The University of Chicago’s Institute for Molecular Engineering added four prominent senior faculty members who develop advanced technologies that address some of society’s most challenging questions, including cancer bioengineering, water purification, quantum computing, and regenerative medicine.
The four scholars will join a preeminent group that includes pioneers in the molecular design of materials and new kinds of electronic circuitry. Two of the new faculty members also will hold joint appointments at Argonne National Laboratory, a global leader in computing and materials research and a partner of the Pritzker Molecular Engineering. University officials say the addition of so many leaders in the field helps establish the institute as a premier destination for scholars working at the intersection of molecular science and technology.
Giulia Galli, who creates computational methods to design new materials for more efficient energy generation and to simulate the behavior of water, joined the UChicago faculty as of November 1, 2013.
Andrew Cleland, who seeks to build a quantum computer that would far exceed the capabilities of even the most powerful modern computers, joined the faculty effective July 1, 2014. Galli and Cleland both also will serve as senior scientists at Argonne.
Also joining the faculty July 1, 2014, are Melody Swartz and Jeffrey Hubbell, both of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland. Swartz, a 2012 MacArthur Fellow, is developing ways to thwart the trickery that cancer cells use to sneak past the immune system. Hubbell, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, has spun off two startup companies from his laboratory research, including one devoted to wound-healing and bone-repair products.