A celebrated chemist and accomplished administrator, Paul Alivisatos became the 14th president of the University of Chicago on September 1, 2021.

As President of the University, Alivisatos serves as Chair of the Board of Governors of Argonne National Laboratory and Chair of the Board of Directors of Fermi Research Alliance LLC, the operator of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. He is also the John D. MacArthur Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Chemistry, the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, and the College.

Alivisatos previously served as the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost (EVCP) of the University of California, Berkeley. In addition to his role as EVCP, Alivisatos was the Samsung Distinguished Professor of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, founding Director of the Kavli Energy Nanoscience Institute, and from 2009-2016 served as Director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). A member of Berkeley’s faculty from 1988-2021, he held professorships in the departments of chemistry and materials science, and served in several administrative roles, including Vice Chancellor for Research. 

A preeminent scientist and entrepreneur, Alivisatos has made pioneering research breakthroughs in nanomaterials. Contributions to the fundamental physical chemistry of nanocrystals are the hallmarks of his scientific career. His research accomplishments include studies of the scaling laws governing the optical, electrical, structural, and thermodynamic properties of nanocrystals. He developed methods to synthesize size and shape-controlled nanocrystals, and developed methods for preparing branched, hollow, nested, and segmented nanocrystals. In his research, he has demonstrated key applications of nanocrystals in biological imaging and renewable energy. His inventions are widely used in biomedicine and QLED TV displays, and his scientific advances have yielded more than 50 patents.

Alivisatos received his Bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1981 from the University of Chicago and his Ph.D. in chemistry from Berkeley in 1986. He is a founder of two prominent nanotechnology companies, Nanosys and Quantum Dot Corp, now a part of Thermo Fisher. He is also the founding editor of Nano Letters, a publication of the American Chemical Society, and formerly served on the senior editorial board of Science magazine, a publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Alivisatos has been recognized for his accomplishments with more than 25 awards including the National Medal of Science, the E.O. Lawrence Award, the Wolf Prize in Chemistry, the Dan David Prize, the Von Hippel Award, the Linus Pauling Medal, the Eni Award for Energy and Environment, the Wilhelm Exner Medal, the 2021 Priestley Medal, the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Basic Sciences, and the National Academy of Science Award in Chemical Sciences. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society.

Christopher R. Berry is the William J. and Alicia Townsend Friedman Professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and the College. He is the Director of the Center for Municipal Finance.

Professor Berry's research interests include American politics, metropolitan governance, municipal finance, and intergovernmental fiscal relations. He is the author of Imperfect Union: Representation and Taxation in Multilevel Governments, winner of the Best Book Award in Urban Politics from the American Political Science Association, Theory and Credibility (with Scott Ashworth and Ethan Bueno de Mesquita), and many other scholarly publications.

Professor Berry's research has been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, the Chicago Tribune, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and many other outlets.

Professor Berry is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

For access to Professor Berry's writings, please visit his research website. To learn more about his research on property tax fairness, visit www.propertytaxproject.uchicago.edu.

Mr. Jeremy Fine was named the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of the Chicago Transit Authority in February 2016.  Prior to his arrival at CTA, Mr. Fine served as the Deputy Comptroller for the City of Chicago, overseeing the debt and credit portfolios. He previously worked as a Public Finance Officer at ABN AMRO / LaSalle Bank Capital Markets, where he was involved in underwriting bonds for various municipal issuers throughout the Midwest. Mr. Fine received a B.S. in International Relations/Systems Engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point and a MBA from the University of Notre Dame. 

Suzanne Finnegan has responsibility for underwriting approval of all transactions for insurance. Prior to joining BAM, she was Executive Vice President at Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., where she was the Senior Credit Officer overseeing credit transactions in the Government Banking segment. From 1990 to 2004, she was the Chief Municipal Underwriting Officer at FSA, responsible for domestic municipal finance underwriting, and was Chair of the Municipal Underwriting Committee. Prior to joining FSA, she was Vice President and Manager of the General Surveillance Department at MBIA and earlier supervised MBIA's Special Tax and Leasing Group. She previously worked in the Public Finance Division of Marine Midland Bank and in the Municipal Research Group at Oppenheimer & Co. Suzanne is a past Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Association for Governmental Leasing and Finance. She is a member of the National Federation of Municipal Analysts, the Southern Municipal Analysts Society, and the Municipal Analysts Group of New York. She received a Bachelor of Science degree from St. John's University and an M.B.A. from Fordham University.

Mr. Rosberg, CFA, is a Managing Director & Sr. Research Analyst for Nuveen Investments providing fundamental credit analysis and trade recommendations for high yield tax-exempt strategies including open-end funds, closed-end funds, and customized institutional portfolios.  Ryan specializes in the real estate, transportation, and project finance sectors within the municipal market consisting primarily of non-rated or below-investment-grade rated bonds.  Ryan has been selected as a 1st Team All-Star analyst for the past 8 consecutive years by Smith’s Research & Gradings.
 
Prior to joining Nuveen, Ryan spent five years at McDonnell Investment Management covering both municipal and corporate bonds for SMA portfolios.  He began his career at Van Kampen serving as a credit analyst on their tax-exempt desk.  Ryan earned his B.B.A. in finance from the University of Iowa.  He also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and is a member of the CFA Institute and CFA Society of Chicago. 

Paula R. Worthington is a Senior Lecturer at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago, where she also serves as academic director of the School’s Policy Labs program and faculty lead on its MPP program.  At Harris, Worthington teaches courses in state and local government and cost-benefit analysis and advises students completing applied projects for public and nonprofit sector clients.  She is consistently recognized for excellence in teaching, having received nine teaching awards since joining Harris in 2004.

While on leave from Harris in 2017-2018, Worthington served as senior economist at the Council of Economic Advisers in Washington, D.C., where she prepared research, policy analysis, and written materials in multiple policy domains to help fulfill the Council’s objective of providing high quality, objective economic analysis to the Executive Office of the President.

Worthington’s interests are in state and municipal fiscal policies, and she is actively involved with efforts related to good governance and responsible financial policies at Harris’s Center for Municipal Finance and local civic organizations such as the Metropolitan Planning Council in Chicago.  She is a member and former chair of the MPC’s Regional Planning and Investments Committee and is also a member of the state of Illinois’s Budgeting for Results Commission.

Worthington received her PhD in economics from Northwestern University in 1988.  She has served as an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and as a research officer, economic advisor, and senior research economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and has published articles in academic journals and Federal Reserve publications.  Immediately prior to joining the Harris School, Worthington taught as a lecturer in the economics department at Northwestern University.

Micah Green brings to clients an extensive career advocating before federal financial regulatory agencies and the US Congress, including the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), Department of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.  He advises clients on the full spectrum of legislative, regulatory, compliance, enforcement, and litigation issues, with a particular emphasis on issues affecting capital markets, fixed income cash and derivatives markets and products, trading and clearing venues, and new market developments.
Entering private practice at the early stages of the credit crisis in 2007, Micah helped guide clients through the landmark legislative and regulatory rule-making processes of both the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 and the Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010.   Clients benefit from Micah’s deep understanding of the policy and political environment coupled with his first-hand knowledge of the needs of different types of markets, businesses, and financial products. He has more than three decades of experience working directly with key policymakers who impact the regulation of the financial services, financial products, and capital markets sectors, as well as those who draft tax laws and regulations.
Prior to entering private practice, Micah served as president and co-CEO of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), which was formed by a merger between The Bond Market Association and the Securities Industry Association. At the time of the merger, he had served as president and CEO of The Bond Market Association (BMA) for seven years. Before joining BMA, Micah was tax legislative counsel at MCI Communications, where he was responsible for implementing the federal, state, and local tax legislative efforts of the telecommunications company and leading MCI’s lobbying efforts during major tax reform. Micah also spent seven years working on Capitol Hill, including serving as staff director of the Subcommittee on Human Resources.
Micah received his J.D. from The George Washington University Law School and his B.B.A. from The George Washington University.

Phoebe Downey is currently a Principal at Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning. CMAP is the Chicago region’s comprehensive planning organization for the seven counties and 284 communities of northeastern Illinois. As the program lead for Public-Private Partnership, Phoebe works with Regional Stakeholders to build capacity, develop opportunities, and accelerate project delivery via innovative financing and delivery mechanisms. She has 15 years of experience working at all levels of government on vertical and horizontal infrastructure investment projects, from ideation and feasibility analysis through procurement and final delivery. Before coming to CMAP Phoebe worked with Downtown Pittsburgh, the City of Chicago and the State of Illinois. Originally from the UK, Phoebe completed her undergraduate degree in Political Science at Johns Hopkins University and received her MPA from the University of Pittsburgh.  

Rick Cosgrove is a partner in Chapman's Banking and Financial Services Department and a member of the Public and Institutional Banking & Finance Group. He also served as the firm’s Chief Executive Partner from 2002-2009. His practice is focused in the areas of commercial lending, credit enhancement, public finance, project finance, structured finance, leasing, derivative products and capital markets activities of banking institutions. He has been practicing law since 1977 when he joined Chapman.

Rick has extensive experience in the representation of domestic and foreign banking institutions and leasing companies in a wide variety of financial transactions, including commercial lending, credit enhancement, project finance, public-private partnership finance, derivative products, leasing, tax-exempt asset securitization and other structured debt financings.

Rick leads the firm’s public infrastructure/public-private partnerships (P3) practice, representing domestic and foreign financial institutions in a wide variety of financial transactions in the financing of infrastructure assets. He is a recognized thought leader with respect to P3 and other innovative financing structures and speaks widely at public finance forums, including the Association for Governmental Leasing & Finance, InfraAmericas US P3 Forum, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, and The Bond Buyer public finance conferences.

Evan Levine, Managing Director, Head of Transportation & ESG Finance, leads FHN Financial’s Transportation and Sustainable finance practices.   During his 20-year career, Evan has arranged, structured and financed over $16 billion in transportation capital projects in both the municipal market and public-private partnership (“P3”) financing sector.  Evan has developed and executed financings for infrastructure projects all across the United States in the toll road, surface transportation, seaport, mass transit, passenger and freight rail and aviation sectors for issuers as diverse as the Chicago Transit Authority, Illinois Tollway, Texas Department of Transportation, San Diego Association of Governments, Port of Long Beach, California, State of Georgia and City of Chesapeake, Virginia.   Evan’s P3 transactions include projects for JFK Airport in New York City, Managed Toll Lanes in Texas and Virginia and was a junior banker on the original Chicago Skyway lease in 2005.   Prior to joining FHN Financncial, Evan spent nearly 10-years at Citigroup with stints at Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo.  Evan has also worked for Transportation Developer ASTM North America and Stillwaters Management - a Renewable Energy investor focused on investing in sustainable transportation projects.   Evan is also actively working with state and local governments, investors and developers to use new opportunities from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act to scale sustainable infrastructure projects such as transit bus and school bus fleet electrification, and Energy as a Service P3s.  Evan is a proud graduate of Northwestern University and appreciates the chance to visit the University of Chicago campus.

Seth B. Darling is the Chief Science & Technology Officer for the Advanced Energy Technologies Directorate. He also serves as Senior Scientist in the Chemical Sciences & Engineering Division and Director of the Advanced Materials for Energy-Water Systems (AMEWS) Energy Frontier Research Center. He received his PhD in physical chemistry from the University of Chicago. His group’s research centers around molecular engineering with a current emphasis on advanced materials for cleaning water, having made previous contributions in fields ranging from self-assembly to advanced lithography to solar energy. He has published over 150 scientific articles, holds 20 patents, is a co-author of popular books on water and on debunking climate skeptic myths, and lectures widely on topics related to energy, water, and climate.

Justin Marlowe is a Research Professor in the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. His research and teaching are focused on public finance, with emphasis on public capital markets, infrastructure finance, state and local budgeting, and financial disclosure. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of Public Budgeting & Finance.

Dr. Marlowe has authored or edited four books – including the first open-access textbook on public financial management – and more than 50 academic articles and book chapters. He is also an admitted expert witness in federal and state courts, and has served on technical advisory bodies for the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, the Government Finance Officers Association, the National Academies of Science, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, several state and local governments, and many other public, private, and non-profit organizations.

Dr. Marlowe received a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and is a Certified Government Financial Manager. In 2018 he was elected to the National Academy of Public Administration. He also serves as a Senior Fellow at the Center for Digital Government. Prior to joining Harris, he was on the faculty at the University of Washington and the University of Kansas.

John is a co-founding partner of Arcadia Towers Group, LLC, and leads digital infrastructure development opportunities in the public sector, including schools, cities, counties, and government entities. John brings deep experience from the fixed-income securities industry. John most recently served as Managing Director, Head of Underwriting at Hilltop Securities, one of the nation’s largest advisors to municipalities. Prior to Hilltop, John spent 18 years with Fifth Third Securities, Inc. as Head of Fixed Income Trading & Underwriting, including 3 years as Head of Public Finance. Prior to Fifth Third, John was head of Underwriting for Mesirow Financial in Chicago. John has served on the Board of Directors for SIFMA’s Municipal Division, and The Bond Dealers of America.

John's passions include family, snow and water skiing, golf, hockey, and wireless tower development (not necessarily in that order)!