Dean Mason talks growth, impact and undergraduates at Spring Town Hall

UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering Dean Nadya Mason stood in front of a PowerPoint slide displaying dozens of numbers.

Individually, the figures on the slide were numbers of students, faculty, postdocs, tallies of invention disclosures and patents in the last year alone, and lists of corporate partners, startups and millions of dollars in research expenditures. Together, they told a powerful story about the impact UChicago PME has on education, research, industry, Chicago’s tech community and the world.

“Our goal is to have positive impact in the world with the work we do. Our goal is to train students, it is to educate people, to get people out in the world who can do good things,” Mason said. “Our goal is to do research within UChicago PME that has a positive impact in making us healthier and making our world and lives better. And I'm just going to say from the start that we've really succeeded at doing that.”

Research and community

UChicago PME’s strength is its novel approach to research, organized not by department but by interdisciplinary theme. While many engineering schools are structured around the traditional disciplines – mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, electrical engineering – UChicago PME is built around global problems that need solving.

To that end, Mason presented recent research highlights from UChicago PME’s three themes – Materials for Sustainability, Quantum Engineering and Immunoengineering.

“These are not comprehensive,” Mason said of the list, which included recent breakthroughs in batteries free from “forever chemicals,” sustainable energy storage, immune memory, quantum computing, quantum networks and protein engineering.

But, Mason cautioned, UChicago PME’s groundbreaking lab work doesn’t mean much if it stays in the lab. She highlighted how partnerships like the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth, Energy Transition Network and AI + Science – as well as UChicago PME’s Educational Outreach Programs – bring solutions to real people and real communities.

“Having impact is not just what we do here, but how it spreads to the outside world,” she said.

Expanded undergrad offerings

But at its core, UChicago PME is about its students and postdocs. In the Town Hall, Mason highlighted several ways both the University of Chicago and its Engineering school are expanding to meet the moment.

“It is incredibly important to us to do the best that we can in educating our undergraduates, our master students and our graduate students and helping our postdocs thrive in their research,” she said.

In particular, she outlined several new offerings tailored for UChicago’s booming undergraduate engineers. The current class of undergraduate Molecular Engineering majors is UChicago PME’s largest – and will continue to expand next year.

“We have really unique opportunities for undergraduates, for everything from our Engineering Design Capstone course, where we have 45 students currently working on projects with nine industry partners, to really novel lab courses like our Quantum Engineering Laboratory,” Mason said.

But beyond those programs that give undergraduate majors hands-on, practical experience in industry and lab, Mason also announced at the Town Hall a new slate of core courses for non-majors, expanding UChicago PME’s impact and reach within the College.

The course “Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence for Molecular Discovery and Engineering” will launch in Autumn 2025. “Engineering for Human Health” will launch in Winter 2026 and “Energy Matters - From Mine to Line" will debut in Spring 2026.

Challenges and opportunities

Mason also noted that higher ed as a whole is at an unprecedented inflection point.  She touched on the school’s budget, noting that while there are challenges, there are also opportunities.

“What remains clear is that the work we do at UChicago PME, from our work in health to quantum to energy and materials is vital to the future of America,” said Mason.

None of this would be possible without the UChicago PME community – faculty, staff and students, all working together to make a better world.

“We've succeeded at our goals because of all the hard work that all of you put in every day,” Mason said.

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