Affiliations and Joint Appointments
Multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional activities at the University take many forms. Research centers funded by the Federal government can involve many departments and multiple institutions. The Regional Center of Excellence (RCE) for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases, for example, involves 26 institutions including Argonne and has investigators in microbiology and immunology of select agents, and associated biomedical, physical and chemical sciences.
Joint appointments and other forms of less formal affiliation are a powerful means of enabling complex projects, achieving a critical mass of expertise, and attracting the very best people to the Chicago area. Currently, the University has affiliations or joint appointments with:
- Adler Planetarium
- Argonne National Laboratory
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Brookfield Zoo
- Disciples Divinity House
- Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
- Field Museum
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute
- Lincoln Park Zoo
- NORC (formerly the National Opinion Research Center)
- Toyota Technological Institute.
Some linkages are single appointments in a given University or partner department to permit covering a key area. Others involve tens of individuals forming the basis for a world-class activity. Some examples:
- Evolutionary Biology: Over a dozen affiliations with the Field Museum, Brookfield Zoo, and Lincoln Park Zoo, including the Provost of the Field Museum, make Chicago one of the world’s most powerful centers for evolutionary biology.
- Argonne National Laboratory: Some six-dozen joint appointments, including the Director, the Chief Science Officer, and an Associate Laboratory Director of Argonne provide mutual strength in accelerator physics, computational science, nanoscience, nuclear physics, theoretical physics, and other areas.
- Joint recruiting helps attract agenda setting scientists.
- Fermilab: The Deputy Director of Fermilab is a joint appointee. A University-Fermilab collaboration in the field of Theoretical Cosmology was established over 20 years ago and continues to be a power in the field.
- Computational and Computer Science: Joint appointments and affiliations bring together the world-class computer, computational, and disciplinary science expertise of Argonne, the Toyota Technological Institute and the University.
- The University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory Computation Institute addresses the most challenging problems arising in the use of strategic computation and communications across a broad spectrum of intellectual activities
- The "FLASH Center" is building a state-of-the-art simulator code for solving nuclear astrophysical problems related to exploding stars.
- Adler Planetarium: Affiliations with the University enable Adler research and docent staff to keep up with rapidly moving research in the field, while providing the University with access to vigorous public education and amateur scientist programs.
