparative literature); and David Wellbery (German literature).
Tanner’s higher calling
The American Theological Society has elected Kathryn Tanner president. Tanner, the Dorothy Grant Maclear professor of theology in the Divinity School, is only the third woman to serve as president of the almost 100-year-old organization of scholars from across the denominational spectrum. Tanner will preside at the 2009–10 annual meeting at the Princeton Theological Seminary.
Myerson gets his NAS card
Roger Myerson has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Myerson, the Glen A. Lloyd distinguished service professor in economics, earned a 2007 Nobel Prize for his contributions to mechanism-design theory.
Katz appointment computes
Daniel S. Katz has joined the Computation Institute, a joint venture of the University and Argonne National Laboratory, as a senior researcher and high-performance computing/grid consultant. Katz, a senior member of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers, spent the past three years as the director for cyber-infrastructure development at the Center for Computation and Technology at Louisiana State University.
Assyrian, now in PDF
Since 1906 the Oriental Institute has published hundreds of volumes of research material on the ancient Middle East. Now 147 titles, many of which have been out of print for years, are available as free PDFs. The OI plans to scan another 125 titles in the next few years. More than 1,000 copies of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary have been downloaded since it was posted online in May 2008.
Sugarman cites sweet research
Physics students Jock McOrist, SM’06, and Ibrahim Sulai, SM’06, received the 2009 Sugarman Awards for excellence in graduate-student research in the physical sciences. McOrist’s “studies of world-sheet quantum corrections in the heterotic string” and Sulai’s work on “exotic phenomena in the helium atoms and nuclei using laser trapping and spectroscopy” were cited. The awards are named for Nathan Sugarman, SB’37, PhD’41, a longtime chemistry professor and charter member of the Enrico Fermi Institute.
Greenwald takes DC post
Matthew Greenwald has been appointed the University’s deputy director of federal relations, effective July 1. Greenwald, whose career in public policy includes experience with the Senate Budget Committee and the Department of Energy, will report to associate vice president Scott Sudduth in the Washington-based Office of Federal Relations.
Macleans go to Ashenhurst, Yu
Chicago Booth professor emeritus Robert Ashenhurst and Anthony Yu, PhD’69, the Carl Darling Buck distinguished service professor emeritus in the humanities, received this year’s Norman Maclean Faculty Awards. Ashenhurst founded the Committee on Information Systems in 1965 and served as University marshal for 32 years before his 2000 retirement. Yu, a scholar in the comparative study of literature and religion, is best known for his four-volume translation of the Ming novel Journey to the West. He is working on a revised edition for the University of Chicago Press.
Print Chronicle bytes the dust
After 28 years, the biweekly University of Chicago Chronicle printed its final edition in June. Several online sources now provide information to the University community, including a weekly electronic newsletter, UChicago News. A redesigned news page on the University’s Web site also is planned for fall 2009.
Supportive mentor
Linda Darragh, director of entrepreneurship programs at the Polsky Center, earned a CityLIGHTS Award from the Illinois Technology Association. Among Darragh’s many contributions—like getting Chicago Booth students involved in nonprofit programs through the Mayor’s Office of Workforce Development—the Chicago Sun-Times noted her mentorship of Chicago Vocational High School junior Anndriene Bell. With Darragh’s assistance, Bell developed Pursonals, which sells pockets to hold money in bras.
Sustainability ability
University trustee and former board chair James S. Crown and his wife, Paula, have donated $2.5 million to the University’s sustainability program. This gift will support the initiative to establish a baseline measurement for greenhouse-gas emissions and total energy use in buildings across campus and provide funds for efficiency upgrades.
Argonne’s golden
Argonne National Laboratory has received the Golden Family Award from the Society of Women Engineers. It recognizes a Chicago-area employer for its commitment to balancing work and family. Argonne’s family-oriented programs include an on-site child-development center, adoption assistance, and eldercare resources.