Curated category
University of Chicago alumni
- Kevin M. MurphyKevin Miles Murphy holds a title that very few economists ever earn: the George J. Stigler Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago Booth…
- Leonard H. LeskoLeonard H. Lesko has spent decades reading the words of ancient Egyptians - words carved into coffins, inscribed on papyrus, and spoken by scribes who lived…
- Kurt VonnegutKurt Vonnegut survived the firebombing of Dresden by hiding in a meat locker three stories underground, surrounded by hanging cadavers.
- Robert Lucas Jr.Robert Emerson Lucas Jr. was born on the 15th of September 1937 in Yakima, Washington, the eldest child of a family that ran an ice creamery.
- Roger EbertRoger Ebert typed his last blog post two days before he died on the 4th of April 2013, signing off with words that could have come from any of his 46 years…
- Saul BellowSaul Bellow was born Solomon Bellows on the 10th of June, 1915, in Lachine, Quebec, to parents who had fled Saint Petersburg two years earlier, carrying with…
- Douglas Q. AdamsDouglas Quentin Adams built his career on a language that no one had spoken for over a thousand years. Adams is an American linguist and professor of English…
- Carl SaganCarl Sagan grew up in a modest Bensonhurst apartment with parents who, by his own account, "knew almost nothing about science." Yet it was precisely those…
- Milton FriedmanMilton Friedman died on the 16th of November 2006, and his last column ran in The Wall Street Journal the very next day.
- Kirk W. JohnsonKirk Wallace Johnson was born in West Chicago, Illinois. His father served as a Republican State Representative and Senator.
- Julia AngwinJulia Angwin was born in Champaign, Illinois, to university professor parents who moved to Silicon Valley in 1974. They worked in the emerging personal…
- Paul SamuelsonPaul Samuelson stood at a lectern in a University of Chicago classroom on the 2nd of January, 1932, and later said that was the exact moment he was born as…
- Marshall HodgsonMarshall Hodgson was born on the 11th of April 1922 in Richmond, Indiana. He grew up within a practicing Quaker family that shaped his early worldview.
- Herbert A. SimonHerbert Alexander Simon was born on the 15th of June 1916 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the son of an electrical engineer who had crossed the Atlantic from…
- Walter PittsWalter Pitts was born in Detroit, Michigan, on the 23rd of April 1923, and he died at age 46, leaving behind a body of work that still defines how scientists…
- James M. BuchananJames McGill Buchanan Jr. was born on the 3rd of October 1919 in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, in a farmhouse with no indoor plumbing and no electricity.
- Agustín CarstensAgustín Carstens was born on the 9th of June 1958 in Mexico City. He began his academic journey at the Mexico Autonomous Institute of Technology where he…
- Leon BotsteinLeon Botstein arrived in New York City at the age of two, having been born in Zürich on the 14th of December 1946. His parents were Polish-Jewish physicians…
- Gary BeckerGary Stanley Becker was born on the 2nd of December 1930 in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, and by the time he died in Chicago on the 3rd of May 2014, he had done…
- James HeckmanJames Joseph Heckman was born on the 19th of April 1944, and he would go on to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2000 for a statistical…
- James S. ShapiroJames S. Shapiro was born in 1955 and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He attended Midwood High School before earning his bachelor's degree from Columbia…
- Fritz LeiberFritz Reuter Leiber Jr. was born on the 24th of December 1910, in Chicago, Illinois, into a household where Shakespeare was practically a family business.
- Claudia GoldinClaudia Dale Goldin was born in the Bronx, New York City on the 14th of May 1946. Her father Leon Goldin worked as a data processing manager at Burlington…
- Richard B. SpencerRichard Bertrand Spencer was born on the 11th of May 1978 in Boston, Massachusetts. He grew up in Preston Hollow, Dallas, Texas, as the son of…
- James KahnJames Kahn was born on the 30th of December, 1947, in Chicago, and by the time most people encounter his name, they are holding a paperback copy of Return of…
- George SteinerFrancis George Steiner was born on the 23rd of April 1929 in Neuilly-sur-Seine near Paris. His right arm withered from birth yet his mother insisted he use…