2022-05-04
- College of LAS students Caleb Apperson and Dahlia Davis have been awarded U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarships to study foreign languages this summer.
Apperson, of Champaign, a graduate of Centennial High School, was offered a Critical Language Scholarship to study Chinese. Apperson is a junior majoring in...
2022-05-03 - University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign history professor Maria Todorova has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the oldest honor societies in the nation. She is among 261 new members elected to the academy this year in recognition of their accomplishments and leadership in academia,...
2022-04-28 - As educators and industry mull strategies for attracting more young adults to math-oriented professions, a new study in the journal Child Development suggests that children’s early experiences doing math homework and activities with their parents shape their motivation and achievement. Cultivating a love of mathematics in young people – and inspiring the next generation of scientists,...
2022-04-27 - Post-starburst galaxies were previously thought to scatter all of their gas and dust—the fuel required for creating new stars—in violent bursts of energy, and with extraordinary speed. Now, a study co-authored by a U of I astronomer reveals that these galaxies don’t scatter all of their star-forming fuel after all. New data from the Atacama Large...
2022-04-27 - The National Science Foundation awarded a 7-year, $15 million project to a multi-university team led by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, including at least two researchers in the College of LAS. The resulting groundbreaking and path-finding research, entitled “Mind in vitro - Computing with Living Neurons,” will imagine computers and...
2022-04-20 - Going to college can be intimidating—and even more so for international students, who also must adjust to life in a new country. A course in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, LAS 100, is designed to help first-year international students adjust to studying at the University of Illinois. Similar to LAS 101, the...
2022-04-19 - Mariama Mwilambwe, a junior at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, was awarded a $30,000 Truman Scholarship. Mwilambwe was one of 58 Truman Scholars selected from a pool of 705 nominees from colleges and universities across the country. Mwilambwe, from Bloomington, Illinois, and a graduate of Normal Community High School, was selected by the Truman...
2022-04-15 - At a hospital on Chicago’s Northside, Jason Robin (BS, ‘98, biology) is the director of cardio oncology, managing the full spectrum of cardiovascular disease. Current occupation: Cardiologist, director of cardio oncology at NorthShore University Health System. I am a Clinical Associate Professor of...
2022-04-15 - Two professors from the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences have been awarded 2022 Guggenheim Fellowships. This year’s fellows are chemistry professors So Hirata and Prashant Jain. They are among 180 artists, writers, scholars, and scientists who were chosen through a rigorous peer-review process from almost 2,500 applicants, according to...
2022-04-15 - A research team from the Department of Chemistry has discovered a way to produce a special class of molecule that could open the door for new drugs to treat currently untreatable diseases. Open the household medicine cabinet and you will likely find organic derivatives of ammonia, called amines. They are one of the most prevalent structures found in...
2022-04-12 - We rely on scientists to understand the structure and behavior of our world. What happens when a scientist’s ability to separate science from ideology comes into question—and they happen to be one of the most renowned scientists in their field? David Sepkoski, the Thomas M. Siebel Chair in the History of Science at U of I, has co-written an essay,...
2022-04-07 - Two University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers are developing resources for studying the Deseret Alphabet, which was created by the Mormons and used briefly in the 19th century. Linguistics professor Ryan Shosted and computer science professor Neal Davis created the Illinois Deseret Consortium to make...
2022-04-04 - A typical day for Matthew Doppelt (BA, ’11, economics) is hard to come by as assistant director for international scouting for the Los Angeles Dodgers. His home base is in Pheonix, Ariz., where he lives with his wife Anne and 6-month-old daughter Moonie; however, scouting the next MLB star takes him on the road, covering every country where baseball...
2022-04-01 - Cynthia Buckley is an Illinois sociology professor and demographer, and a co-leader of a U.S. Department of Defense-funded project looking for keys to stability and security in Ukraine and two other former Soviet republics, Estonia and Georgia. She spoke with News Bureau business and law editor Phil Ciciora about Ukraine’s humanitarian and...
2022-03-30 - To many of us, the idea of testing brings to mind bright lights, biting pencils, filling ovals, and (hopefully) the sweet relief of proving that you know the material. Xun Yan, a professor of linguistics at U of I, however, wants to know more about testing and what they tell us about test-takers. In 2021, he received the ...
2022-03-29 - Past instances of racism in medical care and the resulting distrust among Black Americans have been cited as factors in COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Rana Hogarth is a medical historian and a history professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who teaches the history of Western medicine and African American history, and the author of “...
2022-03-29 - Researchers studying epileptic seizures of the temporal lobe – the most common type of epilepsy – discovered a compound that reduces seizures in the hippocampus, a brain region where many such seizures originate. The compound, known as TC-2153, lessened the severity of seizures in mice. The scientists report their findings in the journal Epilepsia. “We found that TC-2153 ultimately reduces...
2022-03-28 - Navigating the pandemic hasn’t been an easy task for anyone. Along with health concerns, it’s brought about worries about jobs, finances, housing, and more. But some communities have people like Anthony Erlinger and Kathleen Flores standing behind them. “It’s been a really hard time for everyone but especially for the immigrant community in Champaign-Urbana,” said Erlinger. That’s why Erlinger...
2022-03-25 - What does it mean to make a rational decision? As defined by centuries of philosophical thought, a rational decision is the action you choose that can be expected to result in better outcomes than any alternatives. This is how humans define it, anyway. What about artificial intelligence? Ben Levinstein, a professor of philosophy at U of I,...
2022-03-23 - Adrienne Harris has worked on campus for 20 years and in the Department of Communication since January 2018. Her primary role is to oversee the department's finances, and, in her office, a healthy work culture is a priority. “I am very proud to be a part of the communication department,” Harris said. “The culture is one of respect, inclusion, and...
2022-03-11 - Travis L. Dixon, a professor and director of graduate studies in communication, will deliver the annual College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Dean’s Distinguished Lecture at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign on March 23. Dixon’s talk, titled “The Centrality of Media Stereotyping and How It Impacts Us,” will examine the power of media...
2022-03-11 - With the crisis raging in Ukraine, professors in the Department of Political Science recently met to publicly discuss some of the issues arising from the conflict. Why did Putin invade? Will Ukraine join the European Union? Will China become involved? How will this affect international relations—and what can be done to keep the war from spreading? You can...
2022-03-11 - Regional economies are routinely subject to the whims of the business cycle that can lead to job losses and lower incomes for residents when a recession hits or an industry declines. But new research co-written by a team of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign economists finds that counties that also are home to a regional public university are better able to withstand adverse economic shocks...
2022-03-11 - A professor of sociology is part of an important new effort to increase the sustainability of phosphorous, a key element in food fertilizers that comes largely from non-renewable deposits outside of the United States. Anna Marshall is a co-principal investigator with the NSF Science and Technology Center: Science...
2022-03-10 - Two LAS professors, Kathryn Oberdeck and Esther Ngumbi, recently received Campus Excellence in Public Engagement Awards. Here’s what they’re up to. Helping the community find its place in history The perceived gap—real or not—between a university and the surrounding community has existed for as long as colleges themselves. For Kathryn Oberdeck, public engagement means bridging...