May 8, 2026
The prize was established in the Division in 2013 by Arthur L. Kelly, who received his MBA from the University in 1964 and established the same faculty prize at Chicago Booth in 1999. In addition to his contributions to finance, business, international relations, and geography, Mr. Kelly served as Trustee of the University from 1988 to 2008 and served two decades on the PSD Council, including ten years as chair. It is fitting that we honor his contributions to the Division and the University through this award.
The Kelly Prize celebrates faculty who, outside of their teaching and research, have made exceptional efforts in promoting and supporting the Division. Previous winners include Aaron Dinner and Stuart Kurtz (2021); Young-Kee Kim and Edward "Rocky" Kolb (2022); Michael J. Franklin and Dan Nicolae (2023); John Carlstrom (2024); and Andrew J. Campbell (2025).
Rebecca Willett, the Worah Family Professor in the Wallman Society of Fellows in Statistics, Computer Science, the Committee on Computational and Applied Mathematics, and the College, and Faculty Director of AI in the Data Science Institute, receives the prize in recognition of her extraordinary efforts to initiate interdisciplinary collaborations in AI research, leveraging the University’s full breadth of expertise to position the University of Chicago at the forefront of artificial intelligence innovation.
Becca is the deputy director for research at the NSF-Simons Foundation National Institute for Theory and Mathematics in Biology (NITMB) and the NSF-Simons Institute for AI in the Sky (SkAI), as well as the faculty director of the Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellowship and a member of the NSF Institute for the Foundations of Data Science Executive Committee. She is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the NSF Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation at the University of Chicago. Through her extensive leadership, Becca has played a key role in the UChicago AI Initiative, helping to establish a vibrant ecosystem of scholarship and education in data science, artificial intelligence, and computation.
