Faculty Achievements and Awards

Nambu Receives Physics Nobel Prize

In a special ceremony on campus in December 2008, Yoichiro Nambu received the Nobel Prize “for the discovery of spontaneous broken symmetry in subatomic physics.” The Harry Pratt Judson Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in Physics, Nambu shared the prize with two other scientists in Japan. Approximately 200 guests attended the ceremony, held at the same time other Nobelists received their awards in Stockholm, Sweden.

New Support for Top Film Scholar

Thomas Gunning, one of the nation’s leading film historians and theorists, received a three-year Distinguished Achievement Award from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to continue his work on the poetics of the moving image. The award provides up to $1.5 million to distinguished scholars in the humanities and their institutions to deepen and extend humanistic research. As a historian and theorist, Gunning’s goal is to unite theoretical speculation about the present and future state of the moving image with a broad historical perspective.

Divinity’s Marion Joins the “Immortals”

Jean-Luc Marion, Professor in the Divinity School, and one of the best-known living philosophers in France, was elected to the ultra elite Académie française, known as “les Immortels.” Marion, who also teaches at the Sorbonne, has authored a diverse range of work that has greatly influenced modern philosophy and theology. He is widely regarded as one of the leading Catholic thinkers of modern times.

Legal Scholar and Philosopher Nussbaum Honored

Martha Nussbaum, the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor in the Law School, received two prestigious awards in 2009. The American Philosophical Society’s Henry M. Phillips Prize in Jurisprudence recognized her outstanding lifetime contributions to the field of jurisprudence.

Nussbaum also received the 2009 A.SK prize from Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung for her work on the foundations of social justice, which stresses the importance of using a capabilities-based approach to measure people’s quality of life.

Olopade Elected to Institute of Medicine

Olufunmilayo Olopade, the Walter L. Palmer Distinguished Service Professor in Medicine and Director of the Center for Clinical Cancer Genetics, was named to the National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine. She is a leading researcher on the causes of a particularly aggressive breast cancer that places young women of African descent at high risk. The institute is both an honorific membership organization and a policy research organization.

Paleontologist Sereno Receives Distinguished Explorer Award

Paul Sereno, Professor in Organismal Biology & Anatomy, received the seventh annual Roy Chapman Andrews Society Distinguished Explorer Award, for his discovery of the largest graveyard discovered to date in the Sahara. Sereno’s expedition turned up many new species of dinosaurs and extinct crocodilians as well as a vast graveyard of human fossils. The award is named for Roy Chapman Andrews of the American Museum of Natural History who, in 1922, discovered several species of dinosaurs on a famed expedition to the Gobi Desert.

Harris School’s Pevehouse Wins International Relations Award

Jon Pevehouse, Associate Professor in the Harris School of Public Policy Studies, was presented with the Karl Deutsch Award of the International Studies Association for his path-breaking scholarship and “contributions to understanding the impact of international organizations on democratization processes and outcomes, as well as his work on crucial aspects of U.S. policy to use deadly force.” The award is given annually to a scholar under 40 who has made “the most significant contribution to the study of International Relations and Peace Research.”

Rosenberg Wins National Humanities Medal

Milton J. Rosenberg, Professor Emeritus in Psychology and longtime host of the WGN Radio show Extension 720 with Milt Rosenberg, received a 2008 National Humanities Medal. President George W. Bush awarded the prestigious medal to him during a ceremony held in the White House East Room.

Physical Sciences Faculty Receive Cascade of Awards

Among the many prizes awarded in 2009 to faculty in the Division of the Physical Sciences are the Walter P. Kistler Book Award, the American Chemical Society’s Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry, the American Physical Society’s Francis M. Pipkin Award, and the Hewlett-Packard Outstanding Junior Faculty Award.

Paleontologist’s Book Reaps Awards, Accolades

Neil Shubin, the Robert R. Bensley Distinguished Service Professor in Organismal Biology & Anatomy, won several honors for his 2008 Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body. The work received a Communications Award from the National Academies, the Phi Beta Kappa Book Award in Science, and Amazon.com’s citation for best science book of the year. It also appeared in the annual best-of lists of the Financial Timesand Washington Post, among others. The book is based on Shubin’s 2004 discovery of the fossil Tiktaalik roseae, a “fishapod” considered an important new evolutionary indicator of transitional species between fish and amphibians.

Five Path-Breaking Scholars Named Sloan Fellows

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation selected five University scholars to receive Sloan research fellowships. They are among 118 scholars named Sloan Fellows from North American colleges and universities. Two mathematics alumni also received Sloan fellowships. Other federal research awards went to three young faculty researchers at UChicago.

Economist Myerson Elected to NAS

Roger Myerson, the Glen A. Lloyd Distinguished Service Professor in Economics, was elected to the National Academy of Sciences for his distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. A 2007 Nobel Laureate in economics, Myerson has made seminal contributions to the fields of economics and political science.

HHMI Early Career Award Goes to Population Geneticist

Molly Przeworski, Assistant Professor in Human Genetics, is among 50 of the nation’s best early career science faculty to benefit from a new initiative of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The award includes a six-year appointment to the institute and the freedom to focus on potentially transformative research without concern about funding. Przeworski’s research focuses on aneuploidy, a condition involving too many chromosomes which is the leading cause of miscarriages and such developmental disabilities as Down syndrome. She hopes her work may lead to a genetic test to determine risk for the condition.

Press Honors Law Professor Harcourt with Laing Book Prize

Bernard Harcourt, the Julius Kreeger Professor in the Law School, received the Gordon J. Laing Prize for his influential 2007 work, Against Prediction: Profiling, Policing, and Punishing in the Actuarial Age. Harcourt’s book analyzes many facets of current criminal justice policy—from traffic stops and airport screenings to parole boards and sentencing policies—that are based on actuarial reasoning. The prize is awarded by the University of Chicago Press.

Le Beau Wins Prestigious Cancer Society Award

Michelle Le Beau, Professor in Medicine and Human Genetics and Director of the Cancer Research Center, received the American Cancer Society’s Distinguished Service Award for her extraordinary work in therapy-related cancers. She was recognized for her major contributions and commitment to cancer research.

Faculty and Scientists at National Labs Named AAAS Fellows

Three University scholars and three scientists at Argonne National Laboratory and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory were among 486 members admitted into the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Members are selected for their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.

Nine Faculty Elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Nine UChicago faculty were among the 212 new fellows elected to the the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for singular contributions to their fields and to the world.