2024-06-03
- Advay Gupta always found himself thinking like his father: very technical and drawn to the latest technology. His mother was a different matter. She thinks in a more non-technical way, he said, and Gupta is always helping her understand different types of technology, from downloads to social media and cloud computing. Helping his mother turned out to be the foundation of a promising career in...
2024-05-31 - Federal policy toward Native American tribal nations in the first half of the 20th century sought to end the government’s legal and political relationship with tribes. A new book by history professor David Beck looks at one aspect of termination policy — bribery. “Bribed With Our Own...
2024-05-30 - Exercise prompts muscles to release molecular cargo that boosts brain cell function and connection, but the process is not well understood. New research from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign found that the nerves that tell muscles to move also prompt them to release more of the brain-boosting factors. “The molecules released from the muscle go into the bloodstream and then to the...
2024-05-29 - There’s a sentence from one of Annie Abbott’s students that’s seared into her memory: “I used to think immigration was a problem.” The sentence had been written on an exam in Abbott’s course, SPAN 232: Spanish in the Community. Abbott recalls how powerful it felt to read this sentence as it represented a perspective changed by what’s become a meaningful and popular mainstay course on campus....
2024-05-24 - Carol Symes, a professor of history, is vice president of the campus chapter of the American Association of University Professors. Symes spoke with News Bureau education editor Sharita Forrest about a trend of state legislation that is changing U.S. higher education by redefining academic freedom and tenure for faculty members. Indiana...
2024-05-23 - The past attempts of honey bee researchers to inventory the fungal diversity in honey bee colonies revealed that Aspergillus flavus is frequently found in hives. In a new study, researchers have discovered that this fungus is uniquely adapted to survive in bee colonies. The western honey bee, Apis mellifera, stores large quantities of food in the form of bee bread, which...
2024-05-22 - By converting their data into sounds, scientists discovered how hydrogen bonds contribute to the lightning-fast gyrations that transform a string of amino acids into a functional, folded protein. Their report, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, offers an unprecedented view of the sequence of hydrogen-bonding events that occur when a protein morphs from an unfolded to a folded...
2024-05-17 - In 2007, Waïl Hassan was writing a book about the literature of Arab immigrants in the United States and Britain when he uncovered something else that was very intriguing. By reading the works of multiple Latin American writers of Arab descent, he found that Arab immigrants who lived in Latin America had consistently more prominent levels of achievement than those who lived in the U.S. This...
2024-05-06 - Researchers at the University of Illinois have contributed to a large-scale international study that has reconstructed a comprehensive "tree of life" for flowering plants. The study offers new light on the evolutionary history of angiosperms, which account for approximately 90 percent of all terrestrial plant species. The study, ...
2024-05-06 - Two College of LAS professors have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, one of a scientist's highest professional honors. Biochemistry professor emeritus Steve Sligar and chemistry professor emeritus Ken Suslick are among 120 newly...
2024-05-02 - The Tibetan plateau—the world’s highest and largest plateau—poses a challenge to the people who live there because of its extreme climate. In a new study, researchers have discovered stone artifacts that suggest that there were more cultural exchanges between those who lived on the plateau and those living on its perimeter. “The Tibetan plateau has an average elevation of more than 4,500 meters...
2024-04-30 - Radio ads with an emotional appeal — featuring personal stories of either a happy organ transplant recipient or a sad patient languishing on the waiting list — increase nondonor listeners’ support for organ donation and may be effective at overcoming some of the qualms that deter them from joining the donor registry, a new study suggests. More than 570 African American, Hispanic, and white...
2024-04-25 - College of Liberal Arts & Sciences faculty members Alison Bell and Charles Gammie have been elected members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the oldest honorary societies in the United States. Founded in 1780, the academy recognizes scientists, artists, scholars and leaders who have distinguished themselves in the public, private and nonprofit...
2024-04-24 - One day when she was a girl Wendy Heller got on her bicycle to go to school. The next thing she knew she was on the ground, her mangled bicycle beside her, and a stranger was asking if she was okay. Heller had no recollection of what happened, but it was the start of a fascinating journey into the many things that affect the mind. “This was very, very disturbing but it was also very, very...
2024-04-24 - On any given drive across the countryside you may see cornfields or a forest. Chunyuan Diao, a professor in the Department of Geography & Geographic Information Science, sees a complex terrestrial ecosystem that can provide clues to improving food security, climate change, and sustainability. Diao joined the U of I in 2017 and she has become a highly...
2024-04-19 - The call for reparations for people of African descent to compensate for slavery has a long history, but it has been discussed more broadly and gained support in recent years. Illinois, California and New York have established commissions to examine how to address the repercussions of slavery and racial discrimination, and several cities have done so as well. Last year, Evanston, Illinois,...
2024-04-19 - Three professors in the College of LAS have been elected 2023 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. They are among the 502 scientists, engineers and innovators recognized for their scientifically and socially distinguished achievements by the world’s largest general scientific society. The new fellows are ...
2024-04-17 - Carbon monoxide emissions from industrial production have serious consequences for human health and are a strong indicator of overall air pollution levels. Many countries aim to reduce their emissions, but they cannot control air flows originating in other regions. A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign looks at global flows of air pollution and how they relate to economic...
2024-04-16 - Three College of LAS students were awarded U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarships to study foreign languages this summer. Shireen Aydogan, Karel Pene, and Sylvia Techmanski received full scholarships to spend 8-10 weeks abroad studying one of 14 critical languages. The program is part of an initiative to expand the number of Americans...
2024-04-16 - College of LAS student Sylvia E was awarded a Barry M. Goldwater scholarship, which is granted to individuals for their potential to contribute to the advancement of research in the natural sciences, mathematics, or engineering. The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program was established by Congress in 1986 to honor...
2024-04-12 - A professor from the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences been awarded a 2024 Guggenheim Fellowship. Evolution, ecology and behavior professor Alison Bell is among 188 writers, scholars, artists and scientists chosen through a rigorous peer-review process from nearly 3,000 applicants, according to the John Simon...
2024-04-11 - An annual study of recent alumni reports that 91 percent of LAS alumni who graduated during the 2022-2023 period secured a first destination within six months of commencement. Of that figure, 50 percent of new graduates found employment and 40 percent sought further education such as graduate or professional school. Roughly 1 percent went into volunteer or service work. The average salary for...
Book: What scholars need to know to thrive in the competitive world of research, creative enterprise2024-04-09 - Before his service as director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and science advisor in 2019, meteorology professor Kelvin Droegemeier developed an online course designed to give researchers from all disciplines the skills needed to navigate the complex landscape of scholarly endeavor. Droegemeier thought that there was a lot of valuable information in those videos,...
2024-04-05 - In January the University of Illinois announced that five College of LAS faculty members have been named university endowed chairs or professors, an honor awarded to highly distinguished scholars for excellence in research, teaching, and service. We asked each of them to...
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...