2019-02-12
- Though separated by a world of ocean, and unrelated to each other, two fish groups – one in the Arctic, the other in the Antarctic – share a surprising survival strategy: They both have evolved the ability to produce the same special brand of antifreeze protein in their tissues. A new study describes in molecular detail how the Arctic fishes built the gene for their antifreeze from tiny fragments...
2019-02-08 - The Natural History Building has earned prominent distinction for energy efficiency and environmentally friendly construction practices in the wake of a recent $79 million renovation. The historic building received Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED ®) Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, the most widely used green building rating program in the world. Built...
2019-02-08 - What better way to represent college life than as a long, winding—sometimes bumpy—and colorful journey? In the spirit of enhancing an encouraging atmosphere where students go for assistance on academic matters, the U of I has installed an art piece, "Journey Into Possibilities," by Indira Freitas Johnson, in LAS Student Academic Affairs. "Journey Into Possibilities” aims to demonstrate students...
2019-02-07 - For the past six years, the Department of Astronomy and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois have been closely involved with one of the most sensitive and comprehensive surveys of distant galaxies ever performed. Now that the survey is complete, they will...
2019-02-06 - Ten professors and staff members in LAS are among the recipients of the Presidential Initiative to Celebrate the Impact of the Arts and the Humanities. The $2 million initiative, launched by University of Illinois President Tim Killeen, is aimed at emphasizing the impact and influence of the arts and...
2019-02-05 - There’s plenty of sweet irony in a new partnership between Illinois and St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch, LLC, that will raise money for bee research at the university. Anheuser-Busch has pledged $5,000 to The Healthy Bee Fund at Illinois. In addition, the company will donate $1 to the fund for every case sold of b, a new alcoholic honey beverage scheduled to go on sale in the Northeast U.S. in...
2019-02-04 - Mara Wade, a University of Illinois professor of Germanic languages and literatures, has received the Reimar Luest Prize for International Research Cultural Exchange, a competitive prize given to scholars whose research has shaped academic and cultural relations between Germany and their own countries. Wade is one of two winners this year of the award...
2019-01-31 - How do you make a difference? It’s not a simple question when you think about it, like George Reveliotis has. He’s in his mid-40s now, with a wife and four children, and he runs his own property tax and real estate law firm, Reveliotis Law, P.C. in Park Ridge, Illinois. He’s seen enough to know the kind of things that carry significance. Reveliotis (BA, ’96,...
2019-01-29 - The clock struck 12:50 p.m. and the Quad teemed with students during passing period. High above them, in Altgeld Hall, Jonathon Smith moved quickly, organizing his sheet music. He knew what many of them would think—that a machine was playing the chimes in the tower. They couldn’t be more wrong. Purposefully, with passion, Smith began to “play the tower,” so to speak. Playing the chimes is...
2019-01-24 - Telemarketing isn’t for everyone, but it was a great place to start for Chicago resident DJ Paoni (BA, ’93, speech communication), who used what he learned in college and on the job to connect with people and eventually become president of SAP North America, a software company. Degree: BA, ’93, speech...
2019-01-18 - The School of Chemical Sciences at Illinois hosted a celebration of diversity in the fields of chemical sciences and chemical engineering with two public events honoring an LAS alumnus who was the first African-American to receive a PhD in chemistry in the United States. In early February, the American Chemical...
2019-01-17 - The University of Illinois is moving forward with plans to expand its leadership in the mathematical sciences by constructing a new building west of the Main Quad by 2022 and renovating Altgeld Hall by 2024. Derek Fultz, director of facilities for the College of LAS, said the university is negotiating an architect contract for the project which...
2019-01-16 - For thousands of years, large rivers and their floodplains have been essential to civilization. They still are—with billions of people living around the world’s major rivers—and an Illinois scientist has published the most up-to-date summary of the critical issues facing these vital regions. Jim Best, the Jack and Richard Threet Professor of Sedimentary...
2019-01-14 - Our images of mushroom clouds came from its cameras. So did many shots of missile tests, space missions and the Korean and Vietnam wars. At one point it was the largest self-contained film studio in Hollywood, enlisting such stars as Jimmy Stewart and Marilyn Monroe, as well as Disney animators and other movie industry talent. It made an estimated 900 films. Yet the story of Lookout Mountain...
2019-01-10 - Larry Harris is the type of man who you can practically hear smiling through the phone. He’s quick to joke and has an infectious laugh—you’re bound to hear it often. If you ask Larry (BA, ’15, political science), he’ll say that’s the Chicago in him. He grew up on the south and west sides of Chicago before moving to Chicago Heights at fourteen and says the...
2019-01-09 - A research group at Illinois has found that a protein previously thought to be active only in cell repair is required for DNA replication, a transformational discovery recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of...
2019-01-03 - Researchers from the University of Illinois and U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service report in the journal Science that crops engineered with a photorespiratory shortcut are 40 percent more productive in real-world agronomic conditions. Plants convert sunlight into energy through photosynthesis; however, most crops on the planet are plagued by a photosynthetic glitch, and...
2018-12-20 - Gillen D’Arcy Wood, English professor at the University of Illinois, wants to reveal to readers a wonderland — Antarctica. Wood’s upcoming book, “First Ice: The Antarctic Discovery Voyages and their Legacy,” delves into three expeditions to Antarctica between 1838 and 1842. Through it, Wood explores the history of South Polar discovery in...
2018-12-19 - Back in 2011, in an era of outsourcing American jobs overseas, Ankur Gopal (BA, ’97, history) had an idea: Why couldn’t more tech jobs move inland from Silicon Valley and the coasts instead of leaving the country? As it turns out, they could. From his basement in Louisville, Kentucky, Gopal founded Interapt, an...
2018-12-17 - Six faculty members in the College of LAS have been named to the 2018 Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researchers list. They are among the 11 professors selected across campus for this year’s list. The list recognizes “leading researchers in the sciences and social sciences from around the world,” according to Clarivate Analytics....
2018-12-14 - Paul Kenis has been named the Elio Eliakim Tarika Endowed Chair of Chemical Engineering in a ceremony honoring his success and leadership in the field. Kenis, head of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees in his native country of the Netherlands before completing a postdoctoral fellowship at...
2018-12-12 - Move over, trap-jaw ants and mantis shrimp: There’s a faster appendage in town. According to a new study, the Dracula ant, Mystrium camillae, can snap its mandibles at speeds of up to 90 meters per second (more than 200 mph), making it the fastest animal movement on record. “The high accelerations of Mystrium strikes likely result in high-impact forces necessary for predatory...
2018-12-10 - In the state of Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany, 16-year-old students in middle-track schools decide whether to stay in school to pursue an academic career or enroll in a vocational training program. A new study offers evidence that the path they choose influences their personality years later. The research is reported in the journal Psychological Science. “We wanted to understand whether choosing...
2018-12-07 - Thousands of letters written by Marcel Proust (1871-1922) will be available to scholars, Proust fans and the public on a website created by University of Illinois researchers and their partners in France to digitize Proust’s correspondence. The first phase of the Corr-Proust website – Marcel Proust’s World War I letters – was launched in late...
2018-12-04 - When author Nafissa Thompson-Spires was growing up, she read historical fiction about black families in America, but she really wanted stories about contemporary living that she could relate to. “I didn’t have people burning crosses on my lawn or calling me (a racist slur), but I experienced a lot of terrible microaggressions. I wanted to see black people alive and coping with those things,...