Dean Nadya Mason offered a crowd of more than 100 students, staff, faculty and postdocs a look at the UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering’s accomplishments and future plans in her second Town Hall on Wednesday.
The Town Halls, which Mason initiated in the spring, are a chance for the UChicago PME community to come together and get the inside scoop on the institution they call home. In addition to hearing updates from the dean, attendees both in person and online could submit questions for Mason to field, highlighting the school’s commitment to transparency.
“The goal of this town hall is really just to communicate some of the things that that we've been doing in PME over the past year, to talk about some of the priorities moving forward, and to have a chance to interact with all of you,” said Mason.
From new lab spaces to PME’s growing role in major public-private partnership, here are a few highlights of PME’s year of impact.
Impact by the numbers
Mason kicked off the Fall Town Hall by showing off a few stats highlighting the school’s accomplishments over a few short years. PME was formed in 2011 as the Institute of Molecular Engineering, becoming a full-fledged school—UChicago’s newest—in 2019.
13 startups founded or co-founded by PME faculty, with more emerging
But one of Mason’s favorite stats highlighting PME’s impact is more recent. In just the past two years, around a billion dollars has been invested in the Chicago region through initiatives that PME’s leadership and influence brought to the region.
“If you include the $500 million quantum campus that's just been announced, we've catalyzed up to $2 billion,” Mason said. “It's not the number alone, but it's the fact that we're having this impact through our leadership and through our science.”
“In Japan, everyone recognized that Chicago and UChicago were the center of quantum. We didn't have to do a lot of convincing to tell them to come here,” Mason said. “They said, ‘Oh, no, we recognize that you guys just have the best ecosystem anywhere in the world.’”
Mason also didn’t shy away from challenging topics, such as the recent University budget issues, but was clear that UChicago PME’s story is one of continued momentum.
Growing presence on campus
In addition to her duty as dean, Mason serves as interim Vice President for Science, Innovation, and Partnerships for the University of Chicago as a whole. This is just part of UChicago PME’s increasing profile within the university.
Under Prof. Shirley Meng, UChicago PME will house one of the pillars of a new, University-wide Climate Institute that will be announced in the next few weeks. Meng and Prof. Laura Gagliardi also lead the Energy Transition Network announced in August to hasten the incorporation of new clean energy and circular materials technologies into commercial use.
The campus impact can also be closer to home, such as the South Side Science Festival, created by PME, the Physical Sciences Division, and the Biological Sciences Division to encourage STEM careers for local children. The third fest, held earlier this month, helped 4,500 local children celebrate science on the UChicago campus. Co-founded by PME, the event drew 1,000 student, faculty, scientist and staff volunteers.
PME’s growth in faculty, students, and impact has required physical growth as well, including a floor of wet lab space at the new Hyde Park Labs set to open in 2025. PME is also planning to expand on campus with new labs, classroom and collaborative research space.
Since forming as a small institute 13 years ago, UChicago PME’s trajectory can be defined by the phrase Mason used to end her speech to the assembled community.