LAS News Archive

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,...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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....

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...

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...

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...

2024-04-09 - 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...

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...

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...

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...

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. ...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...