Teaching at the University of Chicago

Teaching is an important part of your development as a scientist, no matter what career path you'll follow later in life. Here are a few of the resources available to help you through the process of teaching in the BSD:

The Committee on Teaching in the BSD Final Report (2019)

Information for those interested in careers with a teaching component

Information about the Divisional Teaching Assistant Requirement

For Faculty Mentors of teaching assistants

The Teaching Assistant Compact (students complete the first part; faculty will have a link emailed to them after the student has completed their section)

The Center for Teaching

The TA Handbook

Canvas Online resource for courses

1930s

Joseph B. Kirsner: transformed the field of gastroenterology

Gastroenterologist Joseph B. Kirsner joined UChicago in 1935, then pioneered modern understanding and treatment of inflammatory bowel disease He was one of the first to show the link between ulcerative colitis and increased risk of colon cancer, introduced guidelines for how doctors should care for patients, and helped found the American Gastroenterological Association, the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, and the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.

1949

Leon O. Jacobson: performed the first bone marrow transplant

In 1949, medical researcher Leon O. Jacobson, MD’39, performed the first bone marrow transplant. He discovered he could save a mouse whose bone marrow and spleen had been destroyed by transplanting donated spleen tissue into the mouse. The procedure now helps thousands of patients with cancer and other diseases each year.

Leon O. Jacobson, the Joseph Regenstein Professor in Medicine, in his laboratory

1975

Janet Rowley: discovered cancer can be genetic

Presidential Medal of Freedom winner and geneticist Janet Davison Rowley, LAB’42, PhB’45, SB’46, MD’48, discovered the first consistent chromosomal abnormalities associated with cancer in the 1970s, demonstrating a link between cancer and genetics. She later was a key player in the development of the first precisely targeted anti-cancer drug.

2016

Zhe-Xi Luo: discovered earliest-known arboreal and subterranean mammals

Zhe-Xi Luo, professor of organismal biology and anatomy at UChicago, was part of a team of researchers from UChicago and Beijing who discovered fossils of the earliest-known arboreal and subterranean mammals. The fossils suggest that early mammals were as ecologically diverse as modern mammals. Luo’s student David Grossnickle (Evolutionary Biology) also contributed to the research and was an author of one of the Science paper published on this discovery.

Fossils of the earliest-known arboreal and subterranean mammals

1942

Julian H. Lewis: debunked race-based blood typing

Julian H. Lewis, PhD 1915, the first African American to hold both an MD and a PhD, conducted groundbreaking research on race and blood typing that led to his hallmark book, Biology of the Negro (1942). His book was a precursor to the field of anthropathology and is credited with changing many people’s perspectives on race. Lewis was also the first African American to teach at the University of Chicago, where he was a noted expert in immunology.