A Monthly Message from the Dean

Dear Community,

The University’s budget deficit has been an important topic of discussion of late. While these conversations are necessary, I want to remind you that from moments of challenge also come great opportunity. Our charge going forward is to thoughtfully prepare UChicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering for the future – to grow and develop the strength we need through our faculty, students, postdocs and staff to continue to thrive over the next decade and beyond.

PME is investing in sustainable growth: in faculty recruitment, undergraduate enrollment, master programs, teaching capabilities, and grant revenue. And our initial investments have already paid off, not just in technological advances, but in global impact. Our faculty’s efforts have brought more than half a billion dollars of regional investment to Chicagoland in the last two years alone. This includes our involvement in the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Chicago, which will work to understand disease and discover new therapies, as well as in Great Lakes ReNew, which is inventing new ways to extract valuable minerals and toxic forever chemicals from wastewater. And there’s more.

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker’s recently proposed $500 million state investment in quantum is an incredible testament to the growth of quantum in the region – and PME helped build the ecosystem to make it possible.

PME was a big bet that has and continues to exceed expectations. Our driving role as a catalyst across campus and beyond has led to greater investment in the University, in Chicagoland, and in a better future.

We will continue to lead translational research and build meaningful partnerships between academia, government, and industry.

No University and no school are immune to challenges. It is how we meet those challenges that matters most. I can say with confidence that PME’s future is bright.

Nadya Mason
Dean
The Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago

Dear Community,

The UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering is a catalyst for innovation, a place that brings translational research to life. The recent award from the U.S. National Science Foundation Regional Innovation Engines program, which fosters innovation ecosystems across the United States to address pressing issues, is a perfect illustration.

The Chicago-based Great Lakes ReNEW coalition has been awarded one of the largest climate awards in the city’s history – up to $160 million over 10 years. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker noted the award in a recent press conference and release. The award builds on some of PME’s core strengths: stellar faculty, strong scientific collaborations with Argonne Lab, extensive outreach to the community, and world-class research in energy and sustainability.

For Junhong Chen, Crown Family Professor at Pritzker Molecular Engineering and Lead Water Strategist at Argonne National Laboratory, the announcement is the culmination of years of effort – and the promise of years of more important work ahead on a critical task. Chen is the Co-Principal Investigator for Great Lakes ReNEW. A water-quality expert with decades of expertise in real-time water quality monitoring and detection, Chen provided the scientific vision for the project, and will be working alongside PI Alaina Harkness, the Executive Director of the nonprofit Current.

Not only will the project remove the impurities from the water of the Great Lakes, but the effort will also take the resulting waste pulled from the water and turn it into renewable energy, creating jobs and new batteries. 

This is exactly the kind of powerful work PME is driving forward across our interdisciplinary areas of research. Together, we are having a positive impact that is truly changing the world.

Nadya Mason
Dean
The Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago

Dear Community,

As we embark on a new year, I am excited about upcoming possibilities. The world is full of serious challenges, but we are actively working to address these issues, pushing the boundaries of teaching, research, and partnerships to make advances.

Some of the grandest challenges we face have to do with sustainability, which is a core focus for PME. Our faculty and students already are actively contributing to the development of clean energy solutions, working to help ensure a clean global water supply, and creating infinitely recyclable materials, among other endeavors. This work also dovetails with one of the key priorities set by University of Chicago President Paul Alivisatos around energy and climate change.

As one example, the goal of PME Prof. Supratik Guha is to create a sensor network that monitors the air, soil, and water for pollution and nutrient content, including the water of the Ganga River in India. These systems, Guha believes, will unlock sorely needed data on the planet’s rapidly shifting composition. The University of Chicago Trust and IBM recently announced their collaboration to scale the initiative through the IBM Sustainability Accelerator. 

Junhong Chen, Crown Family Professor of Molecular Engineering at PME and lead water strategist at Argonne and his lab develop nanomaterials and nanodevices used in sustainable water technologies. One such technology is a low-cost, real-time water sensor that measures lead content in water within seconds. His device could have major health impacts for communities.

In addition to clean water, PME is creating clean energy solutions.

Neubauer Family Assistant Professor of Molecular Engineering Chong Liu’s group is developing electrochemical and optical tools to extract critical metals from seawater or underground salt brines, creating a fast, low-energy alternative to modern acid-reliant methods. Her research would also provide new tools to purify drinking water.

Y. Shirley Meng, a faculty member at Pritzker Molecular Engineering and the chief scientist for the Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science, has her sights set on creating new technologies that support a sustainable future. 

And Chibueze Amanchukwu, Neubauer Family Assistant Professor of Molecular Engineering at PME, also is driving novel battery work, and calls batteries the “kingmaker” of the energy challenge.

“Solving the battery challenge can solve many of the other challenges related to climate change,” he said. “Not only can they power electric vehicles, but they can also fill the void to store and provide excess energy when the wind isn’t blowing or the sun isn’t shining, to power our homes or power manufacturing plants 24/7.”

As we begin 2024, let’s continue our incredible forward momentum. PME is not just a place of inclusive education and research; we are a catalyst for positive change.

Thank you for being an essential part of our dynamic community. Here's to a 2024 filled with continued collaboration, innovation, and positive transformation.

Nadya Mason
Dean
The Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago

As we enter the holiday season, I feel a tremendous amount of gratitude. The fall is always a time of growth and activity, and now, as we sprint through December, I want to pause and take a moment to reflect. I’m thankful to UChicago and The Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering community for welcoming me and for sharing the incredible work unfolding across our interdisciplinary themes.

The holidays are also a time of togetherness – and this is something PME excels at all year long! We come together every day to advance science, engineering, and technology to have a positive impact on society. We gather students, faculty, and trainees, and connect to extensive partnerships, from our work across departments and schools at UChicago, to our connections with Argonne National Laboratory and FermiLab, to our role in the Chan Zuckerberg BioHub Chicago, to our international collaborations such as with CRNS in France – we are continuously forging new methods for research and discovery together.

For example, researchers at PME, Argonne National Laboratory, and Cambridge University recently partnered to “stretch” thin films of diamond and created quantum bits that can operate with significantly reduced equipment and expense. Another example: our Communication Skills for Industry Program (CSIP) is holding a Capstone Event this week that brings together PME students and industry partners. And: we were part of the recent Chicago Quantum Summit, one of the largest annual events connecting industry, scientific and government leaders, and trainees to help build the quantum ecosystem.

Looking ahead, I expect PME will engage even more deeply with industry partners, support increasingly entrepreneurial efforts among our students, and continue to leverage the considerable expertise across campus, the region, and beyond to collectively drive novel solutions to global challenges.

As we enter 2024, I am focused firmly on the future. And while that feels serious, there also is a great deal of fun in the work we do. For an inspiring way to close out the year, take a look at the predictions and observations PME faculty have made about the future of their fields for 2024.

Thank you for being part of our extraordinary community and for working together with us to create a brighter global future. I wish you a wonderful holiday season.

Nadya Mason
Dean
The Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago

Dear PME Community,

I’ve been Dean for just over a month, and it’s been a great experience so far. I’ve had the pleasure of learning more about the research and educational programs, and connecting with many of our students, postdocs, staff, faculty, and collaborators – all of which has reinforced my view that PME is the most exciting school of engineering in the country.

It’s been inspiring to see the impactful work happening here, from the development of an inverse vaccine that can reverse multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes in the lab, to the new Boeing collaboration that seeks to grow our robust quantum ecosystem, and novel biosensing transistors that allow for stable, suture free medical monitoring in the body as well as our PME faculty and students who brought “Battery Day” to the Museum of Science and Industry. It’s been fantastic to meet so many people who every single day invest themselves in PME’s transformative vision of the future.

I’m eager to further engage and focus on opportunities that lie ahead of us, and they are many. The new space at the corner of 52nd Street and Harper Avenue in downtown Hyde Park will be coming online soon, providing critical new laboratory space. We have done a tremendous job in leading research proposals and expenditures, and continued growth in this area will be an ongoing priority. Importantly, we also will be thinking about translational outcomes – expanding our relationships with industry and finding new ways to support and drive entrepreneurship.

This past year, PME matriculated 70 students, our largest class ever, and we will continue to strive to deliver the best educational experience for our undergraduate and graduate students as well as postdocs. We also aim to grow our professional masters programs, including adding new partnership programs. 

And, it’s important to make sure that all of this work takes place in an inclusive, collaborative climate where people from diverse backgrounds and differing perspectives feel valued and engaged.

There is a lot of activity at PME, and learning about all of it has indeed felt like “drinking from a firehose.” My biggest take-away from the last month is this is an exceptional community. PME already has created a tremendous amount of positive momentum upon which we will continue to build.

Let us go forward with a renewed sense of purpose. We have a lot of excellent work to do, and I look forward to accomplishing it alongside you.

Nadya Mason
Dean
The Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago