https://www.chicagomaroon.com/article/2019/5/28/uchicago-expands-ime-school-molecular-engineering/
Wow, a cool $100 million donation. Now there will be two Pritzker Schools at U of C 
Can someone explain what molecular engineering is? I was a bit confused when I read that. How is this different from the traditional engineering fields.
Does this mean that UChicago is considering opening up a separate college for undergrads who want to focus on engineering? Similar to Penn, Columbia, etc
@sgopal2 - taking a stab at #2: sounds like they might be expanding the ME opportunity at the undergraduate level, but that’s probably going to remain within the current undergraduate College, similar to Pub. Pol, Bus. Econ. and LLS (all liberal arts majors that share some resources with the graduate programs).
Does anyone know whether the grad program will offer a professional degree, such as a Master’s? Or will it just offer the PhD?
LLS has nothing to do with the Law School, one of the profs who helps run it is an adjunct there and the founder was a law prof but there’s no class overlap, admin oversight, facilities in the Law School, etc. It’s in the New Collegiate Division.
And yeah I don’t think there’s any chance it’s a separate college for undergrads, I expect it’ll be just like pub pol and business econ.
Not one undergraduate major will be administratively assigned to a graduate division. That’s just common sense. But we’ve met students in the College who have had classes from law profs (no idea whether those include LLS majors) and there is a definite relationship. Those taking LLS will tell you that it’s a highly regarded program of study for law school later on. Others looking into the major have considered it too “pre-professional” for their tastes. W/o doubt, we can all debate both assessments, but I’ve included them to demonstrate how others view that major. It’s linked to the law school in at least some minds.
@sgopal2 IME doesn’t have any traditional engineering programs (re: civil/mech/elec/etc). It does have three emphasis areas which are faster evolving areas of engineering. Quantum, chemical and biological. All of these areas seem to be studied or emphasized at the molecular or sub molecular level, hence, Institute is Molecular Engineering. I also think this was for a new grad school as IME was only undergrad before.
^ But just to clarify, weren’t PhD’s in ME issued prior to now?
From the Maroon: “The PSME will continue to offer a Ph.D. program in molecular engineering and will expand current undergraduate molecular engineering course offerings.”
Something positive for Chicago. Matthew Tirell is an amazing person and important figure in this field.
Hopeful if there is a connection to City colleges there will be scholarships for some students to be able to afford and prosper at the University. That might be a tough task but one to explore.
@JBStillFlying your right but I do think of this as a grad school initiative. At least that is what my DD tells me.
@CU123 - your D is correct as IME is now a distinct graduate division (like bus, med, law, pp, SSA, etc.) with it’s own degree-granting and hiring authority. It’s a big deal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0RO1kJf-7M
Zimmer sounds funny. I hope he is just having a bad cold but not some serious health issues.
Sounds like he’s recovering from laryngitis. The bad weather has basically kept everyone indoors and sharing all sorts of germs. Voice sounds a bit better at the end.
sgopal: CU123’s response succinctly gets to the heart of your question, I think. Looking at the video linked above will expand on CU123’s comments and give you a pretty good idea of what they are up to at IME and its links to Argonne.
The video above touches on the motivation for creating IME, but here’s a longer video featuring former Provost Thomas Rosenbaum (now CalTech President) which expands on the way and why molecular engineering was brought to UChicago. This is an Aims of Education Address from 2013. There’s a lot of good stuff if you want to listen to it all, but the molecular engineering part starts at 25:15.
Thanks! great video. Clears things up for me.
Geez, why cant they just improve the Med School with more donations? These Pritzkers are weird…
@FStratford Maybe Med School requires more than $100 million? We need Gates and Bezo money
^Or maybe the Pritzkers understand where their money has the biggest bang for the buck. This family isn’t inexperienced in matters of enterprise or philanthropy.
Divisions, departments or entire universities may not be recipients of largesse for many reasons. One truth underscoring all of them is that someone made the decision not to invest.