After the war, Urey became professor of chemistry at the Institute for Nuclear Studies, then Ryerson professor of chemistry at the University of Chicago before moving to the University of California, San Diego. A UCSD building was named in his honor in the early 1960s, during a time when nearly all buildings other than student dormitories had only generic names. The name of the building is actually the "Frieda and Harold Urey Hall". Urey would have rejected the honor, he hated the architecture of the building, but since it also honored his wife he accepted.