The University of Chicago

09/27/2026

"If you read important books, had important conversations, and addressed big questions, you would have the keys to the kingdom."

David Brooks, AB'83, reflected on the impact that his UChicago professors and undergraduate experience had on his career. Introducing his new podcast, “The Permanent Questions,” Brooks said: "I never wanted to leave the Great Conversation, and I never have."

Your Sunday Listen:

Conversations from the deep end

09/26/2026

One unforgettable week to kick off a new chapter. Relive the moments, memories and Maroon pride of O-Week.

Learn more: http://ms.spr.ly/6184aiKye

09/25/2026

"The time of education, if it is to be worthwhile even in the time of AI, should remain what it always has been at its best: namely, a time for human thought."

Prof. Kenneth Warren delivered the Aims of Education address yesterday, encouraging College students in the Class of 2030 to use their time at UChicago to think deeply about the world around them.

Learn more and watch the Aims address: http://ms.spr.ly/6186a9Qlm

📸 Rob Hart

09/24/2026

Speaking to the Class of 2030, President Paul Alivisatos said UChicago's rigorous Core curriculum would teach students how to think—both with and without AI. In his Opening Convocation address, he encouraged students to consider what technology could do for them.

"These are powerful tools that have already enabled stunning discoveries, and in the coming years, your generation stands to push the boundaries of human knowledge and understanding even further with them. But make no mistake: You are and will remain the true agents of human knowledge."

Read the President's full address: http://ms.spr.ly/6182a9Mhn

09/24/2026

The Large Hadron Collider generates more data than anyone can keep, forcing CERN to decide in a split second which collisions are worth saving. UChicago scientists wanted to make that call smarter, so they built an AI that adapts on its own as conditions change, catching the rare collisions that could reveal new physics.

Read the full story:

Award-winning research merges computer science and physics to preserve rare events, boost discovery

09/24/2026

Prof. Kenneth Warren will deliver the Aims of Education address today to the Class of 2030 at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel.

Join us virtually at 6:30 p.m. CT:

The Aims of Education Address is a celebrated tradition where a fac...

09/23/2026

New students were officially embraced today into the UChicago community, beginning with a welcome Convocation at Rockefeller Chapel before joining a bagpipe-led procession across campus and through Cobb Gate.

📸Rob Hart and John Zich

Learn more: https://news.uchicago.edu/story/class-2030-new-students-embark-uchicago-experience

09/23/2026

UChicago philosopher Martha Nussbaum has won the John W. Kluge Prize, one of the humanities' highest honors. Awarded by the Library of Congress, the prize recognizes a lifetime of scholarship—and Nussbaum's spans 30 books and more than 500 articles reaching across ancient thought, feminism, law and the study of human emotion.

Learn more:

Prestigious award recognizes renowned UChicago scholar's achievements in study of humanity

09/22/2026

"The aim of your graduate education should be to begin to develop direction. That means that you're ultimately going to have to make a call about how to proceed."

The University of Chicago Law School Prof. Adriana Z. Robertson delivered that charge this morning to UChicago's newest graduate students as Orientation Week got underway, kicking off with separate Welcome Convocations for incoming Ph.D. and master's students.

Learn more about the week's events: http://ms.spr.ly/6187agyit

📸 Rob Hart

09/22/2026

With a nation's mood riding on a single review, FIFA referee Joe Dickerson felt the pressure of the World Cup this summer like few others could. Now the University of Chicago Graham School philosophy student is drawing on soccer's biggest stage to test Machiavelli's claim that leaders should rule by fear—and to make the case that trust works better.

Meet this UChicagoan:

UChicago student Joe Dickerson draws on his soccer officiating career in studying 'The Prince' and philosophy at Graham School

09/22/2026

Move-in day is here! Welcome home, Maroons.

Here’s to new beginnings, new friendships and a new chapter at UChicago.

📸 Rob Hart

09/22/2026

Fall has officially arrived at UChicago. 🍂 Take a look back at some of our favorite autumn moments on campus. Consider this your first glimpse of the season ahead.

09/21/2026

We’re excited to welcome new students into the UChicago community this week as they meet their peers and discover their new intellectual home!

Explore Orientation Week activities here:

O-Week festivities welcome undergraduate and graduate students as the new academic year approaches

09/21/2026

President Paul Alivisatos has an op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal outlining UChicago’s emerging vision for a balanced, thoughtful approach to AI and education:

“By teaching students in our universities to think without machines and then to think with them," he writes, "I see an opportunity to form a generation that will advance human knowledge and well-being faster than any other.”

Alivisatos explains that UChicago students should learn to be “ethical, skeptical and ambitious” about AI in their education and their lives.

Read the op-ed here: http://ms.spr.ly/6186a53rs.

UChicago’s revised core curriculum will require both analog and machine-assisted learning.

09/20/2026

Leaders who guess how their teams feel about AI often land on confident, wrong answers. A new report on workplace AI adoption points to research from Chicago Booth Prof. Nicholas Epley, showing that real understanding comes from asking workers about their concerns, not imagining them.

Your Sunday Read:

New data suggests empathy drives AI adoption: nearly 9 in 10 employees in empathetic cultures feel ready for AI, versus just a third in toxic ones.

09/18/2026

Tariffs don’t just shape trade—they can shift wealth between workers. New research from UChicago’s Chicago Booth examines who financially benefits from U.S. tariffs and who bears the costs.

Learn more:

Chicago Booth study finds U.S. trade barriers create transfers from services workers toward tradable goods industries, with substantial gains for small number of manufacturing workers

09/18/2026

A new tool built by UChicago computational biologists is tracing the tangled web of genes behind disease to find the ones that matter most. Named DANDELION, after the seed head whose branching shape echoes gene networks, it took on asthma first—and surfaced 21 central genes, nearly all overlooked until now.

Learn more:

Dubbed DANDELION, the computational approach developed at UChicago identified central disease-driving genes for asthma, most not previously linked to the condition

09/17/2026

Could you regain a sense of touch or move your body, using only your thoughts?

On Big Brains, UChicago neuroscientist Nicholas Hatsopoulos explains his research mapping the brain's neural pathways—and creating brain-machine interfaces that could help restore sensory feedback for patients who are paralyzed or have ALS.

Watch the full episode: http://ms.spr.ly/6186adBos

09/16/2026

How far can a reward travel through your memory? A new UChicago study traces how rewards spread through complex networks of memories, shaping associations that help us make decisions and anticipate good outcomes.

Learn more:

UChicago psychologists find our brains use a web of recalled associations to help us make decisions that lead to good outcomes

09/15/2026

Eighteen rising leaders were named today to the newest class of UChicago Obama Foundation Scholars. These students are already advancing work from HIV care in Cook County to anti-trafficking policy in India.

Meet these changemakers from University of Chicago Booth School of Business, The University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice.

Meet the 2026-27 scholars:

Eighteen rising leaders have been selected to the newest cohort of the University of Chicago Obama Foundation Scholars Program, which was announced Sept. 15.

09/14/2026

Science is for everyone—and on Oct. 3, it's hands-on. 🔬

Join us for the fifth annual , a free community event for all ages featuring 100+ interactive demos, brain-bending challenges, a sub-zero science show and more. Bring your curiosity for a day of science, discovery and fun at UChicago.

RSVP: http://ms.spr.ly/6187abR51

Co-organized by University of Chicago Division of Biological Sciences, UChicago Division of the Physical Sciences, UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and UChicago Civic Engagement.

09/14/2026

O-Week is almost here! We can’t wait to welcome the newest students when Orientation begins Sept. 22. Take a look back at last year’s photos as we count down to the big day.

09/14/2026

Even better than your new phone camera: Scientists have released the sharpest picture ever made of all the matter in the universe. The UChicago-led study used South Pole Telescope data to offer a new window into the evolution of the universe.

Learn more:

Study led by UChicago researchers uses bending by gravity of the oldest light in the universe to map the intervening structure

09/13/2026

With eight arms, hundreds of suckers and more neurons in its limbs than its head, the octopus is a marvel of biological engineering. UChicago researchers mapped the segmented nerve cord behind it all—work that could even shape the next generation of soft robots.

Your Sunday Read: http://ms.spr.ly/6182aZttw

09/12/2026

A picture-perfect day.