Breakthroughs
A history of pioneering research
Since its founding in 1890, UChicago scholars have made research discoveries that have transformed our world. From fields ranging from astronomy to immunology and economics to sociology, members of the UChicago community have changed the way we live and think. Trace the history of their breakthrough research throughout the years in the timeline below.
1892
Established first sociology department in the U.S.
UChicago’s Sociology Department was the first in the U.S. Its graduates and faculty have shaped sociological subfields and originated methodologies widely used today.
1896
Introduced innovative ideas in education reform
Philosopher and educator John Dewey opened an elementary school in 1896, embarking on one of the most important educational experiments of the century. That small school became the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, one of the preeminent pre-collegiate academic institutions in the world.
1899
Discovered ecological succession
Botanist Henry Chandler Cowles pioneered the concept of ecological succession as he studied plant communities along the shores of Lake Michigan in the nearby Indiana Dunes. He is considered one of the founders of modern ecology.
1900
Helped create field of social psychology
Prof. George Herbert Mead is regarded as one of the founders of the American sociological tradition, particularly the school known as Symbolic Interactionism, as well as the philosophical paradigm known as Pragmatism. His work includes theories of the mind and how the human self develops through social interaction.
1907
Measured the speed of light
Prof. Albert A. Michelson made groundbreaking measurements of the speed of light—providing support for Einstein’s theory of relativity. In 1907, Michelson became the first scientist from the United States to win a Nobel Prize.
1908
Pioneered social service scholarship in the U.S.
The School of Social Service Administration (now known as the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy and Practice) was among the first schools of social work in the U.S. and a pioneer in using scientific research to identify and address the root causes of social inequity. Today, Crown Family School alumni lead public and private welfare agencies around the world.
1916
Reconceptualized history of Western civilization
Prof. James Henry Breasted argued that the roots of Western civilization lay in the Middle East, rather than Greek and Roman cultures. He coined the term 'Fertile Crescent' for the area where Mesopotamian cultures flourished millennia ago.
Photo via Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center
1917
Introduced blood preservation and blood banks
Oswald Robertson discovered a way to preserve blood and pioneered the idea of blood banks, which he established during World War I with the U.S. Army Medical Corps.
1920
Ushered in modern empirical sociology
UChicago sociologists William I. Thomas and Florian Witold Znaniecki won international acclaim as co-authors of The Polish Peasant in Europe and America (1918–20), today considered the foundation of modern empirical sociology.
1921
Created cultural encyclopedia of ancient Mesopotamia
The Chicago Assyrian Dictionary, a 90-year project begun in 1921 and completed in 2011, collected a wealth of information about ancient Near Eastern civilization. In essence a cultural encyclopedia of ancient Mesopotamian history, it is one of the most important contributions to knowledge of ancient Near Eastern civilizations.
Photo by Jason Smith
1921
Reconceptualized the study of politics as a science
In 1921, political scientist Charles Merriam outlined an alternate vision for political science, founded on behavioralism. This became the Chicago School of Political Science, which reconceived the study of politics as a scientific endeavor on the model of the natural sciences.
1923
Discovered use of ethylene gas as an anesthetic
In 1923, UChicago physiologist Arno B. Luckhardt discovered the anesthetic use of ethylene gas. In the 20 years following his discovery, ethylene came into general use as an anesthetic in major operations.
1924
Launched the Epigraphic Survey
Prof. James Henry Breasted developed a technique to record the historic texts carved into temples and tombs without damaging them. Today known as the Chicago House Method, the process blends photography, illustration and careful eyes to create an exact copy. For over 100 years, the Epigraphic Survey team has traveled to Luxor, Egypt each fall to precisely document this ancient human history.
1928
Inspired the field of urban sociology
Prof. Louis Wirth proposed a new academic paradigm for city life as a sociological construct, which was central to the establishment of urban sociology as a field of study. Wirth’s contributions, along with groundbreaking research by sociologists Ernest Burgess and Robert Park, provided the foundation for the Chicago School of Sociology.
1930
Transformed the field of gastroenterology
Prof. Joseph B. Kirsner pioneered modern understanding and treatment of inflammatory bowel disease and was one of the first to show the link between ulcerative colitis and increased risk of colon cancer. Kirsner also introduced revolutionary guidelines for how physicians should care for patients.
1930
Developed our understanding of molecular structure
Prof. Robert S. Mulliken developed molecular orbit theory, which showed how to compute the structure of molecules. He would receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1966.
1930
Proposed the existence of black holes
Prof. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was the first to propose the existence of black holes and to discover the maximum mass of a white dwarf star. Chandrasekhar won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983 for these and other contributions that are now central to the field of astrophysics.
1931
Discovered cosmic rays are charged particles
Prof. Arthur Compton organized a global survey of cosmic rays (a term coined by Prof. Robert A. Millikan), incoming particles from space, and discovered that these particles are charged. UChicago scientists made many seminal cosmic ray discoveries, such as Prof. John A. Simpson’s invention of detectors which are still used today to monitor incoming space radiation.
Photo by Chicago Sun/Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center
1937
Established transaction cost economics
Economist and Nobel laureate Ronald Coase offered groundbreaking insights about why firms exist and established the field of transaction cost economics. He also published the Coase Theorem, which holds that under conditions of perfect competition, private and social costs are equal. Economists have applied this theory to virtually every area of human activity.
1941
Introduced hormonal treatment of cancer
In 1941, Prof. Charles B. Huggins treated patients suffering from advanced prostate cancer by removing the hormone the cancers needed to grow—a breakthrough for which he would later receive the Nobel Prize. Hormonal treatment has since become a mainstay of care for several types of cancer, including breast and gynecological cancers.
1942
Conducted the first controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction
The modern nuclear age began on Dec. 2, 1942, when Nobel laureate Prof. Enrico Fermi and his colleagues conducted the first controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction, on the University of Chicago campus.
1946
Determined that fluoride reduces cavities
Dental researcher J. Roy Blayney conducted a 15-year public health experiment in the Chicago suburbs of Oak Park and Evanston that demonstrated the cavity-fighting properties of fluoride in drinking water. The study led to widespread fluoridation of municipal water supplies.
1947
Influenced how slavery is studied and taught
Historian John Hope Franklin, best known for From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans (1947), influenced the way American history is studied and taught. His work aimed to accurately represent African Americans in American history to ensure “the story of the United States could be told adequately and fairly.” His landmark three-part 1976 lecture series focused on the history of race in the United States from the revolution to the 20th century.
1949
Performed the first bone marrow transplant
Prof. Leon O. Jacobson performed the first bone marrow transplant. The procedure now helps thousands of patients with cancer and other diseases each year.
1952
Showed how life could have begun on Earth
Two UChicago scientists showed they could create a chemical “primordial soup” that spontaneously formed amino acids—the building blocks of proteins—when they passed electricity through it. The Miller-Urey experiment is famous for suggesting how life could have begun on Earth.
Photo by Frank Fritz/Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center
1952
Discovered the basic mechanism in chemical reactions
Prof. Henry Taube related the rates of chemical reactions to electronic structure and showed how molecules build a chemical bridge to transfer electrons, rather than simply exchanging electrons, as previously thought. Taube received the 1983 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for this work.
1953
Discovered REM sleep
UChicago opened the world’s first sleep laboratory in 1925. Decades later, two UChicago scientists revolutionized sleep research when they announced the discovery of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and its association with dreaming.
Photo by Bruce Richardson/Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center
1956
Revolutionized legal education and services
Founded in 1956, the Mandel Legal Aid Clinic was one of the first of its kind. Through the clinic, students gain hands-on experience and provide pro bono legal aid to low-income residents. It revolutionized both how law students gained practical skills and how high-quality legal services were provided to clients.
1957
Established the field of action anthropology
Prof. Sol Tax helped establish the field of action anthropology, an approach in which the researcher has two coordinate goals: to help a group of people in the culture being studied solve a problem and to learn in the process.
1958
Discovered the solar wind
Prof. Eugene Parker showed that there is a flow of supersonic particles coming off the surface of the sun, which shapes our entire solar system. For this and other pioneering work, Parker became the first living person to have a spacecraft named after them: the Parker Solar Probe, launched in 2018.
1959
Changed understanding of the jury system
The Chicago Jury Project, the 1950s effort of law professors Harry Kalven and Hans Zeisel, was the first large-scale empirical study of the jury system, revolutionizing the use of social science techniques in legal scholarship. The project changed the American understanding of the role of the jury.
1960
Invented carbon-14 dating
The discovery that ancient organic materials could be dated based on the abundance of an isotope of carbon—called carbon-14 dating—has had revolutionary implications for archaeology and paleontology. Prof. Willard F. Libby won the Nobel Prize for this work in 1960.
1965
Discovered where meteorites come from
Prof. Edward Anders discovered that meteorites come from asteroids—not from the moon or other debris—by analyzing the ratios of element isotopes.
1965
Discovered proinsulin, advancing diabetes treatment
Biochemist Donald F. Steiner, SM’56, MD’56, discovered proinsulin, the first “pro-hormone” and precursor to insulin. The 1965 finding led to the synthetic production of human insulin, markedly improving therapy for diabetes sufferers, and laid the groundwork for improved understanding of how other proteins in the body are made.
1965
Developed efficient market hypothesis
The efficient market hypothesis posits that prices in the market reflect all available information, as rational investors seek and quickly respond to that information. This idea, the brainchild of economist and Nobel laureate Eugene Fama, has contributed greatly to the creation of indexed funds as an effective strategy of investment.
1971
Devised the standard for measuring tornado severity
Prof. Tetsuya “Ted” Fujita developed the Fujita Tornado Scale, or F-scale, by cataloging the damage left in the wake of a tornado. A modified version remains the internationally accepted standard for measuring tornado severity.
1973
Developed predictor of the value of derivatives
Profs. Myron Scholes and Fischer Black developed an equation that could predict the value of derivatives. The Black-Scholes options pricing model, published in 1973, enabled the growth of futures and options markets and remains key to modern investment strategy.
1975
Confirmed cancer is genetic disease
Prof. Janet Davison Rowley identified the genetic basis for leukemia, confirming that cancer is a genetic disease. She later was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and was a key player in the development of the first precisely targeted anti-cancer drug.
1976
Introduced the modern monetarist school of economics
Economist Milton Friedman’s work led to monetarism, a radical rethinking of the sources of inflation that overturned conventional Keynesian thinking. He argued that the money supply, not government spending, influenced output and the price level, which strongly influenced Federal Reserve policy. He won a Nobel Prize in 1976.
1977
Discovered source of red blood cell formation
Prof. Eugene Goldwasser isolated erythropoietin, the hormone behind red blood cell formation. The discovery led to the development of the first blockbuster drug of the biotech age, which has since treated millions with anemia.
1978
Identified earliest evidence of hominins walking upright
Prof. Russell Tuttle, a leading expert on early humans, analyzed 3.66-million-year-old footprints discovered in Laetoli, Tanzania. He determined that they were left by creatures who walked bipedally in a fashion almost identical to human beings. These “Laetoli footprints” were the oldest known evidence at the time of early hominins walking upright.
1983
Instituted breakthrough math curricula
With the goal of improving mathematics education in elementary and secondary schools throughout the U.S., the UChicago School Mathematics Project was founded in 1983. An estimated 3.5 to 4 million students now use the project’s materials, such as Everyday Mathematics.
1983
Laid the groundwork for modern understanding of banking and bank runs
Prof. Douglas Diamond co-wrote a seminal paper outlining the role of banking and financial institutes in society, and why bank runs happen. The theory transformed the way people think about banking and laid the groundwork for how central bankers, regulators, policymakers and academics approach modern finance.
1984
Pioneered clinical medical ethics
Physician Mark Siegler began teaching clinical medical ethics at the University of Chicago in the late 1970s. The MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics, founded in 1984 as the first academic institute dedicated to clinical medical ethics, supports the study of ethical issues raised during everyday care. Its work aims to improve physicians’ skills and performance in decision-making and caring for patients.
1988
Laid foundations for modern solar energy tech
Prof. Roland Winston invented devices that can concentrate sunlight to more than 60,000 times its normal intensity—which today underlie many modern solar energy technologies.
1990
Discovered previously unknown dinosaur species
Beginning in the 1990s, paleontologist Paul Sereno’s discoveries of previously unknown dinosaur species on several continents have contributed to the understanding of the dinosaur family tree and to the larger question of how evolution works over millions of years.
1992
Opened the social sciences to economic analysis
Many current economists follow Nobel laureate Gary Becker in exploring aspects of modern life through the lens of markets and incentives. Becker expanded the scope of inquiry in economics to include human capital, the family, crime, discrimination, and other topics previously in the domain of sociology or psychology—winning a Nobel Prize in 1992.
1992
Shaped our understanding of early childhood classrooms
Early childhood education pioneer and UChicago Lab Schools teacher Vivian Gussin Paley published her acclaimed book You Can’t Say You Can’t Play in 1992. Lessons from the book, which looks at the social and moral landscape of the classroom, have helped shape the educational approach at many schools.
1993
Changed tools used to study historical economies
Nobel laureate Prof. Robert Fogel shifted the course of how economic historians analyze past economies, using the theoretical tools and quantitative methods rigorously developed to answer modern economic questions as a lens through which to view the past. This radically changed the insights scholars could glean from historical data.
1994
Helped discover top quark
Scientists at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory announced the first direct experimental evidence for the top quark—the last undiscovered quark of the six predicted to exist by current scientific theory. Many UChicago scientists collaborated on the discovery, including Prof. Mel Shochet, who served as scientific co-spokesperson for the collaboration.
Photo via Fermilab
1994
Promoted the study of contemporary Chinese art in the West
Art historian Prof. Wu Hung is widely considered the first person to introduce contemporary Chinese art to the West and open it as a field of critical study. Wu’s work exposed Western audiences to a deeper understanding of Chinese art at a time of great economic and social change.
1998
Coined term ‘dark energy’
After scientists discovered evidence that the universe is expanding faster and faster all the time, Prof. Michael Turner coined the term ‘dark energy’ to refer to what was causing the expansion. The nature of dark energy remains one of the great mysteries of physics.
Illustration via NASA, ESA, CSA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)
1999
Invented grid computing
Grid computing, co-invented by computer scientist Prof. Ian Foster in 1999, paved the way for modern cloud computing, allowing large-scale computing services to be delivered reliably and securely on demand.
2000
Cofounded the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
UChicago Profs. Don York and Rich Kron were among the founders of the groundbreaking Sloan Digital Sky Survey, which created a well-calibrated map of the universe used for hundreds of thousands of scientific studies ranging from asteroids to the large-scale structure of the universe.
2002
Measured cosmic microwave background radiation
Measurements of the cosmic microwave background radiation—the 14-billion-year-old light from just after the Big Bang—by Prof. John Carlstrom verified the framework that supports modern cosmological theory. He led a team that built the South Pole Telescope, which maps the cosmic microwave background from Antarctica.
2004
Launched interdisciplinary research into race, politics, and culture
In 2004, Prof. Cathy Cohen began the Black Youth Project, a national research project devoted to examining the attitudes, resources, and culture of African American youth.
2005
Advanced clinical electrophysiology
Prof. Harry A. Fozzard pioneered modern understanding of chemical and electrical signaling in heart muscle cells, helping to lay the foundation for modern clinical electrophysiology by mapping out the structure and function of the voltage-gated ion channels in heart muscle.
2005
Began archiving videos of South Side life
Prof. Jacqueline Stewart put out a call for the historical treasure troves hidden in basements and attics—home movies. Today, the South Side Home Movie Project holds over 1,200 reels of footage shot by South Siders from the 1930s to the 1980s, all held in a climate-controlled vault at the Logan Center for the Arts.
2006
Discovered evolutionary link between fish and land animals
In 2006, paleontologist Neil Shubin discovered Tiktaalik roseae, a fossil with both fins and the beginnings of feet—from the time that animals began to move from living solely in oceans onto land, 375 million years ago. Shubin’s key discovery advanced evolutionary biology, and his best-selling book and television series sparked popular interest in the subject.
2007
Helped lay the foundation of mechanism design theory
Economist Prof. Roger Myerson radically advanced the field of mechanism design, tackling the problem of how to best design markets with the right incentives to induce brokers, investors, and other actors to reveal information to one another truthfully. This led to a branch of scholarship investigating effective trading mechanisms, regulations, and voting procedures, and earned Myerson the 2007 Nobel Prize in Economics.
2008
Launched Crime Lab to study and prevent crime
The UChicago Crime Lab partners with policymakers in Chicago and across the country to carry out large-scale policy experiments to identify effective and cost-effective ways to help prevent crime and violence.
2009
Identified loneliness as a health risk factor
Having few close friends contributes to poorer health for many older adults, but researchers have found that feeling lonely poses an even greater risk. Prof. Linda Waite found that older adults who feel most isolated report 65% more depressive symptoms than those who feel least isolated, regardless of their actual levels of connectedness.
2010
Premiered stage adaptations of classic novels by African Americans
Court Theatre at UChicago was the first to bring Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man and Richard Wright’s Native Son to the stage. These critically acclaimed productions further solidified Court’s strong reputation for staging compelling African American drama.
2010
Rearranged our picture of how genes work
Biochemist Prof. Chuan He discovered that a previously unknown process called reversible RNA methylation is actually central to how genes are expressed in every single organism. That finding launched a new era of RNA modification research, helping scientists more fully understand everything from circadian rhythms to cancer.
2012
Contributed key expertise to the Higgs boson discovery
University of Chicago physicists played a key role in developing electronics that led to the celebrated discovery of the long-sought Higgs boson, the particle that endows all elementary particles in the universe with mass, in 2012.
2016
Developed philosophy focused on human capabilities
Prof. Martha Nussbaum received the Kyoto Prize in part for her work toward the development of the Capabilities Approach, which measures human welfare according to the opportunities afforded to citizens of different countries for realizing their potential and flourishing as individuals, rather than using GDP as a proxy.
2017
Launched the Center for Contemporary Composition
The Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition is a collaborative space for music writing and performance at the University of Chicago. It is led by Augusta Read Thomas, the University Professor of Composition—a world-renowned, Grammy-winning composer recognized for her eminence in the field of composition.
2017
Helped make the first measurement of ripples in space-time from colliding stars
The LIGO collaboration announced their detectors picked up the extremely faint ripple in space-time, called a gravitational wave, made by two colliding neutron stars more than 100 million years ago. Among other firsts, the signal allowed Prof. Daniel Holz to make the first calculation of how fast the universe is expanding using gravitational waves.
Illustration by R. Hurt/Caltech-JPL
2017
Pioneered the field of behavioral economics
Prof. Richard Thaler won the Nobel Prize for scholarship demonstrating that humans are predictably irrational: They don’t always make the ‘right’ choice in a traditional economic sense, instead acting on impulses and incomplete information. Thaler’s work has also shown that because people are predictable, they can be “nudged” to make better choices—a concept popularized in his 2008 book Nudge with then-Law School Professor Cass R. Sunstein.
2018
Identified silent film that reframes early cinematic history
The 1898 film Something Good-Negro Kiss is the earliest known cinematic depiction of African American affection. Prof. Allyson Nadia Field worked with its discoverers to identify the film’s origins, tracing it to the Chicago studio of William Selig.
2020
Opened an experimental quantum loop
Researchers at UChicago and Argonne National Lab opened a 50+ mile underground “quantum loop” in the Chicago area to serve as a testbed for communications and computing of the future. The project hopes to leverage the principles of quantum physics to send unhackable information across long distances.
Photo by Robert Kozloff
2020
Helped world respond to the COVID-19 pandemic
UChicago scientists did essential early work to image and understand the structure of the COVID-19 virus; physicians at University of Chicago Medicine helped pioneer life-saving treatment protocols for COVID-19; and epidemiologists helped advise the state of Illinois, the city of Chicago, and the public worldwide on how to prevent the spread of the virus.
2021
Figured out how to corral molecules into a quantum state
A team led by Prof. Cheng Chin showed how to bring multiple molecules at once into a single quantum state—one of the most important goals in quantum physics. The breakthrough could mean new discoveries in quantum science, including new technology.
2022
Helped take first direct images of black holes
The University of Chicago-led South Pole Telescope was part of a network of telescopes called the Event Horizon Telescope that produced the first-ever image of a black hole, and the first image of the supermassive black hole at the center of our own galaxy.
2025
Unveiled duck-billed dinosaur ‘mummies’
Researchers discovered how E. annectens dinosaur “mummies” preserved intricate details of skin, spikes, and hooves, thanks to an ultra-thin clay template formed during a rare fossilization event. The team reconstructed the complete fleshy profile of these dinosaurs, revealing new anatomical insights, such as the earliest-known hooves in a land vertebrate.