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Type | Private |
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Established | 2011 (Institute) 2019 (School) |
Parent institution | University of Chicago |
Dean | [Nadya Mason (As of October 1, 2023))]] |
Location | Chicago, Illinois, United States |
Campus | Urban |
Website | https://pme.uchicago.edu/ |
The Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) is the first school of engineering at the University of Chicago. It was founded as the Institute for Molecular Engineering in 2011 by the university in partnership with Argonne National Laboratory. When the program was raised to the status of a school in 2019, it became the first school dedicated to molecular engineering in the United States. It is named for a major benefactor, the Pritzker Foundation. [1] [2] [3]
The scientists, engineers, and students at PME use scientific research to pursue engineering solutions to some of humanity's biggest challenges. The school does not have departments. Instead, it organizes its research around interdisciplinary “themes”: [4] immuno-engineering, quantum engineering, and energy and sustainability. PME works toward technological advancements [5] [6] [7] in areas of global importance, including sustainable energy and natural resources, immunotherapy-based approaches to cancer, “unhackable” communications networks, and a clean global water supply. The school plans to expand its research areas to address more issues of global importance. [8] [9]
IME was established in 2011, after three years of discussion and review. It was the largest academic program founded by the University of Chicago since 1988, when the Harris School of Public Policy Studies was established. [10]
Matthew Tirrell was appointed founding Pritzker Director of IME in July 2011. The Pritzker Directorship honors the Pritzker Foundation, which donated a large gift in support of the institute. Tirrell is a researcher in biomolecular engineering and nanotechnology. His honors include election to the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Sciences. [11] [12] [13] He became dean of PME in 2019. [14]
The William Eckhardt Research Center (WERC), which houses the school and part of the Physical Sciences Division, was constructed between 2011 and 2015.[ citation needed ] The WERC was named for alumnus William Eckhardt, in recognition of his donation to support scientific research at the university.[ citation needed ]
In 2019, the school received more than $23.1 million in research funding. From 2011 to 2019, faculty at the school have filed 69 invention disclosures and have created six companies. [15] [16] [17]
On May 28, 2019, the University of Chicago announced a $100 million commitment from the Pritzker Foundation to support the institute’s transition to a school—the first school of molecular engineering in the U.S. The Pritzker Foundation helped establish the school with a new donation of $75 million, adding to an earlier $25 million donation that supported the institute and the construction of the Pritzker Nanofabrication Facility. In 2019, PME became the university’s first new school in three decades. [18] [19] [20] [21]
On October 1, 2023, physicist Nadya Mason was appointed Dean of the PME, succeeding Founding Dean Matthew J. Tirrell. [22] [23]
PME offers a graduate program in molecular engineering for both Master and Ph.D. students, as well as an undergraduate major and minor in molecular engineering offered with the College of the University of Chicago.
The institute began accepting applications to its doctoral program in fall 2013. The first class of graduate students was matriculated the following fall. In 2019, the school had 28 faculty members, 91 undergraduate students, 134 graduate students, and 75 postdoctoral fellows. [24]
The graduate program curriculum includes various science and engineering disciplines, product design, entrepreneurship, and communication. The program is interdisciplinary, featuring a connected art program called STAGE Lab. STAGE Lab creates plays and films in the context of scientific research at PME. [25]
The undergraduate major was added in spring 2015. It was the first engineering major offered at the University of Chicago. [26] In 2018, the first undergraduate class received degrees in molecular engineering. [27] When the school was established in 2019, it announced plans to expand its undergraduate offerings. [28]
David Awschalom, a professor at PME, said the school has contributed to Chicago becoming a hub for quantum education and research. [29] [30] [31] [32] PME offers an advanced degree in quantum science and engineering. It also partnered with Harvard University to launch the Quantum Information Science and Engineering Network, a graduate student training program in quantum science and engineering. Participating students are paired with two mentors—one from academia and one from industry. The program was funded by a $1.6 million award from the National Science Foundation. [33] [34]
The school’s partnership with Argonne National Laboratory provides additional opportunities for research and innovation. Argonne’s facilities include the Advanced Photon Source, the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility, and the Center for Nanoscale Materials. The lab also has experience licensing new technology for industrial and commercial applications. [35] [36]
PME’s educational outreach initiatives include K-12 programs with events and internships throughout the year. In 2019, with the establishment of PME, the school also launched a partnership with City Colleges of Chicago. The multi-year program connects City College students interested in STEM fields with PME faculty and labs, with the goal of enabling these students to transfer into four-year STEM degree programs. [37] [38]
TheUniversity of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. The university has its main campus in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood.
Argonne National Laboratory is a federally funded research and development center in Lemont, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1946, the laboratory is owned by the United States Department of Energy and administered by UChicago Argonne LLC of the University of Chicago. The facility is the largest national laboratory in the Midwest.
Molecular engineering is an emerging field of study concerned with the design and testing of molecular properties, behavior and interactions in order to assemble better materials, systems, and processes for specific functions. This approach, in which observable properties of a macroscopic system are influenced by direct alteration of a molecular structure, falls into the broader category of “bottom-up” design.
David D. Awschalom is an American condensed matter experimental physicist. He is best known for his work in spintronics in semiconductors.
Robert Jeffrey Zimmer was an American mathematician and academic administrator. From 2006 until 2021, he served as the 13th president of the University of Chicago and as the Chair of the Board for Argonne National Lab, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, and the Marine Biological Laboratory. He then served as chancellor of the University of Chicago until July 2022. As a mathematician, Zimmer specialized in geometry, particularly ergodic theory, Lie groups, and differential geometry.
The University of Chicago Medical Center is a nationally ranked academic medical center located in Hyde Park on the South Side of Chicago. It is the flagship campus for The University of Chicago Medicine system and was established in 1898. Affiliated with and located on The University of Chicago campus, it also serves as the teaching hospital for Pritzker School of Medicine. Primary medical facilities on campus include the Center for Care and Discovery, Bernard A. Mitchell Hospital, and Comer Children's Hospital.
Thomas Felix Rosenbaum is an American condensed matter physicist, professor of physics, and the current president of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Previously, Rosenbaum served as a faculty member and Provost of the University of Chicago. He has also served as the vice president for research at Argonne National Laboratory.
Melody A. Swartz is a professor and vice dean for faculty affairs at the University of Chicago who pioneered research in engineering complex tissues. Her most cited work "Capturing complex 3D tissue physiology in vitro" has been cited over 1784 times. Her research is focused on understanding the role of the lymphatic system regulating immunity in homeostasis and diseases, particularly cancer. She was previously director of the Institute of Bioengineering at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. She was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2023, the Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium in 2023, and the National Academy of Medicine in 2020.
Juan J. de Pablo is a chemical engineer, Liew Family professor in the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago and senior scientist at Argonne National Laboratory. In 2018, he was appointed Vice President for National Laboratories at the University of Chicago, a title which later expanded to include Science Strategy, Innovation and Global Initiatives in 2020. As of 2021, he is Executive Vice President for Science, Innovation, National Laboratories and Global Initiatives at the University of Chicago. He is known for his research on the thermophysical properties of soft materials. He is currently the co-director of the NIST supported Center for Hierarchical Materials Design (CHIMaD). and former director of the UW-Madison Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC). He was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2022.
Matthew V. Tirrell is an American chemical engineer. In 2011 he became the founding Pritzker Director and dean of the Institute for Molecular Engineering (IME) at the University of Chicago, in addition to serving as senior scientist at Argonne National Laboratory. Tirrell's research specializes in the manipulation and measurement of polymer surface properties, polyelectrolyte complexation, and biomedical nanoparticles.
Giulia Galli is a condensed-matter physicist. She is the Liew Family Professor of Electronic Structure and Simulations in the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and the department of chemistry at the University of Chicago and senior scientist at Argonne National Laboratory. She is also the director of the Midwest Integrated Center for Computational Materials. She is recognized for her contributions to the fields of computational condensed-matter, materials science, and nanoscience, most notably first principles simulations of materials and liquids, in particular materials for energy, properties of water, and excited state phenomena.
Nadya Mason is dean of the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the The University of Chicago, receiving that appointment in October 2023. Prior to joining The University of Chicago, she was the Rosalyn Sussman Yalow Professor of Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. As a condensed matter experimentalist, she works on the quantum limits of low-dimensional systems. Mason was the Director of the Illinois Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (I-MRSEC), and Director of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology from September 2022 through September 2023. She was the first woman and woman of color to work as the director at the institute. In 2021, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
Laura Gagliardi is an Italian theoretical and computational chemist and the Richard and Kathy Leventhal Professor of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago. She is known for her work on the development of electronic structure methods and their use for understanding complex chemical systems.
James L. Skinner is an American theoretical chemist. He is the Joseph O. and Elizabeth S. Hirschfelder Professor Emeritus at the University Wisconsin-Madison. He is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Welch Foundation. Most recently, Skinner was the Crown Family Professor of Molecular Engineering, professor of chemistry, director of the Water Research Initiative and deputy dean for faculty affairs of the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago. Skinner is recognized for his contributions to the fields of theoretical chemistry, nonequilibrium statistical mechanics, linear and nonlinear spectroscopy of liquids, amorphous and crystalline solids, surfaces, proteins, and supercritical fluids. Skinner is the co-author of over 230 peer-reviewed research articles.
Ying Shirley Meng is a Singaporean-American materials scientist and academic. She is a professor at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago and Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science (ACCESS) chief scientist at Argonne National Laboratory. Meng is the author and co-author of more than 300 peer-reviewed journal articles, two book chapter and six patents. She serves on the executive committee for battery division at the Electrochemical Society and she is the Editor-in-Chief for MRS Energy & Sustainability.
The University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital (UC CCH) formerly University of Chicago Children's Hospital is a nationally ranked, freestanding, 172-bed, pediatric acute care children's hospital adjacent to University of Chicago Medical Center. It is affiliated with the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and is a member of the UChicago health system, the only children's hospital in the system. The hospital provides comprehensive pediatric specialties and subspecialties to infants, children, teens, and young adults aged 0–21 throughout Chicago and features an ACS verified level I pediatric trauma center. Its regional pediatric intensive-care unit and neonatal intensive care units serve the Chicago region.
Seth B. Darling is the Chief Science & Technology Officer of the Advanced Energy Technologies Directorate at Argonne National Laboratory. He previously served as director of the Center for Molecular Engineering, a research and development organization partnered with the University of Chicago focusing on advanced materials for cleaning water, quantum information science, and polymer science. Darling is also a senior scientist at both the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering. He also directs the Advanced Materials for Energy-Water Systems (AMEWS) Center, a DOE Energy Frontier Research Center formed in 2018.
Jeffrey Alan Hubbell is an American molecular engineer. During his early career, Hubbell founded three companies based on his academic research and was the holder of 88 U.S. patents.
Paul Franklin Nealey is an American molecular engineer.
Stuart J. Rowan is a Scottish chemist.