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135-740: The most recent iteration was held by UChicago in January 2024. The current North American champions are from Yale University . Since 1992, the most successful university overall has been Yale University with nine championship victories, including three of the last four. Following it is the University of Toronto with seven wins. After that, Princeton University , the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Harvard University and McGill University have two championships each, and no other university has won more than once. No team has ever repeated as

270-661: A 15-day sit-in at the college's administration building in a protest over the university's segregationist off-campus rental policies. After continued turmoil, a university committee in 1967 issued what became known as the Kalven Report. The report, a two-page statement of the university's policy in "social and political action," declared that "To perform its mission in the society, a university must sustain an extraordinary environment of freedom of inquiry and maintain an independence from political fashions, passions, and pressures." The report has since been used to justify decisions such as

405-593: A confidential letter to the President of the United States , Franklin D. Roosevelt , warning of the possibility of a German nuclear weapon project , and convinced his old friend and collaborator Albert Einstein to co-sign it. This resulted in support for research into nuclear fission by the U.S. government. In April 1941, the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC), asked Arthur Compton ,

540-458: A Nobel-Prize-winning physics professor at the University of Chicago , to report on the uranium program. Niels Bohr and John Wheeler theorized that heavy isotopes with odd atomic numbers , such as plutonium-239 , were fissile . Emilio Segrè and Glenn Seaborg at the University of California produced 28 μg of plutonium in the 60-inch cyclotron there in May 1941, and found that it had 1.7 times

675-423: A copy of every book and journal published by the University of Chicago Press at no cost. The agreement provided that either party could terminate the affiliation on proper notice. Several University of Chicago professors disliked the program, as it involved uncompensated additional labor on their part, and they believed it cheapened the academic reputation of the university. The program was ended by 1910. In 1929,

810-457: A day shift under Zinn and a night shift under Anderson. When completed, the wooden frame supported an elliptical-shaped structure, 20-foot (6.1 m) high, 6-foot (1.8 m) wide at the ends and 25 feet (7.6 m) across the middle. It contained 6 short tons (5.4 t) of uranium metal, 50 short tons (45 t) of uranium oxide and 400 short tons (360 t) of graphite, at an estimated cost of $ 2.7 million. On 2 December 1942, it achieved

945-466: A grand reading room for the university library and prevents the need for an off-campus book depository. The site of Chicago Pile-1 is a National Historic Landmark and is marked by the Henry Moore sculpture Nuclear Energy . Robie House , a Frank Lloyd Wright building acquired by the university in 1963, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site as well as a National Historic Landmark, as is room 405 of

1080-518: A large study space and an automated book storage and retrieval system. The John Crerar Library contains more than 1.4 million volumes in the biological, medical and physical sciences and collections in general science and the philosophy and history of science, medicine, and technology. The university also operates a number of special libraries, including the D'Angelo Law Library, the Social Service Administration Library, and

1215-441: A lattice configuration. By late 1941, mathematical analysis had shown that the lattice design had advantages over the homogeneous type, and so it was chosen for CP-1, and for the later production reactors as well. For a neutron moderator, graphite was chosen on the basis of its availability compared with beryllium or heavy water. The decision of what coolant to use attracted more debate. The Metallurgical laboratory's first choice

1350-675: A limit of 5 micrograms (μg) in the body, and work practices and workplaces at Chicago and Clinton were modified to ensure that this standard was met. During 1943 and 1944, the Metallurgical Laboratory focused on first getting the X-10 Graphite Reactor at the Clinton Engineer Works up and running, and then the B Reactor at the Hanford Site. By the end of 1944, the focus had switched to training operators. Much of

1485-676: A location on the University of Chicago campus. Since 1983, the University of Chicago has maintained the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project , a mathematics program used in urban primary and secondary schools. The university runs a program called the Council on Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences, which administers interdisciplinary workshops to provide a forum for graduate students, faculty, and visiting scholars to present scholarly work in progress. The university also operates

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1620-507: A major role in the development of many academic disciplines, including economics, law, literary criticism, mathematics, physics, religion, sociology, and political science, establishing the Chicago schools of thought in various fields. Chicago's Metallurgical Laboratory produced the world's first human-made, self-sustaining nuclear reaction in Chicago Pile-1 beneath the viewing stands of

1755-622: A member of the Baptist clergy who believed that a great university should maintain the study of faith as a central focus. To fulfill this commitment, he brought the Baptist seminary that had begun as an independent school "alongside" the Old University of Chicago and separated from the old school decades earlier to Morgan Park. This became the Divinity School in 1891, the first professional school at

1890-590: A nearby particle physics laboratory, as well as a stake in the Apache Point Observatory in Sunspot, New Mexico . Faculty and students at the adjacent Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago collaborate with the university. In 2013, the university formed an affiliation with the formerly independent Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass. The National Opinion Research Center maintains an office at

2025-615: A new school could go by the name of the city. In 1890, the American Baptist Education Society incorporated a new University of Chicago as a coeducational institution, using $ 400,000 donated to the ABES to supplement a $ 600,000 donation from Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller , and land donated by Marshall Field . While the Rockefeller donation provided money for academic operations and long-term endowment, it

2160-487: A reactor might then be chemically separated from uranium it was bred from. On 20 December, soon after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that brought the United States into the war, Compton was placed in charge of the plutonium project. Its objectives were to produce reactors to convert uranium to plutonium, to find ways to chemically separate the plutonium from the uranium, and to design and build an atomic bomb. Although

2295-413: A staffing freeze. The only division to grow between November 1944 and March 1945 was the health division; all the rest lost 20 percent or more of their staff. From a peak of 2,008 staff on 1 July 1944, the number of people working at the Metallurgical Laboratory fell to 1,444 on 1 July 1945. The end of the war did not end the flow of departures. Seaborg left on 17 May 1946, taking much of what remained of

2430-415: A successful reactor had not yet been built, the scientists had already produced several different but promising design concepts. It fell to Compton to decide which of these should be pursued. He proposed an ambitious schedule that aimed to achieve a controlled nuclear chain reaction by January 1943, and to have a deliverable atomic bomb by January 1945. Compton felt that having teams at Columbia, Princeton,

2565-706: A tank below. Construction began on 1 January 1944. The reactor went critical in May 1944, and was first operated at full power of 300 kW in July 1944. During the war Zinn allowed it to be run around the clock, and its design made it easy to conduct experiments. This included tests to investigate the properties of isotopes such as tritium and determine the neutron capture cross section of elements and compounds that might be used to construct future reactors, or occur in impurities. They were also used for trials of instrumentation, and in experiments to determine thermal stability of materials, and to train operators. The design of

2700-415: Is Katherine Baicker since March 2023. The current president of the University of Chicago is chemist Paul Alivisatos , who assumed the role on September 1, 2021. Robert Zimmer , the previous president, transitioned into the new role of chancellor of the university. The university's endowment was the 12th largest among American educational institutions and state university systems in 2013 and as of 2020

2835-463: Is the largest gift in the university's history and the largest gift ever to any business school. In 2009, planning or construction on several new buildings, half of which cost $ 100 million or more, was underway. Since 2011, major construction projects have included the Jules and Gwen Knapp Center for Biomedical Discovery, a ten-story medical research center, and further additions to the medical campus of

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2970-676: The George Herbert Jones Laboratory , where Glenn T. Seaborg and his team were the first to isolate plutonium. Hitchcock Hall , an undergraduate dormitory, is on the National Register of Historic Places . The campus is soon to be the home of the Obama Presidential Center , the Presidential Library for the 44th president of the United States with expected completion in 2026. The Obamas settled in

3105-674: The Great Depression . Nonetheless, in 1933, Hutchins proposed an unsuccessful plan to merge the University of Chicago and Northwestern University . During World War II, the university's Metallurgical Laboratory made ground-breaking contributions to the Manhattan Project . The university was the site of the first isolation of plutonium and of the creation of the first artificial, self-sustained nuclear reaction by Enrico Fermi in 1942. The university did not provide standard oversight of Bruno Bettelheim and his tenure as director of

3240-743: The John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought . The university contains eight professional schools: the University of Chicago Law School , the Pritzker School of Medicine , the Booth School of Business , the University of Chicago Divinity School , the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy , the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration , the Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies (which offers non-degree courses and certificates as well as degree programs) and

3375-672: The Miller–Urey experiment , was conducted at the university. REM sleep was discovered at the university in 1953 by Nathaniel Kleitman and Eugene Aserinsky . The University of Chicago (Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics) operated the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin from 1897 until 2018, where the largest operating refracting telescope in the world and other telescopes are located. Metallurgical Laboratory The Metallurgical Laboratory (or Met Lab )

3510-515: The Orthogenic School for Disturbed Children from 1944 to 1973. In the early 1950s, student applications declined as a result of increasing crime and poverty in the Hyde Park neighborhood. In response, the university became a major sponsor of a controversial urban renewal project for Hyde Park , which profoundly affected both the neighborhood's architecture and street plan. During this period

3645-761: The Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering . The Law School is accredited by the American Bar Association , the Divinity School is accredited by the Commission on Accrediting of the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada , and Pritzker is accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education . The university runs a number of academic institutions and programs apart from its undergraduate and postgraduate schools. It operates

3780-664: The S-1 Committee , and also known as the "Pile" or "X-10" Project, headed by Chicago professor Arthur H. Compton , a Nobel Prize laureate. In turn, it became part of the Manhattan Project – the Allied effort to develop the atomic bomb during World War II . The Metallurgical Laboratory was successively led by Richard L. Doan, Samuel K. Allison , Joyce C. Stearns and Farrington Daniels . Scientists who worked there included Enrico Fermi , James Franck , Eugene Wigner and Glenn Seaborg . Compton assigned Robert Oppenheimer to take over

3915-665: The University of Chicago Laboratory Schools (a private day school for K-12 students and day care ), and a public charter school with four campuses on the South Side of Chicago administered by the university's Urban Education Institute. In addition, the Hyde Park Day School, a school for students with learning disabilities, and the Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School , a residential treatment program for those with behavioral and emotional problems, maintains

4050-506: The University of Chicago Medical Center . In 2014 the university launched the public phase of a $ 4.5 billion fundraising campaign. In September 2015, the university received $ 100 million from The Pearson Family Foundation to establish The Pearson Institute for the Study and Resolution of Global Conflicts and The Pearson Global Forum at the Harris School of Public Policy . In 2019,

4185-831: The University of Chicago Press , and the University of Chicago Medical Center , and oversees several laboratories, including Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) , Argonne National Laboratory , and the Marine Biological Laboratory . The university is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission . The university runs on a quarter system in which the academic year is divided into four terms: Summer (June–August), Autumn (September–December), Winter (January–March), and Spring (April–June). Full-time undergraduate students take three to four courses every quarter for approximately nine weeks before their quarterly academic breaks. The school year typically begins in late September and ends in late May. After its foundation in

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4320-529: The University of Chicago Press , the largest university press in the United States. The University of Chicago Library system encompasses six libraries that contain a total of 11 million volumes, the 9th most among library systems in the United States. The university's main library is the Regenstein Library , which contains one of the largest collections of print volumes in the United States. The Joe and Rika Mansueto Library , built in 2011, houses

4455-418: The University of Ottawa in 1999–2000. Three people have won the top individual debater award twice: Casey Halladay of the University of Ottawa in 1997–1998 and 1999–2000, Rory Gillis of Yale University in two consecutive years from 2004 to 2006, and Kate Falkenstien of Yale in two consecutive years from 2010 to 2012. Every year from 1992 to 2001, and biannually from 2003 to 2007, individual public speaking

4590-715: The University of Rochester as head of the Manhattan Project's Medical Section. Over time, the study of the biological effects of radiation assumed greater importance. It was discovered that plutonium, like radium, was a bone seeker , making it especially hazardous. The Metallurgical Laboratory's Health Division set standards for radiation exposure. Workers were routinely tested at University of Chicago clinics, but this could be too late. Personal quartz fiber dosimeters were procured, as were film badge dosimeters , which recorded cumulative dosage. Stone's Health Division worked closely with William P. Jesse's Instrumentation Group in

4725-417: The thermal neutron capture cross section of uranium-235. While minute quantities of plutonium-239 could be created in cyclotrons, it was not feasible to produce a large quantity that way. Compton conferred with Eugene Wigner from Princeton University about how plutonium might be produced in a nuclear reactor , and with Robert Serber from the University of Illinois about how the plutonium produced in

4860-519: The 1890s, the university, fearful that its vast resources would injure smaller schools by drawing away good students, affiliated with several regional colleges and universities: Des Moines College , Kalamazoo College , Butler University , and Stetson University . In 1896, the university affiliated with Shimer College in Mount Carroll, Illinois. Under the terms of the affiliation, the schools were required to have courses of study comparable to those at

4995-535: The 2018 Illinois Bicentennial, the University of Chicago Quadrangles were selected as one of the Illinois 200 Great Places by the American Institute of Architects Illinois component (AIA Illinois). After the 1940s, the campus's Gothic style began to give way to modern styles. In 1955, Eero Saarinen was contracted to develop a second master plan, which led to the construction of buildings both north and south of

5130-654: The Chicago firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill . Another master plan, designed in 1999 and updated in 2004, produced the Gerald Ratner Athletics Center (2003), the Max Palevsky Residential Commons (2001), South Campus Residence Hall and dining commons (2009), a new children's hospital, and other construction, expansions, and restorations. In 2011, the university completed the glass dome-shaped Joe and Rika Mansueto Library , which provides

5265-569: The Eckhart Library for mathematics and computer science. Harper Memorial Library is now a reading and study room. According to the National Science Foundation , University of Chicago spent $ 423.9 million on research and development in 2018, ranking it 60th in the nation. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and is a founding member of the Association of American Universities and

5400-469: The Hyde Park campus and is affiliated with multiple academic centers and institutes. The University of Chicago has been the site of some important experiments and academic movements. In economics, the university has played an important role in shaping ideas about the free market and is the namesake of the Chicago school of economics , the school of economic thought supported by Milton Friedman and other economists. The university's sociology department

5535-549: The Jones Laboratory in 1984. About 600 cubic feet (17 m ) of solid and three 55-gallon drums of liquid waste were collected and shipped to various sites for disposal. The Atomic Energy Commission terminated its lease on the Armory site in 1951, and it was restored to the state of Illinois. Testing in 1977, 1978 and 1987 indicated residual levels of radioactivity that exceeded Department of Energy guidelines, so decontamination

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5670-765: The Laboratory facilities were provided by the University of Chicago. The physicists took over space under the North and West Stands of Stagg Field and in the Service Building, where there was a cyclotron. The chemists took over the George Herbert Jones Laboratory and the Kent Chemical Laboratory. The health group took space in the Anatomy Building, Drexel House, Billings Hospital and the Killis Laboratory and

5805-608: The Law . The university has an extensive record of producing successful business leaders and billionaires. The College of the University of Chicago grants Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees in 51 academic majors and 33 minors. The college's academics are divided into five divisions: the Biological Sciences Collegiate Division, the Physical Sciences Collegiate Division,

5940-547: The Main Quadrangles were designed by Cobb, Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge , Holabird & Roche , and other architectural firms in a mixture of the Victorian Gothic and Collegiate Gothic styles, patterned on the colleges of the University of Oxford. (Mitchell Tower, for example, is modeled after Oxford's Magdalen Tower , and the university Commons, Hutchinson Hall , replicates Christ Church Hall. ) In celebration of

6075-593: The Manhattan Project ended, and responsibility for the national laboratories passed to the Atomic Energy Commission , which replaced the Manhattan Project on 1 January 1947. The work of the Metallurgical Laboratory also led to the founding of the Enrico Fermi Institute , as well as the James Franck Institute , at the University of Chicago. Payments made to the University of Chicago under

6210-561: The Metallurgical Project. The Metallurgical Laboratory was administered by the University of Chicago under contract to the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD). Over 5,000 people in 70 research groups participated in Compton's Metallurgical Project, also known as the "Pile" or "X-10" Project, of whom some 2,000 worked in the Metallurgical Laboratory in Chicago. Despite

6345-568: The Midway, including the Laird Bell Law Quadrangle (a complex designed by Saarinen); a series of arts buildings; a building designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe for the university's School of Social Service Administration, a building which is to become the home of the Harris School of Public Policy by Edward Durrell Stone , and the Regenstein Library , the largest building on campus, a brutalist structure designed by Walter Netsch of

6480-679: The OSRD S-1 Section . The Manhattan District assumed full responsibility for the Metallurgical Laboratory contract on 1 May 1943. Captain J. F. Grafton was appointed the Chicago Area Engineer in August 1942. He was succeeded by Captain Arthur V. Peterson in December 1942. Peterson remained until October 1944. Captain J. F. McKinley became Chicago Area Engineer on 1 July 1945. At first, most of

6615-422: The Old University of Chicago are recognized as alumni of the University of Chicago. William Rainey Harper became the university's president on July 1, 1891, and the Hyde Park campus opened for classes on October 1, 1892. Harper worked on building up the faculty and in two years he had a faculty of 120, including eight former university or college presidents. Harper was an accomplished scholar ( Semiticist ) and

6750-565: The Physics Division to develop detectors, including portable Geiger counters . Herbert M. Parker created a metric for radiation exposure he called the roentgen equivalent man or rem. After the war, this replaced the roentgen as the standard measure of radiation exposure. Work to assess the toxicity of plutonium got under way when the plutonium semiworks at the Clinton Engineer Works began producing it in 1943. The project set

6885-622: The Social Sciences Collegiate Division, the Humanities Collegiate Division, and the New Collegiate Division. The first four are sections within their corresponding graduate divisions, while the New Collegiate Division administers interdisciplinary majors and studies which do not fit in one of the other four divisions. Undergraduate students are required to take a distribution of courses to satisfy

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7020-449: The United States. The university's students, faculty, and staff has included 101 Nobel laureates . The university's faculty members and alumni also include 10 Fields Medalists, 4 Turing Award winners, 52 MacArthur Fellows , 26 Marshall Scholars , 54 Rhodes Scholars , 27 Pulitzer Prize winners, 20 National Humanities Medalists , 29 living billionaire graduates, and 8 Olympic medalists . The first University of Chicago

7155-417: The University of Chicago Hospitals (now called the University of Chicago Medical Center ) finished construction and enrolled their first medical students. Also, the philosophy oriented Committee on Social Thought , an institution distinctive of the university, was created. Money that had been raised during the 1920s and financial backing from the Rockefeller Foundation helped the school to survive through

7290-427: The University of Chicago and the University of California created too much duplication and not enough collaboration, and he resolved to concentrate the work in one location. Nobody wanted to move, and everybody argued in favor of their own location. In January 1942, soon after the United States entered World War II, Compton decided to concentrate the work at his own location, the University of Chicago, where he knew he had

7425-416: The University of Chicago announced plans to establish the Milton Friedman Institute , which attracted both support and controversy from faculty members and students. The institute would cost around $ 200 million and occupy the buildings of the Chicago Theological Seminary . During the same year, investor David G. Booth donated $ 300 million to the university's Booth School of Business , which

7560-555: The University of Chicago are known for their demanding standards, heavy workload and academic difficulty; according to Uni in the USA , "Among the academic cream of American universities – Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, and the University of Chicago – it is UChicago that can most convincingly claim to provide the most rigorous, intense learning experience." The university graduate schools and committees are divided into four divisions: Biological Sciences, Humanities, Physical Sciences, and Social Sciences, and eight professional schools. In

7695-410: The University of Chicago consists of 217 acres (87.8 ha) in the Chicago neighborhoods of Hyde Park and Woodlawn , approximately eight miles (13 km) south of downtown Chicago . The northern and southern portions of campus are separated by the Midway Plaisance , a large, linear park created for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition . In 2011, Travel+Leisure listed the university as one of

7830-411: The University of Chicago. Harper recruited acclaimed Yale baseball and football player Amos Alonzo Stagg from the Young Men's Christian Association training school at Springfield to coach the school's football program. Stagg was given a position on the faculty, the first such athletic position in the United States. While coaching at the university, Stagg invented the numbered football jersey and

7965-461: The University of Chicago. A student or faculty member of an affiliated school was entitled to free tuition at the University of Chicago, and Chicago students were eligible to attend an affiliated school on the same terms and receive credit for their work. The University of Chicago also agreed to provide affiliated schools with books and scientific apparatus and supplies at cost; special instructors and lecturers without cost except for travel expenses; and

8100-496: The administrative offices went into Eckhart Hall . Szilard later wrote that "the morale of the scientists could almost be plotted in a graph by counting the number of lights burning after dinner in the offices at Eckhart Hall." When the project outgrew its space in Eckhart Hall, it moved into the nearby Ryerson Hall. The Metallurgical Laboratory eventually occupied 205,000 square feet (19,000 m ) of campus space. About $ 131,000 worth of alterations were made to buildings occupied by

8235-464: The aluminum jacket to the uranium slug. Under pressure to identify a source of processed uranium, in April 1942 Compton, Spedding and Hilberry met with Edward Mallinckrodt at his chemical company's headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri. The company devised and implemented a novel uranium processing technique using ether, submitted successful test materials by mid-May, supplied the material for the first self-sustaining reaction in December, and had satisfied

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8370-431: The aluminum tubing. The Metallurgical Laboratory tested various additives to the water to determine their effect. It was found that corrosion was minimized when the water was slightly acidic, so dilute sulfuric acid was added to the water to give it a pH of 6.5. Other additives such as sodium silicate , sodium dichromate and oxalic acid were also introduced to the water to prevent a build up of film that could inhibit

8505-408: The ashes, a reference to the fire and foreclosure of the Old University of Chicago. A single stone from the rubble of the original Douglas Hall on 34th Place was set into the wall of the Classics Building. The dean of the college and University of Chicago and professor of history John Boyer has argued that the University of Chicago has "a plausible genealogy as a pre–Civil War institution". Alumni from

8640-416: The autumn quarter of 2022, the university enrolled 10,546 graduate students on degree-seeking courses: 569 in the Biological Sciences Division, 612 in the Humanities Division, 2,103 in the Physical Sciences Division, 972 in the Social Sciences Division, and 6,290 in the professional schools (including the Graham School). The university is home to several committees for interdisciplinary scholarship, including

8775-409: The biological effects of radiation assumed greater importance. It was discovered that plutonium, like radium, was a bone seeker , making it especially hazardous. The Metallurgical Laboratory became the first of the national laboratories , the Argonne National Laboratory , on 1 July 1946. The work of the Met Lab also led to the creation of the Enrico Fermi Institute and the James Franck Institute at

8910-399: The board of trustees and donor of the Ryerson Physical Laboratory) Adolphus Clay Bartlett and Leon Mandel, who funded the construction of the gymnasium and assembly hall, and George C. Walker of the Walker Museum, a relative of Cobb who encouraged his inaugural donation for facilities. The new university acknowledged its predecessor. The university's coat of arms has a phoenix rising from

9045-442: The bomb design effort in June 1942. In November 1942, this became a separate project, known as Project Y , which was located in Los Alamos, New Mexico . After the United States Army Corps of Engineers took over the Manhattan Project in August 1942, the Manhattan District coordinated the work. From 17 February 1943, Compton reported to the director of the Manhattan Project, Brigadier General Leslie R. Groves, Jr. , instead of

9180-407: The chemistry division moved to Oak Ridge in October 1943, and many personnel were transferred to other Manhattan Project sites in 1944, particularly Hanford and Los Alamos. Fermi became a division head at Los Alamos in September 1944, and Zinn became the director of the Argonne Laboratory. Allison followed in November 1944, taking with him many of the Metallurgical Laboratory's staff, including most of

9315-505: The chemistry division with him. On 11 February 1946, the Army reached an agreement with University President Robert Hutchins for the staff and equipment of the Metallurgical Project to be taken over by a regional laboratory based at Argonne, which the university still manages. On 1 July 1946, the Metallurgical Laboratory became Argonne National Laboratory , the first designated national laboratory , with Zinn as its first director. The new laboratory had 1,278 staff on 31 December 1946, when

9450-431: The circulation of the cooling water. The fuel slugs were given a jacket of aluminum to protect the uranium metal from corrosion that would occur if it came into contact with the water, and to prevent the venting of gaseous radioactive fission products that might be formed when they were irradiated. Aluminum was chosen because the cladding had to transmit heat but not absorb too many neutrons. The aluminum canning process

9585-402: The cyclotron at Washington University in St. Louis . The chemistry division worked with DuPont to develop the bismuth phosphate process used to separate plutonium from uranium. The dangers of radiation poisoning had become well known due to the experience of the radium dial painters . When it became certain that nuclear reactors would involve radioactive materials on a gigantic scale, there

9720-756: The downtown Streeterville neighborhood of Chicago. The Center in Paris, a campus located on the left bank of the Seine in Paris, hosts various undergraduate and graduate study programs. In fall 2010, the university opened a center in Beijing, near Renmin University 's campus in Haidian District . The most recent additions are a center in New Delhi , India, which opened in 2014, and a center in Hong Kong which opened in 2018. In 2024,

9855-476: The efficiency of the reactor, but Wigner was confident that his group's calculations were correct and that with the purer graphite and uranium that was now available, water would work, while the technical difficulties involved in using helium as a coolant would delay the project. The design used a thin layer of aluminum to protect the uranium from corrosion by the cooling water. Cylindrical uranium slugs with aluminum jackets would be pushed through channels through

9990-430: The first controlled self-sustaining nuclear reaction. On 12 December 1942, CP-1's power output was increased to 200 W, enough to power a light bulb. Lacking shielding of any kind, it was a radiation hazard for everyone in the vicinity. Thereafter, testing was continued at the lower power of 0.5 W. The operation of Chicago Pile-1 was terminated on 28 February 1943. It was dismantled and moved to Argonne, where

10125-454: The global top 10 for eleven consecutive years (from 2012 to 2022). The university's law and business schools rank among the top three professional schools in the United States. The business school is currently ranked first in the US by US News & World Report and first in the world by The Economist , while the law school is ranked third by US News & World Report and first by Above

10260-484: The good salaries being offered, recruiting was difficult. There was competition for scientists and engineers from other defense-related projects, and Chicago was expensive compared with university towns. Norman Hilberry was associate director of the Metallurgical Project, and Richard L. Doan was appointed the Director of the Metallurgical Laboratory. While Doan was an able administrator, he had difficulty being accepted as

10395-405: The graphite's crystalline structure. Over time, this causes the graphite to heat and swell. Investigation of the problem would take most of 1946 before a fix was found. Metallurgical work concentrated on uranium and plutonium. Although it had been discovered over a century before, little was known about uranium, as evidenced by the fact that many references gave a figure for its melting point that

10530-508: The head of the laboratory, since he was not an academic. On 5 May 1943, Compton replaced him with Samuel K. Allison , and appointed Henry D. Smyth as associate director. Initially there were three physics groups, headed by Allison, Fermi and Martin D. Whitaker . Frank Spedding was in charge of the Chemistry Division. He was later succeeded by Herbert McCoy , and then by James Franck . Compton placed Robert Oppenheimer in charge of

10665-527: The huddle. Stagg is the namesake of the university's Stagg Field . The business school was founded in 1898, and the law school was founded in 1902. Harper died in 1906 and was replaced by a succession of three presidents whose tenures lasted until 1929. During this period, the Oriental Institute was founded to support and interpret archeological work in what was then called the Near East. In

10800-426: The instrument section. He was replaced by Joyce C. Stearns . Farrington Daniels , who became associate director on 1 September 1944, succeeded Stearns as director on 1 July 1945. Where possible, the University of Chicago attempted to re-employ workers who had been transferred from the Metallurgical Laboratory to other projects once their work had ended. Replacing staff was nearly impossible, as Groves had ordered

10935-460: The lab's chemical section was the first to chemically separate a weighable sample of plutonium, and on 2 December 1942, the Met Lab produced the first controlled nuclear chain reaction , in the reactor Chicago Pile-1 , which was constructed under the stands of the university's old football stadium, Stagg Field . The Metallurgical Laboratory was established as part of the Metallurgical Project, under

11070-531: The laboratory but the University of Chicago also had to make alterations for users displaced by it. The University of Chicago made a 0.73-acre (0.30 ha) site occupied by tennis courts available to the Manhattan District on a one dollar lease, for the construction of a new chemistry building with 20,000 square feet (1,900 m ) of space. Stone and Webster commenced work on this in September 1942 and it

11205-655: The late 19th century, the University of Chicago quickly became established as one of the wealthiest and, according to Henry S. Webber, one of the most prestigious universities in America. To elevate higher education standards and practices, the university was a founder of the Association of American Universities in 1900. According to Jonathan R. Cole , universities such as Chicago leveraged endowments to fund research, attracting accomplished faculty and producing academic advancements, leading to sustained growth and maintenance of their institutional profile such that Chicago has been among

11340-467: The most beautiful college campuses in the United States. The first buildings of the campus, which make up what is now known as the Main Quadrangles, were part of a master plan conceived by two University of Chicago trustees and plotted by Chicago architect Henry Ives Cobb . The Main Quadrangles consist of six quadrangles , each surrounded by buildings, bordering one larger quadrangle. The buildings of

11475-521: The most distinguished research universities in the US for more than a century. The university is described by the Encyclopedia Britannica as "one of the United States' most outstanding universities". ARWU has consistently placed the University of Chicago among the top 10 universities in the world, and the 2021 QS World University Rankings placed the university in 9th place worldwide. THE World University Rankings has ranked it among

11610-502: The most of any university. University of Chicago The University of Chicago ( UChicago , Chicago , U of C , or UChi ) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois , United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side , near the shore of Lake Michigan about 7 miles (11 km) from the Loop . The university is composed of

11745-498: The number of required courses from 21 to 15. When The New York Times , The Economist , and other major news outlets picked up this story, the university became the focal point of a national debate on education. The changes were ultimately implemented, but the controversy played a role in Sonnenschein's decision to resign in 2000. From the mid-2000s, the university began a number of multimillion-dollar expansion projects. In 2008,

11880-423: The original 1 May 1943 non-profit contract totaled $ 27,933,134.83, which included $ 647,671.80 in construction and remodeling costs. The contract expired on 30 June 1946, and was replaced by a new contract, which ended on 31 December 1946. A further $ 2,756,730.54 was paid under this contract, of which $ 161,636.10 was spent on construction and remodeling. An additional $ 49,509.83 was paid to the University of Chicago for

12015-439: The original materials were used to build Chicago Pile-2 (CP-2). Instead of being spherical, the new reactor was built in a cube-like shape, about 25 feet (7.6 m) tall with a base approximately 30 feet (9.1 m) square. It was surrounded by concrete walls 5 feet (1.5 m) thick that acted as a radiation shield , and with overhead protection from 6 inches (15 cm) of lead and 50 inches (130 cm) of wood. More uranium

12150-416: The president are the provost, fourteen vice presidents (including the chief financial officer, chief investment officer , and vice president for campus life and student services), the directors of Argonne National Laboratory and Fermilab , the secretary of the university, and the student ombudsperson . As of May 2022, the current chairman of the board of trustees is David Rubenstein . The current provost

12285-402: The project's entire order of the first sixty tons before the contract was signed. The metallurgy of plutonium was completely unknown, for it had only recently been discovered. In August 1942, Seaborg's team chemically isolated the first weighable amount of plutonium from uranium irradiated in the Jones Laboratory. Until reactors became available, minuscule amounts of plutonium were produced in

12420-485: The reactor and drop out the other side into a cooling pond. Once the radioactivity subsided, the slugs would be taken away and the plutonium extracted. After reviewing the two designs, the DuPont engineers chose the water-cooled one. In 1959 a patent for the reactor design would be issued in the name of Creutz, Ohlinger, Weinberg, Wigner, and Young. The use of water as a coolant raised the problem of corrosion and oxidation of

12555-432: The reactors for plutonium production involved several problems, not just in nuclear physics but in engineering and construction. Issues such as the long-term effect of radiation on materials received considerable attention from the Metallurgical Laboratory. Two types of reactors were considered: homogeneous, in which the moderator and fuel were mixed together, and heterogeneous, in which the moderator and fuel were arranged in

12690-406: The recruitment of non-union labor. When it became clear that the materials for Fermi's new pile would be on hand before the new structure was completed, Compton approved a proposal from Fermi to build the pile under the stands at Stagg Field. Construction of the reactor, known as Chicago Pile-1 (CP-1), began on the morning of 16 November 1942. The work was carried out in twelve-hour shifts, with

12825-601: The research into bomb design in June 1942, and that became the separate Project Y in November. At its peak on 1 July 1944, the Met Lab had 2,008 staff. Chicago Pile-1 was soon moved by the lab to Site A , a more remote location in the Argonne Forest preserves , where the original materials were used to build an improved Chicago Pile-2 to be employed in new research into the products of nuclear fission. Another reactor, Chicago Pile-3 ,

12960-600: The restoration of its facilities. In 1974, the United States government began cleaning up the old Manhattan Project sites under the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP). This included those used by the Metallurgical Laboratory. Stagg Field had been demolished in 1957, but 23 locations in Kent Laboratory were decontaminated in 1977, and another 99 at the Eckhart, Ryerson, and

13095-426: The student movement. In 1978, history scholar Hanna Holborn Gray , then the provost and acting president of Yale University , became president of the University of Chicago, a position she held for 15 years. She was the first woman in the United States to hold the presidency of a major university. In 1999, then-President Hugo Sonnenschein announced plans to relax the university's famed core curriculum , reducing

13230-486: The time as "piles") under the Stagg Field stands. Fermi designed a new uranium and graphite pile that could be brought to criticality in a controlled, self-sustaining nuclear reaction . Construction at Argonne fell behind schedule due to Stone & Webster's difficulty recruiting enough skilled workers and obtaining the required building materials. This led to an industrial dispute, with union workers taking action over

13365-452: The top team at the championship. Five individuals have won the top team award twice. Most recently, Matthew Song won in 2022 and 2024, representing Yale University . Matthew Wansley of Yale University won back-to-back championships from 2005 to 2007. Prior to that, Nathan MacDonald and Robert Silver won first together for the University of Western Ontario in 1997–1998, then MacDonald for the University of Guelph in 1998–1999, and Silver for

13500-846: The undergraduate College of the University of Chicago and four graduate research divisions: Biological Science, Humanities, Physical Science, and Social Science, which also include various organized institutes. In addition, the university includes eight professional schools, which also house academic research: the Booth School of Business ; Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice ; Divinity School ; Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies ; Harris School of Public Policy ; Law School ; Pritzker School of Medicine ; and Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering . The university has additional campuses and centers in London, Paris, Beijing, Delhi, and Hong Kong, as well as in downtown Chicago. University of Chicago scholars have played

13635-451: The university agreed to pay $ 13.5 million to settle a lawsuit that it and other universities conspired to limit financial aid to students. The academic bodies of the University of Chicago consist of the College , four divisions of graduate research, seven professional schools, and the Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies . The university also contains a library system,

13770-444: The university created its first school in three decades, the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering . On April 29, 2024, students at the University of Chicago set up an encampment on the university's main quad as a part of the nationwide movement in support of Palestine at institutions of higher learning across the country. The encampment was cleared by the University of Chicago Police Department on May 7. The main campus of

13905-554: The university in Chicago was made available in April 1943. Known as Site B, it was remodeled to provide 62,670 square feet (5,822 m ) of laboratories and workshops for the health and metallurgy groups. The 124th Field Artillery Armory was leased from the state of Illinois to provide more space in March 1944 and about 360,000 square feet (33,000 m ) of space was leased or built, at a cost of $ 2 million. For reasons of safety and security, it

14040-529: The university opened the John W. Boyer Center in Paris, designed by architectural firm Studio Gang and nearly tripling the size of the Center in Paris which had opened in 2003. The university is governed by a board of trustees. The board of trustees oversees the long-term development and plans of the university and manages fundraising efforts, and is composed of 55 members including the university president. Directly beneath

14175-426: The university's Stagg Field . Advances in chemistry led to the "radiocarbon revolution" in the carbon-14 dating of ancient life and objects. The university research efforts include administration of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory , as well as the Marine Biological Laboratory . The university is also home to the University of Chicago Press , the largest university press in

14310-813: The university's Hyde Park neighborhood where they raised their children and where Barack Obama began his political career. Michelle Obama served as an administrator at the university and founded the university's Community Service Center. In November 2021, a university graduate was robbed and fatally shot on a sidewalk in a residential area in Hyde Park near campus; a total of three University of Chicago students were killed by gunfire incidents in 2021. These incidents prompted student protests and an open letter to university leadership signed by more than 300 faculty members. The university also maintains facilities apart from its main campus. The university's Booth School of Business maintains campuses in Hong Kong , London , and

14445-512: The university's fifth president, 30-year-old legal philosophy scholar Robert Maynard Hutchins , took office. The university underwent many changes during his 24-year tenure. Hutchins reformed the undergraduate college's liberal-arts curriculum known as the Common Core, organized the university's graduate work into four divisions, and eliminated varsity football from the university in an attempt to emphasize academics over athletics. During his term,

14580-511: The university's general education requirements, commonly known as the Core Curriculum. In 2012–2013, the Core classes at Chicago were limited to 17 courses, and are generally led by a full-time professor (as opposed to a teaching assistant ). As of the 2013–2014 school year, 15 courses and demonstrated proficiency in a foreign language are required under the Core. Undergraduate courses at

14715-521: The university's refusal to divest from South Africa in the 1980s and Darfur in the late 2000s. In 1969, more than 400 students, angry about the dismissal of a popular professor, Marlene Dixon , occupied the Administration Building for two weeks. After the sit-in ended, when Dixon turned down a one-year reappointment, 42 students were expelled and 81 were suspended, the most severe response to student occupations of any American university during

14850-467: The university, like Shimer College and 10 others, adopted an early entrant program that allowed very young students to attend college; also, students enrolled at Shimer were enabled to transfer automatically to the University of Chicago after their second year, having taken comparable or identical examinations and courses. The university experienced its share of student unrest during the 1960s, beginning in 1962 when then-freshman Bernie Sanders helped lead

14985-433: The university, to notify the university early of any contemplated faculty appointments or dismissals, to make no faculty appointment without the university's approval, and to send copies of examinations for suggestions. The University of Chicago agreed to confer a degree on any graduating senior from an affiliated school who made a grade of A for all four years, and on any other graduate who took twelve weeks additional study at

15120-481: The university. The discovery of nuclear fission in uranium by German chemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann in December 1938, and its theoretical explanation (and naming) by Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch soon after, opened up the possibility that neutrons produced by fission could create a controlled nuclear chain reaction . At Columbia University , Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilard began exploring how this might be achieved. In August 1939, Szilard drafted

15255-532: The university—and a number of National Resource Centers , including the Center for Middle Eastern Studies . Chicago also operates or is affiliated with several research institutions apart from the university proper. The university manages Argonne National Laboratory , part of the United States Department of Energy 's national laboratory system, and co-manages Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) ,

15390-467: The unstinting support of university administration, whereas Columbia was engaged in uranium enrichment efforts and was hesitant to add another secret project. Other factors contributing to the decision were Chicago's central location and the availability of scientists, technicians and facilities in the Midwest that had not yet been taken away by war work. Housing was more readily available, and an inland city

15525-473: The war plus one year for a dollar. Construction of facilities including laboratories and service buildings and an access road was commenced in September 1942 and completed in early 1943. Compton appointed Fermi as the first director of the Argonne Laboratory. Between 15 September and 15 November 1942, groups under Herbert L. Anderson and Walter Zinn constructed sixteen experimental reactors (known at

15660-408: The work on reactor development, the Metallurgical Laboratory studied the chemistry and metallurgy of plutonium, and worked with DuPont to develop the bismuth phosphate process used to separate plutonium from uranium. When it became certain that nuclear reactors would involve radioactive materials on a gigantic scale, there was considerable concern about the health and safety aspects, and the study of

15795-465: Was helium , because it could be both a coolant and a neutron moderator. The difficulties of its use were not overlooked. Large quantities would be required, and it would have to be very pure, with no neutron-absorbing impurities . Special blowers would be required to circulate the gas through the reactor, and the problem of leakage of radioactive gases would have to be solved. None of these problems were regarded as insurmountable. The decision to use helium

15930-702: Was a member of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation from 1946 through June 29, 2016, when the group's name was changed to the Big Ten Academic Alliance . The University of Chicago is not a member of the rebranded consortium, but will continue to be a collaborator. The university operates more than 140 research centers and institutes on campus. Among these are the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, West Asia & North Africa —a museum and research center for Near Eastern studies owned and operated by

16065-609: Was a scientific laboratory from 1942 to 1946 at the University of Chicago . It was established in February 1942 and became the Argonne National Laboratory in July 1946. The laboratory was established in February 1942 to study and use the newly discovered chemical element plutonium . It researched plutonium's chemistry and metallurgy, designed the world's first nuclear reactors to produce it, and developed chemical processes to separate it from other elements. In August 1942

16200-455: Was also an event at the championship. It was run as a parallel tournament, with a grand public speaking final before the final round of debate. After 2007, it was discontinued as APDA had shortened debating tournaments and discontinued public speaking as a regular event at US tournaments. No individual ever repeated as North American Public Speaking Champion. McGill University and the University of Ottawa each had three public speaking champions,

16335-599: Was built at the Argonne site in early 1944. This was the world's first reactor to use heavy water as a neutron moderator . It went critical in May 1944, and was first operated at full power in July 1944. The Metallurgical Laboratory also designed the X-10 Graphite Reactor at the Clinton Engineer Works in Oak Ridge, Tennessee , and the B Reactor at the Hanford Engineer Works in the state of Washington . As well as

16470-400: Was built, but was now becoming available in quantity thanks to the Manhattan Project's P-9 Project . The reactor was a large aluminum tank, 6 feet (1.8 m) in diameter, which was filled with heavy water, which weighed about 6.5 short tons (5.9 t). The cover was pierced by regularly spaced holes through which 121 uranium rods sheathed in aluminum projected into the heavy water. The tank

16605-400: Was completed in December. It was soon found to be too small and an adjacent 0.85-acre (0.34 ha) plot was added to the lease, on which a 30,000-square-foot (2,800 m ) annex was built and completed in November 1943. Extensive work was then carried out on the ventilation system to allow the laboratory to work with plutonium more safely. A site containing an ice house and stables owned by

16740-469: Was considerable concern about the health and safety aspects. Robert S. Stone, who had worked with Ernest Lawrence at the University of California, was recruited to head the Metallurgical Project's health and safety program. Simeon Cutler, a radiologist, assumed responsibility for radiation safety in Chicago, before moving on to head the program at the Hanford Site . Groves appointed Stafford L. Warren from

16875-480: Was conveyed to DuPont , the company responsible for building the production reactors, and was initially accepted. In early 1943, Wigner and his Theoretical Group that included Alvin Weinberg , Katharine Way , Leo Ohlinger, Gale Young and Edward Creutz produced a design for a production reactor with water cooling. The choice of water as a coolant was controversial, as it was known to absorb neutrons, thereby reducing

17010-415: Was founded by a small group of Baptist educators in 1856 through a land endowment from Senator Stephen A. Douglas . It closed in 1886 after years of financial struggle and a final annus horribilis in which the campus was badly damaged by fire and the school was foreclosed on by its creditors. Several years later, its trustees elected to change the school's name to the " Old University of Chicago " so that

17145-453: Was given close attention, as ruptured slugs could jam or damage the channels in the reactor, and the smallest holes could vent radioactive gases. The Metallurgical Laboratory investigated production and testing regimes for the canning process. An important area of research concerned the Wigner effect . Under bombardment by neutrons, the carbon atoms in the graphite moderator can be knocked out of

17280-474: Was less vulnerable to enemy attack. The new research establishment was formed in February 1942, and named the "Metallurgical Laboratory" or "Met Lab". Some real metallurgy was carried out, but the name was intended as a cover for its activities. The University of Chicago had been considering establishing a research institute into metals, and indeed would do so after the war, so its creation attracted little attention. Compton's plutonium project then became known as

17415-474: Was not desirable to locate the facilities for experiments with nuclear reactors in densely populated Chicago. Compton selected a site in the Argonne Forest , part of the Forest Preserve District of Cook County , about 20 miles (32 km) southwest of central Chicago, referred to as ' Site A '. The War Department leased 1,088 acres (440 ha) of land there from Cook County for the duration of

17550-402: Was off by nearly 500 °F (280 °C). Edward Creutz investigated it and discovered that at the right temperature range, uranium could be hammered and rolled, and drawn into the rods required by the production reactor design. It was found that when uranium was cut, the shavings would burst into flame. Working with Alcoa and General Electric , the Metallurgical Laboratory devised a method of soldering

17685-446: Was stipulated that such money could not be used for buildings. The Hyde Park campus was financed by donations from wealthy Chicagoans such as Silas B. Cobb , who provided the funds for the campus's first building, Cobb Lecture Hall , and matched Marshall Field's pledge of $ 100,000. Other early benefactors included businessmen Charles L. Hutchinson (trustee, treasurer and donor of Hutchinson Commons ), Martin A. Ryerson (president of

17820-419: Was surrounded by a graphite neutron reflector , which in turn was surrounded by a lead shield, and by concrete. Shielding on the top of the reactor consisted of layers of 1-foot (30 cm) square removable bricks composed of layers of iron and masonite . The heavy water was cooled with a water-cooled heat exchanger . As well as the control rods, there was an emergency mechanism for dumping the heavy water into

17955-533: Was the first independent sociology department in the United States and gave birth to the Chicago school of sociology . In physics, the university was the site of the Chicago Pile-1 (the first controlled, self-sustaining human-made nuclear chain reaction, part of the Manhattan Project ), of Robert Millikan 's oil-drop experiment that calculated the charge of the electron, and of the development of radiocarbon dating by Willard F. Libby in 1947. The chemical experiment that tested how life originated on early Earth,

18090-432: Was used, so it contained 52 short tons (47 t) of uranium and 472 short tons (428 t) of graphite. No cooling system was provided as it only ran at a few kilowatts. CP-2 became operational in March 1943. A second reactor, known as Chicago Pile-3 , or CP-3, was built at the Argonne site in early 1944. This was the world's first reactor to use heavy water as a neutron moderator . It had been unavailable when CP-1

18225-418: Was valued at $ 10 billion. Since 2016, the university's board of trustees has resisted pressure from students and faculty to divest its investments from fossil fuel companies. Part of former university President Zimmer's financial plan for the university was an increase in accumulation of debt to finance large building projects. This drew both support and criticism from many in the university community. In 2023

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