Advancing our community
LAS influence
The College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is filled with accomplished, thoughtful, and dedicated faculty, staff, students, and alumni whose work influences many advancements throughout our community. LAS strives to address the world’s fundamental problems and grand challenges through indispensable research, innovative courses, and an ingrained focus on diversity.
Read on to learn how the College of LAS is advancing our community in Urbana-Champaign and beyond.
Betting on Mother Nature
What does the weather mean to you?
As a PhD student in mathematics who focuses on climate-related risk, I think about the weather not just in terms of my outfit or commute. To me, the weather is a commodity.
Part of my research explores pricing models for weather derivatives, which are financial contracts that help firms mitigate risk and protect revenue from changes in the climate—acting almost like a hidden insurance policy for companies when the weather deviates from the “norm.”
Weather derivates are very popular in the energy sector. An energy company would use temperature-based derivatives to protect revenue during warm winters, when the average person uses less heat. Similarly, the company can also use weather derivatives to hedge its losses during cool summers.
We also see weather derivatives utilized in agriculture. Farmers can purchase temperature and rainfall derivatives to hedge against drought, excessive rainfall, or unseasonable temperatures—all of which could affect farmers' crop yield and revenue.
Continue
However, unlike actual insurance policies, weather derivatives require no proof of damage or loss; they are paid when specific weather metrics, like temperature and rainfall, are met. So, the energy company’s payout would come if the average temperature during the winter rose to a certain degree. The farmer would be paid if the total rainfall for a growing season fell below a certain amount.
By purchasing weather derivatives—having these “insurance policies” to hedge losses—the energy company and the farmer protect the consumer from price surges when adverse weather conditions affect their business. Meaning, energy prices stay stable during warm winters, and the price of almonds doesn’t skyrocket during a drought.
940 Feet series
Join LAS professors and students for a stroll on the Quad, and learn more about the influential people advancing our community.
Team tracks vegetation recovery from sudden permafrost collapse
In a new study of sudden permafrost collapses, Mark Lara, Zhuoxuan Xia and their colleagues found that vegetative cover returns much more quickly in low-Arctic sites than in high-Arctic and high-elevation sites.
Alumna Jasmin Patrón-Vargas strives for big causes in her career as a professor
Alumna Jasmin Patrón-Vargas said her degree in Latina/Latino studies and gender and women's studies was "foundational" to her career and sparked her commitment to studying social structures and educational justice.
David Wright Faladé's story, based on personal experience, took a long journey from idea to publication
English professor David Wright Faladé’s new short story in The New Yorker examines the racial, class and gender tensions in his Texas hometown.
Faculty research
The College of LAS has more than 600 faculty experts working on the world’s fundamental problems and grand challenges. Learn about their work.
