WHERE CURIOSITY DRIVES IMPACT

Change begins with curiosity.

From exploring new ideas to solving the world’s biggest issues, LAS empowers thinkers and doers to transform curiosity into measurable impact.

We believe that education is more than lectures and textbooks. It’s about cultivating minds that question, explore, and act with purpose. And we know that when curiosity meets opportunity, innovation follows—and the impossible becomes possible. 

Explore where curiosity drives impact
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Different types of LAS merch from left to right: t-shirt, backpack, buckey hat, water bottle, quarter-zip, sweatpants.

 

 

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LAS News

Furtado & Haare
A GoPro, a book, and a horse named Tornado
At a calm trot, a horse’s hooves leave divots in the pale, rocky dirt. Under a brilliantly blue Arizona sky, one may wonder where the “tornado” from this artwork's title comes in. Then, the horse picks up speed, kicking up dust and pebbles in a chaotic storm. Some photos are entirely a blur. When...
Anderson and Baskota
Scientists reveal how fish skin helps protect against fast attacks
 Scientists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have helped uncover how fish skin protects fish from sharp, fast attacks in the wild, and the research highlights how curiosity, creativity, and mentorship can come together to drive discovery. The...
Christopher Kempf
English professor receives Guggenheim Fellowship
 English professor Christopher Kempf has been awarded a 2026 Guggenheim Fellowship.Kempf is among 223 individuals working across 55 disciplines chosen through a rigorous peer-review process from nearly 5,000...
neurons dna
RNA barcodes enable high-speed mapping of connections in the brain
By tagging neurons with molecular “barcodes,” researchers mapped connections among thousands of neurons in the mouse brain with unprecedented speed and resolution. The approach could expand understanding not only of the layout of elaborate networks in the brain, but also how the brain...
Mark Lara, Zhuoxuan Xia
Team tracks vegetation recovery from sudden permafrost collapse
 Some Arctic regions regain their “greenness” within a decade of a sudden permafrost collapse, while others can take a century or more to recover, researchers report in a new study. The difference is directly related to each site’s gross primary productivity, a measure of its photosynthetic...
Clancy, Gammie, and Kramer
Three LAS faculty members named AAAS Fellows
 Three faculty members in the College of LAS have been named 2025 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society....
Robert Pahre wearing virtual reality goggles in front of a screen showing wilderness
Exploring a wilderness area, virtually
 It’s a cold February day in Illinois, but I’m enjoying the view of a backcountry trail in Yellowstone National Park. I see a sunrise over Heart Lake, a lodgepole pine forest, a geyser basin, the yellow leaves of aspen trees above a canyon along the Snake River and views of Mount Sheridan.I’m...
Cathy Li presents the Stranger Things Citrus Coolers
The story behind a drink for Stranger Things
 On store shelves across the country last fall, a bright orange sports drink with a retro label and a black sports drink with an upside-down label began appearing alongside the usual rows of Gatorade bottles. For fans of Netflix’s Stranger Things, the limited-edition Citrus Coolers offered a...

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