Named for a renowned University of Chicago professor who shaped minds with his sense of duty and dedication to students, the Norman Maclean Faculty Award recognizes those who do the same.
As part of the 2025 Alumni Awards program, Assoc. Prof. Emeritus Stephen G. Pruett-Jones and Prof. Emeritus Donald G. York, PhD’71, will receive the Norman Maclean Faculty Award honoring their extraordinary contributions to teaching and student life at the University of Chicago.
The awards are presented by the UChicago Alumni and the Alumni Board, which also have recognized seven alumni recipients for their professional achievements and service to the UChicago community. All of these honorees will be celebrated during Alumni Weekend from May 1-4.
Established in 1997, the awards honor those who carry on the spirit of Maclean, PhD’40, the acclaimed author of A River Runs Through It, who taught at UChicago for 40 years.
Learn more about this year’s Norman Maclean Faculty Award honorees:
Pruett-Jones is an associate professor emeritus in the Biological Sciences Division and the College. An internationally recognized expert in evolutionary biology and avian behavioral ecology, he has conducted field research for more than 45 years on wild bird species in the U.S., Australia and Papua New Guinea—work that has trained more than 125 undergraduate and graduate students in field methods and evolutionary research.
He is widely known for his research on birds of paradise, fairywrens and naturalized parrots. He is the editor of Naturalized Parrots of the World: Distribution, Ecology, and Impacts of the World’s Most Colorful Colonizers; a second edited volume, Saving Songbirds: Imperatives of Conservation in a Changing World, is scheduled for publication in 2025.
Pruett-Jones joined the UChicago faculty in 1988 and taught from 1990-2022. He received the Llewellyn John and Harriet Manchester Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 1995 as well as the 2022 Gold Key Award from the Medical and Biological Sciences Alumni Association. He helped share the careers of many future scientists; among his many teaching contributions, he was especially known for the undergraduate courses on field ecology and animal behavior and a graduate course on sexual selection.
York is the Horace B. Horton Professor Emeritus in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics. A pioneering astronomer, York has made foundational contributions to the study of the interstellar medium and distant galaxies. As the founding director of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, he played a central role in one of the most impactful astronomical projects of the 21st century—producing the first digital images of the northern sky and transforming modern observational astronomy.
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey has become the most cited facility in ground-based astronomy, touching virtually every subfield of the discipline. For his work in founding and designing the initiative, the American Astronomical Society presented York with its 2022 George Van Biesbroeck Prize for helping to “[create] the most detailed three-dimensional maps of the universe ever made."
But for York, mentoring students has been his primary legacy. Throughout his decades at UChicago, he has worked closely with students at every stage—from high schoolers to doctoral candidates—guiding them in research and helping launch their careers in science. York remains most proud of this mentorship, noting that many of his students are now exploring new frontiers in space science, discovery and education.