2024-04-02
- A new method safely extracts valuable metals locked up in discarded electronics and low-grade ore using dramatically less energy and fewer chemical materials than current methods, report University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers in the journal Nature Chemical Engineering.
Gold and platinum group metals such as palladium, platinum, and iridium are in high demand for use in...
2024-04-01 - Have you ever wondered how plants protect themselves from predators? This is a question Erinn Dady addresses in her research as a graduate student in the Department of Entomology. Dady grew up in Champaign-Urbana. Prior to becoming a plant researcher she worked for several years in local restaurants, including as the head pastry chef...
2024-03-29 - Leslie Looney is an astronomy professor and director of the Laboratory for Astronomical Imaging. He spoke with News Bureau physical sciences and media editor Lois Yoksoulian about the significance of solar eclipses and what to expect on April 8. There are many different types of solar eclipses: What kind will North America witness in April...
2024-03-29 - Some political figures seek to remove references to slavery from the study of American history, adding to the vast knowledge gaps that stem from the transatlantic slave trade. To better understand these histories, scholars and individuals are turning to genetic genealogy to discover and retrace descendant-family lineages. In a recent paper published in the journal American Anthropologist,...
2024-03-25 - How well do Americans succeed at distinguishing statements of fact from statements of opinion? The answer: Not very well at all, according to new research co-written by a team of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign scholars. Americans struggle to tell the difference between statements of fact and statements of opinion – a troubling trend that has grave implications for civic discourse and...
2024-03-21 - Brian Gaines is a professor of political science and the Honorable W. Russell Arrington Professor in State Politics at the U of I System’s Institute of Government and Public Affairs. Gaines, who studies elections and public opinion, spoke with News Bureau business and law editor Phil Ciciora about the state of the...
2024-03-19 - New, highly stretchable sensors can monitor and transmit plant growth information without human intervention, report University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers in the journal Device. The polymer sensors are resilient to humidity and temperature, can stretch over 400 percent while remaining attached to a plant as it grows and send a wireless signal to a remote monitoring location,...
2024-03-11 - Deborah Lynch (BA, ’70, English) has always considered her time at the University of Illinois to be the foundation of her career. That’s why she has sponsored the Greenfield Lynch Endowed Lecture series to highlight Jewish American literature and literary studies. The next...
2024-03-06 - Chika Umeadi (BA, ’10, political science) is a product manager at Google where he helps drive key strategies with a variety of teams and stakeholders. In hindsight, the political science major and informatics minor believes, in many ways, the connections he made outside of the classroom provided a unique foundation for his life and career. Family...
2024-03-06 - Fragile X syndrome is one of the most commonly inherited forms of autism and intellectual disability, and no treatment currently exists. But a team of University of Illinois researchers led by Vipendra Kumar, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Molecular & Integrative Physiology, has discovered a novel receptor function that may be used in a therapeutic approach to treatment....
2024-03-06 - The University of Illinois System today announced the launch of Brasillinois, an initiative that will feature a student mobility program and build clusters of research and institutional collaboration around themes of climate and sustainability, medicine and public health, and social inclusion. The initiative seeks to create a new model for collaboration between American higher...
2024-03-05 - Science is a forward-looking endeavor. New ideas replace old ideas which are put on the shelf or forgotten like phlogiston. But what about the old ideas that weren’t wrong? Who looks back over their shoulder and sees them before they’re gone? Alexander Mironenko, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, remembers when he began to see the...
2024-03-01 - When Danielle Zymkowitz (BS, ’11, communication) was playing on a travel softball team in California during high school, she and several of her teammates were aggressively recruited by Ohio State. But then Illinois coach Terri Sullivan suddenly showed up close to midnight following a grueling late-night loss. “I was so tired, but Coach Sullivan...
2024-03-01 - Of the nearly 30 years that Atul Jain has worked as an atmospheric sciences researcher and professor at the University of Illinois, the last one was a standout. In 2023, Jain was named for the third consecutive year to the annual Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researchers list, for individuals whose research has been exceptionally...
2024-03-01 - From deep-dish pizza to towering skyscrapers, Chicago is a city like no other. Nearly 3 million people call it home, making it a hub of economic development, culture, and groundbreaking research. And for decades, the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences has played a meaningful role there. Here’s a snapshot of some of the LAS research and engagement initiatives currently unfolding in the City...
2024-03-01 - A student of astronomy might identify Joel Stebbins as the father of photoelectric photometry, a star-gazing technique so important that his workplace, the University of Illinois Observatory, was eventually named a National Historic Landmark. Not as many remember Stebbins for being the campus timekeeper and for being an influential...
2024-03-01 - Pavlo Dziuba had a long career in Ukraine before everything changed in 2022. For 20 years he worked as a professor of international finance at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and lived with his family in a small town of Irpin 16 miles outside of Kyiv. They stayed there even after Russia invaded—until one day their house was hit by a bomb. “Our house was...
2024-03-01 - Most days are easy to quantify. Eight-hour workday. Twenty-minute commute. Three meals. 10,000 steps. However, during the inaugural College of LAS Days of Service, the impact is tougher to tally. Of course, it’s easy to count the more than 50 volunteers providing more than 100 hours of service in three cities. And at the Greater Chicago Food Depository, 7,410 pounds of apples were separated...
2024-02-21 - The 2024 Insect Fear Film Festival will bring its audience a bug’s-eye view of the world. The festival’s theme is “Ant-Men,” and it will feature films in which humans are shrunk to the size of ants and participate in ant societies. The 41st annual festival is Feb. 24 at Foellinger Auditorium at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign...
2024-02-20 - Chemical and biomolecular engineering professor William S. Hammack was invested as Grainger Distinguished Chair in Engineering in a recent ceremony. The ceremony included remarks by John Coleman, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost; Christopher Rao, Ray and Beverly Mentzer Professor and head of the Department of Biomolecular &...
2024-02-20 - Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny died Feb. 16 while serving time in a remote Arctic prison. Navalny was the main political opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin and an anticorruption activist who survived being poisoned in 2020, which many believe was a state-ordered assassination attempt. He was serving multiple prison sentences on what were widely considered trumped-up charges....
2024-02-20 - Nisha Chittal (BA, ’09, political science) graduated from Illinois at a time when social media was just finding its footing. She quickly realized social media could be a powerful tool for networking. Using social media, Chittal made connections at the crossroads of politics and journalism and has never looked back. Today she is the chief of staff at Vox....
2024-02-16 - Tommy Li wanted a summer internship, but he wasn’t sure where to look. The junior majoring in communication had a lot of questions: What activities should he put on his application? What do employers look for in potential interns? How do you polish a resume? Li was guided to the Paul M. Lisnek LAS...
2024-02-14 - White people surveyed in a recent study indicated they would be more likely to confront those who post racist content on social media if their objective were to defend the norms for political discussions rather than to change the person’s prejudiced beliefs. Communication professors Stewart M. Coles of the University of Illinois Urbana...
2024-02-14 - University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign political science professor Nicholas Grossman is the author of “Drones and Terrorism: Asymmetric Warfare and the Threat to Global Security” and specializes in international relations. Grossman spoke with News Bureau...