In the News

A story about coursework being taught by Amy Kass, Senior Lecturer in Humanities, and her husband, Leon Kass, the Addie Clark Harding Professor on the Committee on Social Thought, appeared on the front page of the Thursday, Jan. 27 issue of the Chicago Sun-Times. The course they are teaching this quarter, The Ethics of Everyday Life: Courtship, is based on a recent anthology, Wing to Wing, Oar to Oar: Readings on Courting and Marrying, edited by the Kasses. The story quoted the Kasses and several students enrolled in the course.

News stories about two recent gifts given to the University for its Graduate School of Business by alumni Dennis Keller, Andrew Alper and Sharon Sadow Alper appeared last week in the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Associated Press News Service and The Wall Street Journal. The combined gifts total $30 million and add to the GSB’s $175 million capital campaign. Keller has pledged $25 million and the Alpers, $5 million.

Robert Hamada, the Edward Eagle Brown Distinguished Service Professor and Dean of the Graduate School of Business, was quoted and pictured in a New York Times story about differing opinions concerning e-business studies. Hamada opposes creating a separate curriculum for e-business courses. The story was published in the paper’s Sunday, Jan. 16 issue.

University students took advantage of Chicago’s snowfall two weeks ago––prime weather conditions for the annual Winterfest on campus. The annual Polar Bear Run, which takes place on the Main Quadrangle, was covered in the Chicago Tribune’s Thursday, Jan. 20 issue, and the traditional “salute to the sun” at Promontory Point on the lakeshore was covered by WMAQ-AM and WBBM-AM radio stations as well as the Chicago Sun-Times.

Recent research on the evolution of male reproductive systems led by Chung-I Wu, Professor and Chairman of Ecology & Evolution, was reported last week in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune newspapers. The stories reported the study’s findings that genes involved in sperm production have been evolving at a much faster rate than most other human genes.

Raymond Pierrehumbert, Professor in Geophysical Sciences, and Tony Wilkinson, Research Associate (Associate Professor) in the Oriental Institute and Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations, discussed climatic change and human response with William Stephens of The New York Times on WBEZ’s “Odyssey.” The discussion aired Thursday, Jan. 6, on the radio program. Wilkinson also was interviewed about geological evidence for flood myths on Wednesday, Jan. 19, for “The Big Picture” on KUNR public radio station in Reno, Nev.

In a story about outstanding care and innovative treatments at hospitals in the Chicago area that appeared in the January issue of Chicago Magazine, the University of Chicago Hospitals and some of its specialized-treatment centers were cited as being at the forefront for the treatment and research of some of the most virulent diseases. The story, which covered the areas of cardiology, gastroenterology, geriatrics, neurology and oncology, quoted several University professors, including Stephen Hanauer, the Gastrointestinal Research Foundation Professor in Medicine in Honor of Dr. Joseph Kirsner; Richard Schilsky, Professor in Medicine and Associate Dean for Clinical Research; and Nicholas Vogelzang, Director of the Cancer Research Center and the Fred C. Buffett Professor in Medicine.

Sonia Sugg, Assistant Professor in General Surgery, was interviewed for a news analysis piece about the benefits and risks of hormone replacement therapy that appeared in the Thursday, Jan. 27 issue of the Chicago Sun-Times. The interview was published one day after a research report about the risk of breast cancer for women taking hormones after menopause appeared in national news reports.

The New York Times reported on the research of Philip Eaton, Professor in Chemistry, in its Tuesday, Jan. 25 issue. Eaton’s research, which took 20 years to complete, resulted in the synthesis of the cube-shaped molecule octanitrocubane, which may have future applications as a military explosive, a rocket fuel or drugs effective against some types of cancer.