2023-09-06
- By the turn of the 20th century the residents of east-central Illinois had learned a few hard facts about the environment, and one of them was this: Once you chase away the squirrels they almost never come back. Nevertheless, in 1901, the University of Illinois launched a plan to return the long-lost tree-dwellers to campus.
To appreciate the magnitude of the plan, consider what had been lost....
2023-09-06 - The first thing professor Scott Althaus shows you when you enter the Cline Center for Advanced Social Research is a painting by the artist Brian Alfred. It shows seven giant letters arranged on a hill, evoking the landmark “Hollywood” sign that stands above Los Angeles. The letters are shown from the back, exposing the superstructure that holds...
2023-09-01 - Note: Watch a video about how researchers are examining coal balls to learn about the ancient past. Paleobotanists at the University of Illinois understand one thing better than perhaps anyone in the world: Studying coal balls is a long-term commitment. The late plant biologist Tom Phillips began hauling the prehistoric objects out of the...
2023-09-01 - Brian Rosten was supposed to be an engineer. It’s what his parents wanted. And he was on board with the plan, until an internship at a plastics plant made him realize it was not the path for him. “It was soul-crushing,” said Rosten (BS, ’12, chemistry; MS, ’21, educational policy, organization and...
2023-09-01 - On Feb. 22, 1998, the U of I women’s basketball team fell to Purdue, dropping their record to 18-8. With her fifth point that day, however, future Illinois Athletics Hall of Famer Ashley Berggren became the all-time women’s leading scorer in school history. Berggren (BS, ’98, psychology) would finish her career with 2,089 points, a mark that would...
2023-08-31 - The College of LAS has announced 33 faculty promotions to take effect during the fall semester. The promotions include 15 faculty members who were promoted from associate professor to professor; 13 who were promoted from assistant professor to associate professor; and five who received specialized faculty promotions. “We are proud to grant these well-deserved promotions to our faculty members...
2023-08-25 - Office manager Jazmine Summerville wears many hats as an office manager for the School of Literatures, Cultures & Linguistics. After working for three years on campus, she knows that helping someone’s day run smoothly is a gratifying reward for a job well done.
2023-08-25 - Hilary was the first tropical storm to hit California in 84 years. Atmospheric sciences professor Deanna Hence spoke with News Bureau physical sciences editor Lois Yoksoulian about what made this storm unique and if the Southwest U.S. should expect more like it in the future. Why don’t we usually see tropical...
2023-08-23 - As summer storms roll though your region, have you wondered who is behind the science of a weather warning? In west Texas and portions of southeast New Mexico, College of LAS alumnus Devin Chehak (BS, ’18, atmospheric sciences; MS, ‘20, atmospheric sciences) is part of the team that creates the watches and warnings that have the potential to save lives....
2023-08-22 - Cathy Murphy, the Larry R. Faulkner Endowed Chair in Chemistry, has been named the interim director of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, pending Board of Trustees approval. Murphy is a highly regarded scientist, experienced administrator, and even met Arnold Beckman when she was a postdoctoral researcher at the California...
2023-08-22 - Nineteen faculty members have accepted new leadership positions in departments and other academic units within the College of LAS for the 2023-24 academic year. Executive officers lead each of the almost 70 departments, programs, schools, centers, and other academic units within the College of LAS. In addition to the new executive officers, five faculty members will take associate and interim...
2023-08-18 - Despite efforts across the globe to move toward a circular plastics economy, more than three quarters of the 400 metric tons of plastic produced worldwide each year still ends up as waste. A group of chemistry researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign demonstrated a way to use the renewable energy source of electricity to recycle a...
2023-08-18 - The whaling industry helped drive industrialization in the 19th century, with whale oil used to light lamps and lubricate machinery. Even after petroleum replaced whale oil as an energy source in the U.S., whaling continued to be part of our cultural imagination and helped develop the idea of an energy industry, said English professor Jamie L. Jones....
2023-08-11 - The women began to gather in the large living room, flanked on one side by a fireplace, on the other by a grand piano. As they got settled, one could hear the murmuring of soft voices and the whispers of full skirts shifting. Some students sat on the carpeted floor, others on the sofas and chairs scattered across the room. Tonight, the women had not assembled for a traditional sorority meeting....
2023-08-11 - Illinois public schools will be required to teach students about Native American history in the state beginning with the 2024-25 school year. The legislation, which was signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Aug. 4, requires that schools teach about the contributions of Native Americans in government, arts, humanities, sciences, and economic, cultural, social, and political development. The law also...
2023-08-09 - What is selfish behavior? Selfishness is defined as the tendency to act in one's own interests without regard for the impact on others. New research shows that a person’s own behavior is the primary driver of how they treat others during brief, zero-sum-game competitions. Generous people tend to reward generous behavior and selfish individuals often punish generosity and reward...
2023-08-03 - CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Scientists have identified a protein that plays a critical role in the action of several emerging cancer therapies. The researchers say the discovery will likely aid efforts to fine-tune the use of immunotherapies against several challenging cancers. They report their findings in the journal...
2023-07-26 - When a human consumes a pharmaceutical drug, enzymes in the liver break down the substance into metabolites that are water soluble, so the body can more easily excrete them. In some cases, the resulting metabolites may have potent effects that can be good or bad. Medicinal chemists must test drug candidates for these potential effects, and the only way is with large quantities of the metabolites...
2023-07-26 - A new report reveals that U.S. beekeepers lost roughly half of the honey bees they managed last year. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign entomology professor Adam Doleza...
2023-07-25 - Some students who arrive at the University of Illinois have a hard time finding a place where they feel at home. When Darrell Hunter II, director of first year experience in the College of LAS, arrived in 2022, he decided to change that by launching the We Got Each Other program.The program, which provides an opportunity for underrepresented...
2023-07-25 - When you’re as old as Altgeld Hall, you deserve a nice cleansing scrub. The stony skin of the building dates to as far back as 1896, after all, and a lot of history, and other gunk, has built up on the stone. Even a U of I student’s thesis from more than 50 years ago notes the coloration change. Muriel Schienman (MA, '69; PhD, '81; art history), in her 1969 master’s thesis, “Altgeld Hall, The...
2023-07-20 - When Matthew Deady (BS, ‘75, mathematics and physics; MS, ‘77, mathematics) remembers his time at the University of Illinois, Altgeld Hall stands out as a friendly, inviting place. “Anything I was interested in, someone would tell me, this is who you talk to about what course to take or book to read. There was always a professor who would take the time to talk to you,” he recalls. Altgeld’s...
2023-07-13 - According to two psychologists who study memory and perception, fraudsters tend to exploit the common habits of thought and decision-making that make us susceptible – and often oblivious – to their fabrications. Their book, “Nobody’s Fool: Why We Get Taken In and What We Can Do About It,” gives readers an overview of dozens of types of scams, hoaxes and strategies used by cheaters to deceive, and...
2023-07-12 - There are things we’ve trained to do, and then there are the things we change for. John Levi Barnard, professor of English and comparative and world literature, and an affiliate faculty member with the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment and...
2023-07-12 - What happens when urban art becomes literally a global invasion? That’s the question addressed by Julie Gaillard, professor of French, who has been tracking the work and significance of a secretive, anonymous artist who has created pixelated characters from a 1970s video game and placed them around the world—and even beyond this world. “What...