Delivering access to reliable and affordable energy, while minimizing its social and environmental impacts, including those created by our changing climate, is one of society’s most complex challenges. Asst. Prof. Amir Jina focuses his research on the role of the environment and environmental change in the shaping how societies develop. He combines methods from climate science and remote sensing to understand the impacts of climate in both rich and poor countries. A founding member of the...
Editor’s note: The following is part of Urban October at UChicago —an initiative of the University of Chicago Urban Network . Throughout the month, University scholars will convene key stakeholders and present new research and collaborations that confront urban challenges around the globe. UN-Habitat and the University of Chicago’s Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation are hosting a symposium Oct. 23-25 focused on how neighborhoods around the world can tackle imminent challenges—including...
Jay Schrankler, a technology commercialization expert and former business executive, has been appointed associate vice president and head of the University of Chicago’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation . His appointment is effective Aug. 1. In this new role, Schrankler will oversee the Polsky Center and work closely with deans, faculty, and other University leaders to develop and execute a comprehensive innovation strategy that integrates entrepreneurship and scientific...
Asst. Prof. Rachel DeWoskin has visited Shanghai every summer for nearly a decade, walking along streets that more than 18,000 Jewish refugees once called home. Spanning roughly a square mile, those blocks were where they established schools and businesses, rebuilding their lives in one of the few cities that accepted World War II refugees without visas. DeWoskin’s years of research culminated in the January publication of Someday We Will Fly , her fictionalized account of a young Jewish girl...
Walk around a corner in the Oriental Institute Museum, and you’ll see a 2,900-year-old stone relief fragment showing the head of an Assyrian king. What’s even more striking is everything surrounding the artifact: outstretched arms made of brown newspaper ads, a bow composed of blue cracker wrappers and a gold-foiled sword hanging from the hip. Those dazzling colors represent what was destroyed four years ago by the Islamic State, surviving only in memory and imagination. Michael Rakowitz’s...
Tandean Rustandy, MBA’07, founder and chief executive of PT Arwana Citramulia Tbk, has been elected to the University of Chicago Board of Trustees . His five-year term began in May. “Tandean has a deep commitment to the University of Chicago and its continued excellence in research, education and impact. His experience as an entrepreneur and chief executive in Asia, and his leadership in social innovation and entrepreneurship makes Tandean a strong addition to the Board of Trustees,” said Board...
A century ago, a few lone scholars began arguing a controversial idea: Western civilization had its roots not in Greece and Rome, as academics had maintained for centuries, but further back—in the sun-drenched lands of the ancient Middle East. That idea was at the center of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago when it was founded in 1919. Over the course of the next 100 years, the OI has changed how humans understand their own history through groundbreaking work in archaeology,...
A $24.1 million gift from Nassef Sawiris, a University of Chicago trustee and College alumnus, will support the education of Egyptian students through an expanded scholars program at the University and a new executive education program serving government officials and business leaders in Egypt. Of the overall gift from the Nassef Sawiris, $18.1 million will support the Sawiris Scholars Program, which enables academically talented students from schools and universities in Egypt to attend UChicago...
Deep under an Italian mountainside, a giant detector filled with tons of liquid xenon has been looking for dark matter—particles of a mysterious substance whose effects we can see in the universe, but which no one has ever directly observed. Along the way, however, the detector caught another scientific unicorn: the decay of atoms of xenon-124—the rarest process ever observed in the universe. The results from the XENON1T experiment , co-authored by University of Chicago scientists and published...
Editor’s note: The following is part of Urban October at UChicago —an initiative of the University of Chicago Urban Network . Throughout the month, University scholars will convene key stakeholders and present new research and collaborations that confront urban challenges around the globe. Dipak Bishwokarma has spent years helping communities in his native Nepal adapt to climate change. Along the way—working with local residents, non-profits and government agencies—the University of Chicago...