2026-01-15
- 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 Urbana-Champaign, directed the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy from 2019 to 2021....
2026-01-15 - 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 in State Politics at the U of I System’s Institute of...
2026-01-14 - 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 American grasshopper, is inspiring a new approach to untethered gliding flight. The scientists...
2026-01-09 - 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 how the position is preparing her for a career in higher education. Named for and supported by...
2026-01-07 - 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 war for independence, a war of conquest, a civil war and a world war,” and it aims to provide “an...
2026-01-07 - Last December marked the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth (she was born Dec. 16, 1775) and fans of her novels have been celebrating with tea parties, brunches, and balls. Her novels — including “Sense and Sensibility,” “Pride and Prejudice” and “Emma” — enjoy immense popularity. They are the subject of numerous academic studies and TV and film adaptations. Justine S. Murison is the...
2026-01-06 - Miguel Ángel Galindo (MA, ’91, Spanish; PhD, ’97, Spanish) and Nerea Muguerza (MA, ’98, Spanish), longtime resident directors of the Illinois in Granada program in Granada, Spain, recently returned to the University of Illinois for their first visit in a decade.The...
2026-01-05 - Senior in political science Leana Shin was honored in November at the Global Undergraduate Awards in Ireland for her research paper.The GUA is an international pan-disciplinary award program for undergraduate research. Shin’s paper was selected out of thousands through a rigorous judging process. Global winners represented nine different countries...
2025-12-18 - James Slauch, an infectious diseases and immunology expert and leader in medical research and education, has been appointed the inaugural Deb & Tim Paul Chair in Human Infectious Disease & Immunology.For over 30 years Slauch has worked to better understand the pathogenesis of Salmonella typhimurium. Salmonella causes over one million cases of gastroenteritis and enteric...
2025-12-17 - Erik K. Nelson, professor in the School of Molecular and Cellular Biology, has been named the Keith W. and Sara M. Kelley Endowed Professor of Immunophysiology. The investiture ceremony, hosted by the Department of Animal Sciences in the College of Agricultural...
2025-12-16 - Geology can take many forms, from the study of rocks and minerals to the living records preserved in trees. At Homer Lake Forest Preserve, graduate students from the Department of Earth Science & Environmental Change spent a November morning extracting...
2025-12-12 - Eight staff members and academic professionals are being honored by the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences for outstanding professional contributions.Heather Lash, Kristi McDuffie, and Jamie Thomas-Ward have been selected to receive the LAS Academic Professional Award, which provides a cash award as well as a salary increment funded by LAS alumni.Kevin Armstrong, Anita Kaiser, Heidi...
2025-12-05 - A team of plant biologists has made an exciting discovery about how flowers grow and organize themselves, and one of the key authors was professor of plant biology Ya Min (Minya) from the University of Illinois. Their new study, published in the journal Current Biology, explores how a gene called CYCLOIDEA (CYC) helps shape...
2025-12-04 - A new study marks a significant step forward in positioning synthetic polymers as an alternative for expensive, unsustainable minerals used in the manufacture of devices such as conductors, transistors, and diodes.These newly tweaked polymers — developed by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign professors Ying Diao and Joaquín Rodríguez López in collaboration with Jean-Luc Brédas of the...
2025-12-02 - Many humanitarian organizations in the U.S. experienced multiple digital divides that disrupted routine operations and compromised their services to vulnerable refugee populations during the COVID-19 pandemic. These challenges not only elevated refugees’ health risks, they also jeopardized the nonprofit sector’s organizational resilience, researchers say in a new study....
2025-11-20 - Stunning robes created more than 300 years ago by Inohka, or “Illinois people” — Native American tribes whose homelands include Illinois — will be on public display at a special exhibition at the Palace of Versailles in France that opens this month. The exhibition will include one of the most famous existing hide paintings from the 18th century — a robe featuring an iconic image of a...
2025-11-14 - Six scientists in the College of LAS have been named to the 2025 Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researchers list. The list recognizes researchers and social scientists who have demonstrated exceptional influence, as reflected through their publication of multiple papers frequently cited by their peers during the last decade.The highly cited Illinois researchers this year are:...
2025-11-13 - The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is launching a flexible, fully online program designed to help adults complete their college degree, opening doors to career growth and new opportunities. This new degree program received approval from the Illinois Board of Higher Education on Nov. 12. The Bachelor of Liberal Studies, developed by the university’s College of Liberal Arts...
2025-11-12 - When did acts of political violence become classified as terrorism? Who is considered a terrorist? And how do we understand terrorism in the United States? These are the questions that philosophy and political science professor Verena Erlenbusch-Anderson has spent her career investigating. She's...
2025-11-10 - An Illinois Army National Guard soldier and student at the University of Illinois was recently interred at Arlington National Cemetery, the first U of I student killed in overseas combat operations to earn that honor in over a half century.Sgt. Shawna Morrison was an LAS student majoring in psychology in 2003 when her unit, the 1544th...
2025-11-10 - As the weather begins to chill in the later days of October, leaves of warm hues fall from the trees around the Main Quad. Today is a pleasant day, though, and many are out enjoying it. One student sits outside Lincoln Hall with a sage-green philosophy textbook. It’s his first semester back at the University of Illinois after years away....
2025-11-05 - Disease swept across the planes, threatening the dragons of Faerûn. Blue lab coat blowing in the wind, Adrien Seabloom poured over a diagram of dragon species, locations, and possible sources of the disease. He and his trusty lab assistants, a pair of rats peeking out of a pouch, were looking for help from adventurers to test dragon blood samples and map out the disease vectors. Fear...
2025-11-05 - The voyage of the HMS Challenger in the 1870s was a sprawling 3½-year expedition to explore the world’s oceans. The scientists aboard the vessel collected 100,000 specimens of sea creatures, discovered 5,000 new species, mapped the ocean floors and took hundreds of measurements of sea temperature and chemistry that formed the basis of the discipline of oceanography. The data collected by...
2025-11-05 - Millions of Americans may not receive federal food assistance this month. The Trump administration initially said it would not fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program during the government shutdown, which began in October. After two federal judges said the refusal to provide the benefits is unlawful, the administration said it will provide partial payments only, but it is unclear...
2025-11-04 - David Wright Faladé examines race, class and gender through the eyes of a young college woman spending time in her small Texas hometown in his new short story, “Amarillo Boulevard,” which was published in Oct. 6 issue of The New Yorker.Faladé, an...