Gift from Pritzker Foundation supports creation of nation’s first school dedicated to molecular engineering
With a $100 million commitment for support from the Pritzker Foundation announced this week, the Institute for Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago, a partnership launched with Argonne National Laboratory in 2011, will become the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering. The University of Chicago will be the first university in the United States with a school dedicated to this emerging field, and Matthew Tirrell, founding director of the Institute, will become dean of the school. It is the university’s first new school in three decades and its first school in engineering. The Institute for Molecular Engineering at Argonne will continue to partner with the school.
Like the institute, the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering will be distinct from other engineering programs, with an organizational structure that transcends traditional boundaries and focuses on societal problems primed for new solutions, including the search for sustainable energy, immunotherapy-based approaches to cancer and virtually “unhackable” communications networks. By expanding an approach started at the institute, which brings scientists together to address important multifaceted problems rather than fixed disciplines, the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering aims to more effectively address issues that require integrated, convergent approaches.
The Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering will continue to build programs in quantum engineering, biotechnology and immuno-engineering, advanced materials, energy storage and ensuring a clean global water supply. Argonne will continue to contribute its unique and powerful scientific instrumentation, global leadership in computing and breadth of scientific expertise to the partnership. The commitment of the Pritzker Foundation (made up of four trustees from the Pritzker family: Gigi, Nick, Penny, and Tom) will allow for expansion to address other fundamental problems and promote new collaborations among leading researchers from diverse science and engineering disciplines.
The accomplishments of the new school will support Argonne’s leadership in science and technology and help train future members of our world-class community of talent.
In the emerging field of quantum engineering, scientific teams need to be grounded in a variety of disciplines — including physics, chemistry, electrical engineering, materials research and computer science. Students trained at the new school will become the quantum-ready workforce that powers future research. With many Argonne molecular engineering staff receiving joint appointments with the school, collaboration and mentoring are certain to benefit the laboratory.
Read the full story from the University of Chicago.