Award-winning author Aleksandar Hemon will deliver the keynote address at the grand opening celebration for the Seminary Co-operative Bookstore on Saturday, May 11.

Hemon, author of The Lazarus Project, Love and Obstacles, and The Book of My Lives, will speak at 3 p.m. Other events include bookmaking demonstrations, a session on picture books with children's authors from...

Constance Gartner first heard about NASA’s SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) from her students at the Wisconsin School for the Deaf in Delavan, Wis.

Her students participate in programs developed at the University of Chicago’s Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wis. that make astronomy accessible to students who are blind, visually impaired, deaf, or hearing impaired.

During visits to the observatory, Gartner learned that Yerkes scientists...

Recipients of the University of Chicago’s 2013 Arts | Science Graduate Collaboration Grants will present the fruits of their projects from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 8, in the penthouse of the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th St. The event is free and open to the public and a reception will follow.

The Arts | Science...

The Ad Hoc Committee on Dissent and Protest, convened to examine policies and practices related to protest actions at the University of Chicago, will hold an open meeting at 5 p.m. on Monday, May 13 in the Swift Hall Common Room.

Provost Thomas F. Rosenbaum convened the committee last quarter, after a protest at the Center for Care and Discovery ended in arrests. The committee, led by David A. Strauss, the Gerald Ratner Distinguished Service Professor of Law, is charged with...

Four scholars and one distinguished trustee from the University of Chicago have been elected to the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Michael Fishbane, the Nathan Cummings Distinguished Service Professor of Jewish Studies in the Divinity School and the College; Thomas Ginsburg, the Leo Spitz Professor of International Law at the Law School...

The University of Chicago has won two prestigious Webby Awards for the best website in the School or University category.

The international award recognizes the mobile-friendly redesign of www.uchicago.edu that the University introduced in September 2012. One of the University’s most powerful communication...

Ecumenical leader and educator Michael Kinnamon has been named the Divinity School’s alumnus of the year for 2013.

He will deliver his address, “A Report from the Front Lines of a Renewal Movement Under Siege,” on Thursday, May 2 at 4:30 p.m. in the Swift Lecture Hall.

Kinnamon, AM’76, PhD’80, is an ordained minister in the Disciples of Christ and the International Council of Community Churches. In August 2012, he was named the Spehar-Halligan...

Scholar and activist Angela Y. Davis will deliver a lecture titled “Feminism and Abolition: Theories and Practices for the 21st Century” on Friday, May 3 at 7:30 p.m. in Rockefeller Memorial Chapel.

Davis is a distinguished professor emerita in the History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies departments at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her scholarly interests include feminism, racial inequality and social change.

Davis...

UChicago mathematician Gregory Lawler has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences for his excellence in original scientific research.

Lawler was among 84 new members and 21 foreign associates from 14 countries elected to the academy on April 30.

...

United States Attorney General Eric Holder will join other prominent legal thinkers at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, April 30, to discuss the legal legacy of former University of Chicago President Edward Levi.

When President Gerald Ford nominated Levi in 1975 to be United States Attorney General, Levi inherited an office that had been marred by the corruption of the Watergate scandal. Levi's efforts to bring transparency, independence and...

A distinguished panel of experts gathered at the University of Chicago recently to reflect on the 30th anniversary of the election of Harold Washington, the city’s first African American mayor.

“When we describe that time, we talk about the culmination of three things: the man, the movement and the moment,” said Chicago Sun-Times columnist Laura Washington, who moderated the discussion. The lively event offered a range of perspectives on how Washington...

Third-year Gabrielle Newell has won the prestigious Harry S. Truman Scholarship, a recognition of her exceptional leadership as an undergraduate and her potential career in public service.

Newell is one of 62 Truman Scholars selected from 54 colleges around the country. With the support of the Truman Scholarship, which provides up to $30,000 for graduate education, Newell plans to pursue a joint law degree and Master of International Studies with...

Fourth-year students Bo-Shiun Lai and Saalika Mela have been awarded prestigious Gates Cambridge Scholarships, which provide full support for graduate study at the University of Cambridge.

Each year, 90 Gates-Cambridge Scholars are selected from a pool of nearly 5,000 eligible applicants; Lai and Mela are among the 50 non-United States students selected for this honor.  

A citizen of Taiwan and Canada, Lai is a Biological...

Prisoners who are psychopaths lack the basic neurophysiological “hardwiring” that enables them to care for others, according to a new study by neuroscientists at the University of Chicago and the University of New Mexico.

“A marked lack of empathy is a hallmark characteristic of individuals with psychopathy,” said the lead author of the study, Jean Decety, the Irving B. Harris Professor in Psychology...

The University of Chicago Urban Network has scheduled four research conferences beginning April 25 as part of its 2013 Urban Forums series. They will focus on several key issues facing cities today, including managing urban infrastructure and built environments, immigration, health inequality and access to care, and political networks.

The Urban Network, a community of UChicago faculty, students, policymakers and others interested in...

Thirty University of Chicago undergraduate students will work and study green technology in China this June, as part of the Wanxiang Ambassador Fellows program announced Tuesday.

The students will study the Chinese language and learn about Chinese culture and clean energy initiatives.

The program is part of the Obama Administration’s 100,000 Strong Initiative, a national effort to increase the number and...

In an effort to help make nonprofit organizations more competitive, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business will give four full-tuition scholarships each year to nonprofit executives so they can attend weeklong executive education programs together with executives from for-profit companies, the school announced today.

The scholarships target candidates at organizations that lack the resources needed to enroll in Booth’s executive education programs, the school said....

Samuel Greene, Jane Huang and James Porter, all third-year students in the College, have won Barry M. Goldwater Scholarships to continue their studies in chemistry, astronomy and biological sciences. Third-year Luke Bertels received an honorable mention in chemistry.

The prize pays for tuition, fees, books, and room and board up to $7,500 a year, as the winners pursue degrees in the sciences. Each university is allowed to nominate four students per year. “This is the most...

University of Chicago researchers have created a synthetic compound that mimics the complex quantum dynamics observed in photosynthesis and may enable fundamentally new routes to creating solar energy technologies. Engineering quantum effects into synthetic light-harvesting devices is not only possible, but also easier than anyone expected, the researchers report in the April 18 edition of Science Express.

The researchers have engineered small molecules that support long-...