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

LAS News

Asef Bayat
Will the mass protests in Iran succeed in regime change?
 Asef Bayat is a sociology professor and the Catherine and Bruce Bastian Professor of Global and Transnational Studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with expertise in global social movements and revolutions in the Middle East. A...
Christina Kamis stands in a stairwell
Your neighborhood, plus emotional stress, may be aging you prematurely
 While scientists have long known that living in a disadvantaged neighborhood is associated with biological symptoms of accelerated aging, emotional distress accounts for a significant portion of these effects, researchers found in a recent study.“Consistent with a chains-of-risk framework —...
Diwakar Shukla stands in a classroom
New computer simulation could light the way to safer cannabinoid-based pharmaceuticals
 New psychoactive substances, originally developed as potential analgesics but abandoned due to adverse side effects, may still have pharmaceutical value if researchers could nail down the causes of those side effects. A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign used deep...
Kelvin Droegemeier
What’s the state of the research landscape?
 The first year of President Trump’s second term has ushered in host of policy changes to higher education, research funding and priorities. Kelvin Droegemeier, professor of climate, meteorology and atmospheric science at the University of Illinois...
Brian Gaines
What’s behind the surge in redrawing legislative maps?
 What accounts for the number of partisan gerrymandering efforts midway through the 10-year census cycle? Brian J. Gaines is a professor of political science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the Honorable W. Russell Arrington Professor...
Grasshoppers with hindwings extended
Grasshopper wing structure inspires design of gliding robot wings
A collaboration between Princeton University engineers and entomologists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign began with the researchers chasing grasshoppers in a hot parking lot. Their eventual focus on the hindwings of one species of grasshopper, Schistocerca americana, the...
Colette Roth, at right, speaks with students in Lincoln Hall during Ilini Fest
Hood Internship gives LAS students insight on higher education
 The College of Liberal Arts & Sciences is providing undergraduates a valuable, behind-the-scenes opportunity that offers a glimpse at how a major academic unit works. Called the Peter and Joan Hood Internship, this year’s intern, Colette Roth, is right in the middle of it and describes...
The Battle of Monmouth (Wikimedia Commons)
What can we learn from the "The American Revolution" documentary?
 Filmmaker Ken Burns’ new documentary — a six-part series on the American Revolution — aired on PBS in November and is now streaming. The documentary describes the American Revolution as “a...

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