2024-02-09
- Halfway through a true crime podcast, a morning commuter jerks the wheel to narrowly avoid a collision. When discussing the podcast with a coworker later that day, the driver can easily recall the details of the episode’s second half but retains only a blurry recollection of how it began.
A new study from psychologists at the Beckman Institute for Advanced...
2024-02-09 - Plant biologists report that a species of tree fern found only in Panama reanimates its own dead leaf fronds, converting them into root structures that feed the mother plant. The fern, Cyathea rojasiana, reconfigures these “zombie leaves,” reversing the flow of water to draw nutrients back into the plant. The findings are reported in the journal Ecology. This weird phenomenon occurs...
2024-02-08 - It’s been almost a year since workers lifted the cornerstone of Illini Hall. It was a momentous event, occurring during the building’s demolition that marked the opening phase of the Altgeld and Illini Hall Project. A crowd of onlookers and news media were on hand to witness the occasion—there were rumors of a time capsule. They didn’t...
2024-02-07 - Perusing a used bookstore was nothing out of the ordinary for David Obuchowski (BA, ’01, English) and his wife, Sarah Pedry, but the excursion was anything but typical the day that they found “Birds Asleep,” a 1989 scientific and comprehensive survey of bird sleeping habits written by naturalist Alexander Skutch. The discovery began a creative journey...
2024-02-07 - Four professors from the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences have been named 2024 Conrad Humanities Scholars. John Levi Barnard, John Gallagher, Maryam Kashani, and Natalie Lira have each been honored with the appointment. The Conrad Humanities Scholars Award recognizes promising mid-career scholars and provides financial support for continued achievement, research, and scholarship in...
2024-02-02 - The College of LAS has selected 14 professors, graduate students, lecturers, and an advisor as the recipients of the 2024 teaching and advising awards. “We are proud to have such an impressive group of people advancing our vital teaching and advising goals,” said Venetria K. Patton, the Harry E. Preble Dean of the College of LAS. “We received exceptional feedback from students and alumni about...
2024-01-30 - Matthew DiCianni (BA, ’07, history and political science) is a labor and employment attorney at the law firm Cozen O’Connor where he has taken on cases of all sizes, from Fortune 500 companies to small family businesses. Now a U.S. citizenship case has become his proudest achievement. “My four years at the...
2024-01-25 - The smell of cut grass is one of the defining fragrances of summer. Smells like that are one of the ways plants signal their injury. Because they cannot run away from danger, plants have evolved to communicate with each other using chemical signals. They use volatile organic compounds (VOCs) for a variety of reasons: to help prepare their own defenses, to warn each other of threats, to recruit...
2024-01-19 - By one estimate, as many as 30 percent of people in the U.S. are in romantic relationships with partners who do not share their political views. In today’s hyperpartisan climate, where Democrats and Republicans have difficulty talking to each other and their views are polarized about media outlets’ credibility, how do couples with differing political perspectives decide which media to follow? And...
2024-01-12 - Five College of LAS faculty members have been named as university endowed chairs or professors, an honor awarded to the highly distinguished scholars for their excellence and prominence in research, teaching and service. They are among nine professors chosen across campus. “An endowed chair is among the highest honors bestowed to faculty at our university,” said Vice Chancellor for Academic...
2024-01-12 - Eight alumni of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences will receive recognition during the college’s 2024 alumni awards at a celebration in April. They are researchers and entrepreneurs who have made incredible impacts in their fields and communities. LAS Dean's Quadrangle Award Susan Morisato (BS, ’75, mathematics...
2024-01-11 - Craig Williams discovered his love of learning languages early in life. He began studying French in elementary school and, intrigued by the BBC series "I, Claudius," he signed up for Latin at his high school in Albany, New York. Eventually he earned his PhD in classical languages and literatures at Yale, and after 20 years on the faculty of Brooklyn College CUNY, he became a professor of...
2024-01-09 - As a top university student in India who was working toward a career in engineering, chemistry seemed far from the destiny of Prashant Jain. But his curiosity about the atomic world ultimately led him to discover his lifelong scientific passion, using light to move electrons. “I was in no way destined to become a chemist or even an academic… There...
2024-01-05 - Researchers investigated the relationship between historical traumatic events experienced by Alaska Native communities and epigenetic markers on genes that previous studies have linked to trauma. The new study found a similar pattern among Alaska Native participants, with specific epigenetic differences observed in those who reported experiencing the most intense symptoms of distress when...
2024-01-05 - Associate professor Catharine Fairbairn and professor Kara Federmeier of the Department of Psychology have been awarded a 5-year R01 grant from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. They will use EEG and ERP hyperscanning to look at how alcohol might impact brain processes in social contexts. This means they will be able to...
2024-01-04 - In a new study, an interdisciplinary team of researchers have developed nanoparticles that are able to selectively bind to activated astrocytes and microglia cells that mediate brain inflammation in Alzheimer's Disease (AD), and found that both AD and aging strongly affect the ability of nanoparticles to cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and localize to the hippocampus. The BBB consists of a...
2023-12-18 - Two manuscripts, purportedly from medieval times, played a large role in the 19th century Czech National Revival, serving as an important source of the nation’s mythology. But these influential documents that helped revitalize the Czech language and culture were fake. Slavic languages and literatures professor David Cooper writes about the influence of...
2023-12-18 - Researchers report in the journal Nature that they have found a way to get antibacterial drugs through the nearly impenetrable outer membrane of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a bacterium that – once it infects a person – is notoriously difficult to treat. By bombarding P. aeruginosa with hundreds of compounds and using machine learning to determine the physical and chemical...
2023-12-18 - It has long been known that exposure to pesticide sprays is harmful to honey bees. In a new study, researchers have uncovered the effect of such sprays on the sense of smell in bees, which could disrupt their social signals. Honey bees live in dynamic communities and constantly communicate with each other using chemicals that serve as social cues. For example, nurse bees—that are responsible for...
2023-12-11 - Four staff members and academic professionals have been honored and recognized by the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences for their professional contributions. Nikki Wynn and Will Mitchell have been recognized with the LAS Academic Professional Award. The honor provides a cash award as well as a salary increment funded by LAS alumni. Sherri Kiska and Emily Lange have been honored with the...
2023-12-08 - As director of the proposed Bachelor of Liberal Studies at the College of LAS, Kristen Sackley is leading the initiative that aligns her passion with an important mission to create pathways to an accessible education. The online Bachelor of Liberal Studies program...
2023-12-07 - In a joint ceremony held earlier this fall, the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences celebrated the investitures of Tim Dean as James M. Benson Professor in English and Robert Dale Parker as Frank Hodgins Chair in American Literature. These investitures, which represent one of the highest honors that faculty members can receive, recognize two of the ...
2023-12-06 - In a newly released TED Talk, Stephen Long, a professor of plant biology and crop sciences, detailed his and his colleagues’...
2023-12-06 - The Cline Center for Advanced Social Research and an interdisciplinary team of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign experts have expanded upon their statewide registry on the use of lethal force by police officers in the state of Illinois to include national data. The Systematic Policing...
2023-12-06 - Phillip B. Williams (BA, '08, English) has been publishing poetry since he left the University of Illinois, whether it was in chapbooks such as “Burn” and “Bruised Gospels” or award-winning collections such “Thief in the Interior” and “Mutiny.” Now he’s publishing his first novel, a work of fiction that started as a short story that he wrote as a...