2026-04-03
- 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 capacity, the researchers discovered. This finding will allow scientists to accurately predict how...
2026-03-25 - 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 experiencing this wilderness while sitting in a studio at the ...
2026-03-24 - 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 nostalgic throwback to the 1980s, the era when the wildly popular show took place. For LAS alum Cathy...
2026-03-23 - Jessica R. Greenberg is an anthropology professor and the co-editor of the policy report “Populism and the Future of Transatlantic Relations: Challenges and Policy Options.” Greenberg spoke with News Bureau business and...
2026-03-23 - Eduardo García-Molina, professor of classics, was introduced to his future career through video games. “That’s how I got into antiquity,” he said. “It wasn’t through Homer or anything like that. It was playing Rome: Total War.”Playing this game as a grade-schooler, he learned of the Seleucid Empire. He said it stood out to him because the...
2026-03-20 - By simulating the life cycle of a minimal bacterial cell — from DNA replication to protein translation to metabolism and cell division — scientists have opened a new frontier of computer vision into the essential processes of life.The researchers, led by chemistry professor Zan Luthey-Schulten, present their findings in the journal Cell.The team...
2026-03-20 - Social media users are more likely to watch TV programs that are endorsed by members of their political party, a recent study suggests. However, individuals’ racial identity and their perceptions of racial and political ingroup norms and the demographics of a program’s intended audience also play roles in their decisions.Stewart Coles, a professor of...
2026-03-20 - New research from a team of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign economists estimates the social mobility effects of four-year public historically Black colleges and universities on Black children who live in the same county as an HBCU.Using data on children born around 1980, the researchers found that HBCUs improved local educational attainment and labor market outcomes for Black...
2026-03-20 - Following a successful launch, the LAS Academy for Educational Excellence looks forward to continuing its New Faculty Teaching Program to help new faculty members and instructional staff improve and develop teaching methods. The new...
2026-03-19 - Deep-sea waters are warming due to heat waves and climate change, and it could spell trouble for the oceans’ delicate chemical and biological balance. A new study, however, demonstrates that the microbe Nitrosopumilus maritimus may already be adapting well to warmer, nutrient-poor waters. Researchers predict that these surprisingly adaptable iron-dependent ammonia-oxidizing archaea...
2026-03-19 - When Annie Zeng walked into her first research conference last May, she didn’t arrive with a lab group or a familiar cohort of classmates. She arrived alone, and she immediately felt like it.“I honestly felt very nervous,” said Annie, a senior pursuing a double degree in mathematics and computer science...
2026-03-09 - Citizens and writers remain hopeful in the face of environmental harms in “Reading Better States: Utopian Method and Environmental Harm in the Global South,” the new book by English professor Rebecca Oh.Oh said she was interested in how people and writers in the Global South see...
2026-03-09 - Researchers have found a way to use solar energy to power a key chemical reaction that drives many manufacturing industries. This new method can significantly reduce the energy required to run these operations, eliminate harsh oxidizing byproducts, and minimize carbon emissions.Olefin epoxidation is not a process many are familiar with, but the epoxide chemicals it produces are the backbone...
2026-02-26 - Insect-human hybrids provide the scares at the 2026 Insect Fear Film Festival at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.The festival, which is hosted by the Entomology Graduate Student Association, takes place Feb. 28 at Foellinger Auditorium. It is free and open to the...
2026-02-26 - The Trump administration recently ordered the National Park Service to remove interpretive signs that discuss slavery at Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, following an executive order issued last year stating that public monuments should not “inappropriately disparage Americans” and instead “focus on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people...
2026-02-25 - Meet Jasmin Patrón-Vargas (BA, '11, Latina/Latino studies and gender and women's studies) an assistant professor of teaching, learning, and culture at Texas A&M University. She earned her MEd in education policy studies at the University of Illinois Chicago in 2015 and her PhD in curriculum, instruction, and...
2026-02-23 - The College of LAS will recognize seven individuals during the 2026 alumni awards celebration in April. This year's honorees are researchers, philanthropists, and political thinkers who have made incredible impacts in their fields and communities.
2026-02-23 - City development is increasingly associated with creating “smart cities” that use technology for managing city services, home construction and attracting resources. But those strategies come with negative consequences to a city’s poor residents, said David Wilson, a professor of geography...
2026-02-23 - A multi-disciplinary team of faculty researchers from the University of Illinois has been awarded a Sawyer Seminar grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to study the challenges to democracy and academic freedom confronting US universities now. This is the first time in the 30-year history of the Sawyer Seminar Program that Illinois faculty have won this prestigious humanities award....
2026-02-20 - The Raphael Kiam Economics Learning Center was recently renovated to be more inviting and accommodating to students.Located in the lower level of David Kinley Hall, the ELC is a space for economics students to receive tutoring and study. Before the...
2026-02-20 - As one might expect on a bitterly cold Thursday evening, the bar fills up early. Conversations overlap, beer is served, glasses clink. Then things get interesting. Someone sets up a projector. As the crowd jockeys for a good view, in walks Charles Gammie, an Illinois astronomy and physics professor who was part of the effort that ...
2026-02-19 - The way Latino Americans’ identity is represented on demographic forms can undermine their fundamental sense of belonging in the U.S., says new research by psychology professor who studies how people navigate exclusion and discrimination.Across four experiments that surveyed more than 1,300 Latino participants before and after the 2020 and 2024...
2026-02-18 - The College of LAS has selected 19 professors, graduate students, lecturers, and advisors as the recipients of this year’s teaching and advising awards.“It is a privilege to celebrate these remarkable educators and advisors who fulfill our educational mission within the College of LAS,” said Venetria K. Patton, the Harry E. Preble Dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. “From...
2026-02-13 - A University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty member has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering.Christopher Burcham, a professor of the practice in the department of chemical and biomolecular engineering, is part of the Class of 2026 for the prestigious engineering body....
2026-02-06 - When history professor Leslie J. Reagan entered her graduate program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison she and the other students in her cohort were told it was unlikely they would ever get an academic job. The field of women's history was virtually nonexistent at the time and the hiring of historians at an extreme low. Now, after 33...