About the Program

Former Neubauer Family Assistant Professor Agnes Callard, AB’97, today an associate professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Chicago, leads class in Harper Memorial Library.

The University of Chicago’s Neubauer Family Assistant Professorships attract exceptional early-career scholars and inspire bold, ambitious research.

The world’s top faculty have sought to join the University of Chicago’s community of scholars since its inception. A natural extension of the University’s long-held dedication to recruiting and retaining top-notch scholars, the Neubauer Family Assistant Professors Program invests in scholars with exceptional promise.

The Neubauer Family Assistant Professors Program has supported tenure-track appointments for up to 20 of the nation’s most outstanding early-career faculty each year. These five-year professorships are made possible by a $25 million commitment from the Neubauer Family Foundation

Neubauer Family Assistant Professors are chosen by a selection committee comprised of senior UChicago faculty and come from a range of disciplines. They develop bold, ambitious work at the University, an intellectual destination where scholars from around the world come to test ideas. Here, they benefit from our unique environment, where an abiding commitment to free expression allows the best ideas to prevail, regardless of their source.

Neubauer Family Assistant Professors form a multidisciplinary cohort that convenes regularly for lectures, research presentations, and other programming. The resources offered through a Neubauer Family Assistant Professorship encourage passion and spur the ambitious research that advances knowledge. The program supports early-career professors, facilitates relationships across the University, and empowers outstanding faculty to ask bold new questions and undertake the kind of work that shapes fields and pioneers original ways of thinking. 

Xuechunzi Bai

Class of 2024
Department of Psychology


Salman Banani

Class of 2024
Department of Pathology


Axel Concepcion

Axel Concepcion

Class of 2022
Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology


Karri DiPetrillo

Karri DiPetrillo

Class of 2022
Department of Physics


Joshua Conrad Jackson

Class of 2023
Booth School of Business


Anne Karing

Anne Karing

Class of 2021
Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics and the College


Mikayla Kelley

Class of 2023
Department of Philosophy


Dahlia Klein

Class of 2025
Department of Physics


Dakota McCoy

Class of 2024
Department of Ecology & Evolution


Isaac Mehlhaff

Class of 2025
Department of Political Science


Jasmine Nirody

Class of 2023
Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy


Nikhita Obeegadoo

Class of 2024
Department of Romance Languages and Literatures


Abigail Palmer Molina

Class of 2024
Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice


Kexin Pei

Class of 2024
Department of Computer Science


Diana Powell

Class of 2023
Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics


Soyoon Ryu

Class of 2025
Department of Art History


Milos Simic

Class of 2025
Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering


Jarrett Smith

Class of 2025
Department of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology


Anna Wuttig

Anna Wuttig

Class of 2021
Department of Chemistry


Zoe Yan

Class of 2023
James Franck Institute and the Department of Physics


Linda Zhao

Linda Zhao

Class of 2022
Department of Sociology


Current Neubauer Family
Assistant Professors