2021-10-28
- In her new nonfiction book, Catherine Prendergast, an English professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, wrote about a love triangle among members of a writers’ colony and their deaths by cyanide, set in the bohemian counterculture at the end of the Gilded Age.
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2021-10-27 - Recently, architects who are mapping the many nooks and crannies of Altgeld Hall in advance of the building’s renovation were asked this: Does there exist, in a forgotten room off the elevator shaft, the remains of an office for someone named N. Bourbaki? If you hear laughing, that might be retired faculty, staff, or alumni who roamed...
2021-10-25 - Students of campus history might have noted that Homecoming 2021 was a significant one for Illini Hall. With building demolition scheduled to begin in the next few months, this latest homecoming celebration was the last for the campus landmark—which is where the beloved tradition began. Illini Hall, located on Wright Street across from Altgeld Hall, is slated for demolition to make way for a...
2021-10-22 - Nearly 20 new faculty have joined the College of LAS this fall, with their research and teaching interests ranging from African American religious diversity to the human brain and the role of law during periods of crisis. In all, more than 600 faculty work within the College of LAS. Read below for profiles of a few of the newcomers. Alexia Williams, Department of...
2021-10-20 - The University of Illinois and College of Liberal Arts & Sciences are planning a new building for ethnic and gender and women’s studies that’s expected to greatly increase and improve teaching, research, and office spaces for several key departments and programs. The university has approved a feasibility study for the structure, which will house the Departments of...
2021-10-20 - The Illinois Global Institute (IGI) has launched a new speaker series on transitional justice in the United States. Monthly through April, the institute will host speakers from around the world to speak on themes ranging from policing to reparations, gender justice, economic inequality/justice, educational reform, and the role of youth. The...
2021-10-13 - David Sepkoski, professor in the Department of History, was named the Thomas M. Siebel Chair in the History of Science during a recent investiture ceremony on campus. In 2006, Siebel — founder, chairman, and CEO of C3.ai, an artificial intelligence software platform and applications company — created the named positions to support faculty in the departments at Illinois from which he has earned...
2021-10-07 - In the modern workplace, the mechanics of seeking help on the job aren’t clearly understood by managers or employees, especially regarding its interpersonal benefits and costs. A new paper co-written by a team of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign experts who study occupational well-being says distinct types of help-seeking can be activated by different work demands and work-related...
2021-10-05 - A new grant will help reduce disparities in healthcare through a unique new training program led by Carle Illinois College of Medicine’s Ruby Mendenhall. The programming will create a culture of innovation that centers around the health and wellness of mostly Black and Latinx (a gender-neutral form of Latina/Latino) high school students and young...
2021-09-30 - Eye size likely plays a role in the contest between avian brood parasites – birds that lay their eggs in the nests of other species – and their hosts, who sometimes detect the foreign eggs and eject or abandon them, scientists report in the journal Biology Letters. Brood parasites succeed by offloading the job of parenting to other species. The hosts’ own young suffer as a result of competition...
2021-09-28 - A new national initiative to enable geospatial data-driven scientific discovery will create a $15-million institute at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to better understand the risks and impacts of climate change and disasters. The Institute for Geospatial Understanding through an Integrative Discovery Environment (I-GUIDE) will receive the...
2021-09-24 - Student spaces and high traffic areas within the west wing of Davenport Hall have a fresh look as a renovation project concluded this semester.
2021-09-23 - Backed by a multi-million-dollar federal grant, a research team from three major universities will soon start working on a pioneering supercomputing system that allows scientists and engineers to align its processors, accelerators, memory, and other hardware components to best serve their needs. Researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Texas A&M University, and the...
2021-09-23 - A new sensor can detect not only whether a virus is present, but whether it’s infectious – an important distinction for containing viral spread. Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and collaborators developed the sensor, which integrates specially designed DNA fragments and nanopore sensing, to target and detect infectious viruses in minutes without the need to pre-treat...
2021-09-22 - A former Illinois football player and biology alumnus is winemaker for several Napa Valley and Southern Australia wineries, and when it comes down to the foundation of his craft, he finds the right notes using his background in science.
2021-09-21 - People infected with the original strain of the virus that causes COVID-19 early in the pandemic produced a consistent antibody response, making two main groups of antibodies to bind to the spike protein on the virus’s outer surface. However, those antibodies don’t bind well to newer variants, a new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign found. Characterizing what kinds of...
2021-09-15 - What is it about Altgeld Hall that endures so long in the imagination? We asked, and people who've spent time there replied: Love, friendship, learning, fiery protests, mysterious footsteps, and, of course, the ringing of the chimes. Read on for memories of this iconic intersection of mathematics and music. Fire, bravery, and protest The spring of 1970 was a tumultuous time...
2021-09-15 - The University of Illinois is currently updating and evaluating its brand identity standards—the colors, logos, words, and other ways that the university presents itself. It’s a necessary process to stay in step with evolving times, and never was the subject more contentious than in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when campus debated the most prominent identifier of all: the university...
2021-09-15 - This past May, Abbigail Bugenske became one of the country’s latest million-dollar winners. But she didn’t get it from a scratch-off; she got it for taking a gamble on hope. Bugenske was the first winner in Ohio’s “Vaxx-a-Million” sweepstakes, a five-week contest designed to get more state residents to take a COVID-19 vaccine shot. From cash lotteries to free beer and amusement park tickets, the...
2021-09-10 - A new Federal Statistical Research Data Center at the University of Illinois is giving researchers on campus a new opportunity to examine economic and other social issues with data that is not easily available. The UIUC Federal Statistical Research Data Center (FSRDC) opened in the Department of Economics in July. FSRDCs, which provide data from...
2021-09-09 - With a first-year student enrollment of 8,303, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has welcomed a record-breaking incoming class for the 2021-22 academic year. The new class brings total student enrollment to 56,299, the largest in university history. The trend is mirrored in the College of LAS, where first-year enrollment this fall stands at 2,678. It’s the highest since 2008, when the...
2021-09-01 - If you’ve come here for analysis on upcoming elections or the prospects for your favorite political party, you’ve come to the wrong place. Samantha Frost is not that kind of political scientist. Her insight into politics began with the texts of 17th century English political philosopher Thomas Hobbes and has continued into the study of molecular and cellular biology. Today, Frost, professor of...
2021-08-26 - Three civil service employees in the College of LAS were recognized for exceptional performance by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. For the second consecutive year, concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic precluded a banquet for employees honored with the Chancellor’s Distinguished Staff Award. Thomas Bedwell, Terri Gitler, and Lana Holben were among 16 employees across campus to...
2021-08-25 - Sixteen faculty members have accepted new leadership positions in departments and other academic units within the College of LAS for the 2021-22 academic year. The College of LAS has almost 70 departments, programs, schools, centers, and other academic units. Each unit is led by an executive officer. “This is an important time for our new executive officers in the College of LAS,” said...
2021-08-25 - COVID-19 has changed how—and how openly—we talk about health. This includes discussions that would have once seemed odd or intrusive: Is everyone in the car fully vaccinated? When did you get your second shot? Which shot was it? In fact, experts say the pandemic’s effect on how we communicate about disease may reach beyond the current crisis. Charee Thompson, professor of communication, studies...