LAS News Archive

2026-04-15 -  English professor Christopher Kempf has been awarded a 2026 Guggenheim Fellowship.Kempf is among 223 individuals working across 55 disciplines chosen through a rigorous peer-review process from nearly 5,000...

2026-04-15 - At a calm trot, a horse’s hooves leave divots in the pale, rocky dirt. Under a brilliantly blue Arizona sky, one may wonder where the “tornado” from this artwork's title comes in. Then, the horse picks up speed, kicking up dust and pebbles in a chaotic storm. Some photos are entirely a blur. When...

2026-04-03 - By tagging neurons with molecular “barcodes,” researchers mapped connections among thousands of neurons in the mouse brain with unprecedented speed and resolution. The approach could expand understanding not only of the layout of elaborate networks in the brain, but also how the brain...

2026-04-03 -  Some Arctic regions regain their “greenness” within a decade of a sudden permafrost collapse, while others can take a century or more to recover, researchers report in a new study. The difference is directly related to each site’s gross primary productivity, a measure of its photosynthetic...

2026-04-03 -  A whiteboard outside a lab on the fourth floor of Morrill Hall is likely to catch the eyes of those passing by. “Welcome to the Ngumbi Lab,” it greets in blue marker, surrounded by colorful drawings of tomatoes, butterflies, caterpillars, and cicadas.Esther Ngumbi, professor of...

2026-04-03 -  Scientists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have helped uncover how fish skin protects fish from sharp, fast attacks in the wild, and the research highlights how curiosity, creativity, and mentorship can come together to drive discovery. The...

2026-04-03 -  Three faculty members in the College of LAS have been named 2025 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society....

2026-03-25 -  It’s a cold February day in Illinois, but I’m enjoying the view of a backcountry trail in Yellowstone National Park. I see a sunrise over Heart Lake, a lodgepole pine forest, a geyser basin, the yellow leaves of aspen trees above a canyon along the Snake River and views of Mount Sheridan.I’m...

2026-03-24 -  On store shelves across the country last fall, a bright orange sports drink with a retro label and a black sports drink with an upside-down label began appearing alongside the usual rows of Gatorade bottles. For fans of Netflix’s Stranger Things, the limited-edition Citrus Coolers offered a...

2026-03-23 -  Jessica R. Greenberg is an anthropology professor and the co-editor of the policy report “Populism and the Future of...

2026-03-23 -  Eduardo García-Molina, professor of classics, was introduced to his future career through video games. “That’s how I got into antiquity,” he said. “It wasn’t through Homer or anything like that. It was playing Rome: Total War.”Playing this...

2026-03-20 -  By simulating the life cycle of a minimal bacterial cell — from DNA replication to protein translation to metabolism and cell division — scientists have opened a new frontier of computer vision into the essential processes of life.The researchers, led by...

2026-03-20 -  Social media users are more likely to watch TV programs that are endorsed by members of their political party, a recent study suggests. However, individuals’ racial identity and their perceptions of racial and political ingroup norms and the demographics of a program’s intended audience also...

2026-03-20 -  New research from a team of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign economists estimates the social mobility effects of four-year public historically Black colleges and universities on Black children who live in the same county as an HBCU.Using data on children born around 1980, the...

2026-03-20 -  Following a successful launch, the LAS Academy for Educational Excellence looks forward to continuing its New Faculty Teaching Program to...

2026-03-19 -  Deep-sea waters are warming due to heat waves and climate change, and it could spell trouble for the oceans’ delicate chemical and biological balance. A new study, however, demonstrates that the microbe Nitrosopumilus maritimus may already be adapting well to warmer, nutrient-poor...

2026-03-19 -  When Annie Zeng walked into her first research conference last May, she didn’t arrive with a lab group or a familiar cohort of classmates. She arrived alone, and she immediately felt like it.“I honestly felt very nervous,” said Annie, a senior pursuing a double degree in...

2026-03-09 -  Citizens and writers remain hopeful in the face of environmental harms in “Reading Better States: Utopian Method and Environmental Harm in the Global South,” the new book by English professor...

2026-03-09 -  Researchers have found a way to use solar energy to power a key chemical reaction that drives many manufacturing industries. This new method can significantly reduce the energy required to run these operations, eliminate harsh oxidizing byproducts, and minimize carbon emissions.Olefin...

2026-02-26 -  Insect-human hybrids provide the scares at the 2026 Insect Fear Film Festival at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.The festival, which is hosted by the Entomology Graduate...

2026-02-26 -  The Trump administration recently ordered the National Park Service to remove interpretive signs that discuss slavery at Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, following an executive order issued last year stating that public monuments should not “inappropriately disparage...

2026-02-25 -  Meet Jasmin Patrón-Vargas (BA, '11, Latina/Latino studies and gender and women's studies) an assistant professor of teaching, learning, and culture at Texas A&M University. She earned her MEd in education...

2026-02-23 - The College of LAS will recognize seven individuals during the 2026 alumni awards celebration in April. This year's honorees are researchers, philanthropists, and political thinkers who have made incredible impacts in their fields and communities.

2026-02-23 -  City development is increasingly associated with creating “smart cities” that use technology for managing city services, home construction and attracting resources. But those strategies come with negative consequences to a city’s poor residents, said...

2026-02-23 -  A multi-disciplinary team of faculty researchers from the University of Illinois has been awarded a Sawyer Seminar grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to study the challenges to democracy and academic freedom confronting US universities now. This is the first time in the 30-year...