Kicking off two days of events, a group of admitted graduate students and faculty gathered for breakfast last Friday to meet each other and learn more about the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) during the first of two Admitted Students’ Visit Weekends.
Matthew Tirrell, dean of Pritzker Molecular Engineering, took the stage first, telling students about how PME set a new and exciting model by diverging from traditional engineering schools and adopting instead a problem-based focus that allowed for more collaboration between disciplines.
“You’ll be part of a dynamic organization that continues to grow and push the horizons of engineering and create new opportunities for research,” Tirrell told the admitted students. “It’s important that we create a broad, strong intellectual contingent of students, postdocs, and faculty. We all work together to achieve our goals here.”
Next, faculty members took to the podium to discuss each of PME’s research themes in greater depth – describing new and exciting research done by the lab groups and the greater global issues that the research was working to address, from freshwater security to modulating immune system responses.
“We want to train people who are going to look forward and solve future problems,” said Aaron Esser-Kahn, associate professor of molecular engineering.
Over two days, admitted students had the opportunity to attend individual meetings with faculty members, tour Argonne National Laboratory and the UChicago Medical Center, and go to events with UChicagoGRAD representatives and fellow students to get a better idea of student life and resources. The weekend included special sessions focused on women in engineering, international students, and diversity.
At a poster session and social the first day, admitted students previewed ongoing research at the PME in greater depth, discussing projects with members of lab groups.
PME will host a second Admitted Students’ Visit Weekend March 13-14.