Cohler, Rowley receive Maclean Faculty Awards

The Alumni Association has announced that Bertram Cohler (LAB, ’57, A.B., ’61) and Janet Rowley (LAB, Ph.B.,’45, S.B.,’46, M.D.,’48) are this year’s recipients of the Norman Maclean Faculty Award, an honor given to emeritus or senior faculty members who have made outstanding contributions to teaching and to students’ experience of life on campus.

Cohler, the William Rainey Harper Professor in the Social Sciences Division, has been singularly committed to the Core curriculum, teaching the Social Sciences sequence Self, Culture and Society since 1972.

In the words of a former student, “he creates not just intelligent, independent minds, but an army of alumni who want the world to be a better place and are active with their convictions.”

His research examines lives over time and within their social contexts from multiple perspectives including psychology, anthropology, sociology, biological sciences, economics and social work. Cohler’s work has illuminated facets of human development from childhood through adolescence, adulthood and aging, and has shed light on the topics of families, homosexuality, parenthood, social rehabilitation of chronically mentally ill people, late-life-onset schizophrenia, and late-life chronic mental illness.

Cohler also is a dedicated alumnus of the University, who served on his third reunion committee this year and has long been active in planning alumni weekends, College Dean’s Circle dinners, and parties for Young University Chicagoans.

Having been awarded the Llewellyn John and Harriet Manchester Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 1975 and again in 1999 serves as a testimony to Cohler’s long-standing popularity with students.

Janet Rowley, the Blum-Riese Distinguished Service Professor in Medicine, Molecular Genetics & Cell Biology and Human Genetics, is a pioneering researcher whose discoveries of recurring chromosomal translocations in leukemia cells transformed research on cancer and cytogenetics.

Her work established the field of molecular oncology and has had a major impact on patient treatment. Rowley’s work also provided the first clear evidence that cancer is a genetic disease and paved the way for newly effective treatments and diagnostic methods.

Rowley has more than 450 publications, has lectured around the globe, holds honorary degrees from the University of Oxford, the University of California, Los Angeles, and Dartmouth College, and sits on several advisory boards, including the President’s Council on Bioethics.

In the midst of an active research career, Rowley is a devoted mentor.

She also is an advocate for women in science and medicine at the University and nationally. Her laboratory employs postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, undergraduates and even high school students. She is known for treating them all equally and for her kindness, wisdom and energy in teaching and guiding young scientists.

Rowley, who is a dedicated alumna of the University now celebrating her 60th College reunion, has also contributed her time as a Biological Sciences Division Alumni Council member, College reunion volunteer and co-chair of the Hospitals 75th Anniversary Symposium.

In 1998, President Clinton presented Rowley with the National Medal of Science, the nation’s highest scientific honor, citing the critical importance of her research as well as her application of basic discoveries to clinical practice and her leadership in the oncology and biomedical communities. The same year, she was awarded the Albert Lasker Clinical Research Award, the most prestigious American award for medical research.

The Maclean Faculty Award, established in 1997, is named for Professor Norman Maclean (Ph.D., ’40), who taught English Language & Literature at Chicago for 40 years.