UChicago puts molecular engineering into hyperdrive

University of Chicago anticipates being able to “rapidly” commercialise molecular engineering technologies once it launches a new school for the field funded by $100m gifted by its benefactor the Pritzker Foundation.
Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering will become UChicago’s seventh degree-awarding school and the first educational institution in the US tending specifically to molecular engineering courses.
It is an extension of the existing Institute for Molecular Engineering, formed by UChicago in partnership with Argonne National Laboratory in 2011.
The new centre will work closely with UChicago’s commercialisation and tech transfer arm, the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, to jumpstart the go-to-market strategies of concepts based on its molecular engineering research.
To date, University of Chicago has filed 69 invention disclosures and generated six businesses in the molecular engineering space.
Innovations have included materials that treat antibiotic-resistant infections, create cost-effective solar panels and underpin the creation of a secure quantum transportation network.
The Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering will offer programs in areas including quantum engineering, biotech, immune-engineering, advanced materials, energy storage and water hygiene.
UChicago plans to source students for the school through initiatives including a pilot with local community college system City College of Chicago which targets prospective applicants interested in four-year degrees in the so-called Stem subjects of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Robert Zimmer, president of University of Chicago, said: “Molecular engineering has been critical to expanding the university’s capacity to contribute to science, engineering, and technology development, and to do so in a highly distinctive way.”
“The Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering will have a major impact on the city of Chicago, its capabilities in technology development, and the university’s outreach initiatives across the city.”
Tom Pritzker, a trustee at the Pritzker Foundation, said: “Molecular engineering could provide a disruptive approach to translational science, while supporting the continuing evolution of the University of Chicago and becoming a catalyst to make Chicago a center of excellence in scientific innovation.
“As molecular engineering at the University gained traction, we wanted to support the next exciting phase.”