2023-09-19
- The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign welcomed a record-breaking freshman class for the 2023-24 academic year, with 8,325 new freshmen (up from last record of 8,303 in 2021) enrolling this fall. They help boost undergraduate student enrollment to 35,467, the largest ever in university history...
LAS News Archive
2023-09-11 - Bobby J. Smith II remembers the day that changed his professional life. He was a graduate student at Cornell University when he began to read “I’ve Got the Light of Freedom,” a seminal study of the community organizing tradition in the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi and across the South, by...
2023-09-08 - New research led by a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign expert who studies personnel psychology shows a better way to assess noncognitive abilities such as a job candidate’s personality and vocational interests using the “graded forced-choice format.” The scientific study of a person’s soft...
2023-09-07 - Director of graduate studies doesn’t necessarily sound like a show-stopping role. At Illinois, it’s an essential job reserved for faculty members who are ready for the challenges that come with largely unnoticed tasks. It’s a job that, if done correctly, is noted very little by those who benefit...
2023-09-07 - Artificial roosts for bats come in many forms — bat boxes, condos, bark mimics, clay roosts, and cinder block structures, to name a few — but a new conservation practice and policy article from researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign suggests the structures haven’t been studied...
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...
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-...
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...
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,...
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;...
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...
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...
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.
2023-08-23 - 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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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....