2021-06-08
- One thing that makes a college campus so interesting is the new perspectives and attitudes brought by international students. A new Global Leaders Program in the College of LAS is helping to bring those ideas to light by uniting international students with domestic students at the University of Illinois for community...
2021-06-07 - In a technology-driven society, computational skills are utilized in every professional field. Within the ATLAS Internship Program, College of LAS students develop a deeper understanding of technology through exposure to essential skills that can help them thrive in the workplace. During the 2020-2021 academic year, more than 160...
2021-06-04 - Workers at the Rantoul Foods pork-processing plant were among the first outbreak clusters when COVID-19 emerged in central Illinois in spring 2020. When researchers from the University of Illinois found no traces of the virus in air and surface samples at the plant, however, it raised questions about how the disease was being spread. The university began working with clinicians and community...
2021-05-28 - A plant researcher at the University of Illinois has been named the 2021 Distinguished Senior Research Scientist of the Year by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for her scientific achievements. Lisa Ainsworth, a research molecular biologist with the USDA Agricultural Research Service and affiliate professor of plant biology and...
2021-05-28 - Providing a choice that will be selected if a consumer does not override it – known as the default option – is an easy way to “nudge” people toward a decision and influences behavior in powerful ways to increase support for organ donation, retirement plan choices, car insurance and service-sector gratuity. But a new paper co-written by a team of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign experts on...
2021-05-28 - Scientists report that it is possible to detect and predict heat damage in crops by measuring the fluorescent light signature of plant leaves experiencing heat stress. If collected via satellite, this fluorescent signal could support widespread monitoring of growth and crop yield under the heat stress of climate change, the researchers say. Their study measures sun-induced chlorophyll...
2021-05-26 - Alumna Lauren Turk (BA, ‘06, French commercial studies, communication; MA, ‘12, political science,...
2021-05-24 - Editor’s note: Israel and Hamas began airstrikes against each other on May 10, in the worst fighting between Israelis and Palestinians since 2014. The fighting started after weeks of interethnic violence in Jerusalem, and the anticipated decision of the Israeli Supreme Court over a property dispute that would lead to the evictions of six Palestinian families in East Jerusalem. A...
2021-05-17 - A new book examines the struggle by rural Black communities in Brazil for land rights, and it makes a case for land reparations based not only on a history of slavery and systemic racism, but also on land appropriation by contemporary Brazilian governments and private interests. Brazil has a history of racialized and concentrated land ownership, wrote Merle Bowen, a professor of...
2021-05-13 - Editor's note: Kimberly Wilson is a writer in the College of LAS Office of Marketing and Communications. She is graduating this May with a bachelor's degree in sociology. She shared this reflection of her time at the University of Illinois. I was grabbing something to eat at the Ikenberry Commons dining hall when I...
2021-05-12 - Several professors in the College of LAS have recently received named scholar positions for their contributions in education and research at the University of Illinois. The named positions include the the Helen Corley Petit Scholars, the I.C. Gunsalus Scholar, the J. Andrew and Susan S. Langan Professorial Scholar, LAS Dean’s Distinguished Professorial Scholars, the Leslie Watt Scholar, and the...
2021-05-12 - Four early career professors have been recognized as Lincoln Excellence for Assistant Professors (LEAP) Scholars for their outstanding contributions and potential in research and teaching. The awardees are Carolyn Fornoff in the Department of Spanish & Portuguese; John Paul Meyers in the Department of African...
2021-05-12 - Some 108 graduating seniors from the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences have been named to the 2021 Bronze Tablet list, honoring academic achievement. Each year, the Bronze Tablet is inscribed with the names of new graduates and placed in the Main Library. To achieve this honor, undergraduate students must rank at the top 3 percent of each college’s graduating class and must have a...
2021-05-12 - When alumnus Jim Hinterlong (BS, ’92, psychology) arrived on campus, he was told there were more than 700 student organizations at the University of Illinois. He was in awe. After all, he had just packed his bags in his hometown where the population sign read 500. However, the opportunity to connect with people from different...
2021-05-11 - In the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at Illinois, we believe the power of innovation can change the world. In the LAS community, the leaders of tomorrow learn to analyze and solve problems, to work in diverse groups, and to view the world with a broad perspective. LAS students pursue knowledge in an incredible breadth of areas and use their education to propel society forward. For...
2021-05-11 - Academic advisor Dawn McNulty knows how exploring interests and potential career paths can be challenging for students even during normal times. During the pandemic, the challenge can loom even larger. That’s why she considers the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences’ Life + Career Design in a Pandemic program to be so important. This year, the...
2021-05-10 - Among the many things lost during the pandemic has been a sense of togetherness. A project led by a pair of University of Illinois professors, however, asked people to write journal entries in an organized effort to bring communities closer together during dark times and find solutions to some of the state’s most pressing social concerns. Through words on paper, the...
2021-05-07 - As a trained linguist, Jenny Davis knows the power of history. In her 2018 book, “Talking Indian: Identity and Language Revitalization in the Chickasaw Renaissance,” Davis explored how native language revitalization efforts were connected to U.S. relocation policies and economic realities in the Chickasaw Nation—of which she’s a member— around the Arbuckle Mountains of south-central Oklahoma....
2021-05-06 - University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign senior Sriyankari Chitti, of Marlboro, New Jersey, and a graduate of the Medical Sciences Magnet Program at Freehold High School, has been named a Knight-Hennessy Scholar. She is one of 76 students to be offered this award from more than 8,000 applicants around the world. A...
2021-05-06 - Gillen D’Arcy Wood, an English professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign whose work involves the environmental humanities, has been awarded a 2021 Andrew Carnegie Fellowship to develop a database of baseline oceanographic information to enhance marine research,...
2021-05-04 - There’s quite a bit of history behind Bruce Dalgaard’s interest in, well, history. In high school he thought he’d be a doctor. After a semester at U of I, however, it became clear that a career in medicine wasn’t for him, so he thought he’d be a lawyer. There wasn’t a spark there, either, but during his sophomore year he discovered teaching. Teaching, it turns out, was the spark that caught....
2021-05-03 - Zishen (Norman) Ye has been a U of I alumnus for just a short time, but already he’s realized the enduring impact of things he learned there. That’s why he’s decided to support U of I students who take advantage of internship opportunities while in college. Ye (BA, ’19, political science; BS, ’19, urban and regional...
2021-04-30 - People up to age 40 living in economically depressed municipalities in the Greater Santiago, Chile, metropolitan area were three times more likely to die as a result of the infection than their counterparts in wealthier areas, researchers report in the journal Science. People ages 41-80 in low socioeconomic-status municipalities also suffered more from the pandemic than their peers in more...
2021-04-30 - Three researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have been awarded 2021 American Council of Learned Societies Fellowships. The recipients are Bobby Smith II, a professor of African American studies; Retika Adhikari Desai, a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow in Asian American Studies; and Juliet...
2021-04-30 - Two professors in the College of LAS have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest professional honors a scientist can receive. Chemistry professors Ralph Nuzzo and Wilfred van der Donk are among 120 newly elected U.S. members and 30 international members in recognition of their...