2017-11-07
- With the nation of Brazil facing political strife and a deep economic recession, public figures and scholars from the South American nation—along with scholars and policy experts from Europe and the United States—will gather at Illinois to discuss turning points that could help the nation regain its once strong footing.
On Nov. 16-17, the U of I, which has a long history of partnerships with...
2017-11-03 - The late Ralph Fisher, a professor of history at Illinois, used to describe a profound shift in his field of study in the late 1950s. Before October 1957, the university was set in a “lovely prairie town” with few resources in international studies. Then the Russians launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite. Suddenly,...
2017-11-02 - Researchers at the University of Illinois and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst have taken the first steps toward gaining control over the self-assembly of synthetic materials in the same way that biology forms natural polymers. This advance could prove useful in designing new bioinspired, smart materials for applications ranging from drug delivery to sensing to remediation of...
2017-10-31 - A new study, published in mBio, exposes a zinc-import system in bacteria that could contribute to their ability to cause infection. The study looked at how the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus, which can infect virtually all of the tissues in the human body, competes with the immune system for the essential nutrient zinc. “Transition metals such as zinc are essential...
2017-10-27 - Sometimes during the course of an English major’s studies, he or she encounters literature that lingers for a lifetime. That has been the case for Albert Ascoli (BA, ’75, English), who first read Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy” while an undergraduate at the University of Illinois. To say the 14th century poem resonated in the...
2017-10-27 - Three College of LAS alumni whose career paths merged at a liberal arts college in Louisiana have more in common than just their alma mater. They are working together to run a successful study abroad program in Paris that transforms the experiences of first year college students.Kate Pedrotty (MA, ’10, history), director of strategic communication for...
2017-10-26 - The University of Illinois is a key partner in a U.S.-French initiative to fully digitize and post online thousands of letters to and from Marcel Proust, the author of "In Search of Lost Time," one of the great masterpieces of western literature. These letters were gathered into academia through the late Philip Kolb, a professor of French...
2017-10-25 - A distinguished doctor known for his effective teaching and mentorship of medical students has been chosen as a 2017 Illini Comeback Guest by the University of Illinois Alumni Association. Robert P. Gaynes (BS, ’75, biology-honors), professor of medicine and infectious diseases at Emory University, professor...
2017-10-24 - Wayne Koonce never stepped on an airplane until his junior year at the University of Illinois. That’s when the College of LAS set him up with a year of study in Vienna, Austria—a trip that changed his life. Since that pivotal trip, Koonce (BA, '71, geography) has not stopped globetrotting. In fact, since then, he has flown overseas...
2017-10-24 - Ifeoluwa (Luvvie) Ajayi knew she had finally made it when Oprah Winfrey rubbed her head. Ajayi had been selected for Oprah’s “SuperSoul 100 list,” and she was invited in June of 2016 to interview Oprah and the rest of the cast of “Greenleaf,” a TV show premiering on the Oprah Winfrey Network. “I told Oprah how I loved her character’s hair, and I mentioned that I had just...
2017-10-24 - When a mine tailings dam burst in Brazil in November of 2015, it unleashed a wave of toxic red mud that traveled 55 miles to the sea, wiping out villages along the way and killing 17 people. A tailings dam stores wastes from mining operations, and there are at least two major failures of these dams every year, said David Boger (MS, '64; PhD, '66,...
2017-10-24 - Morgan McClain-McKinney Limo said she will never forget her first trip to Africa in 2012, where people in Ghana were so welcoming. Because of her African-American heritage, they assumed she had a strong connection to the continent. “As soon as I landed, people declared, ‘Welcome home!’” she said. “It was wonderful to go to another country where the people are so glad to have...
2017-10-24 - This year’s College of LAS alumni awards have a geographical twist. One of the seven winners was born in Africa and moved to Chicago, while another honoree was born in the Chicago area and recently moved to Africa. But the LAS African connection doesn’t end there. A third award winner made one of the most famous archeological discoveries in Africa—the discovery of Lucy, a 3.2-...
2017-10-24 - Charleen Sofia was at a church function when one of the men in her group shared that he had recently been cured of Hepatitis C after taking a new drug in clinical trials. Prior to this drug, the man had gone through a liver transplant and two rounds of interferon treatment, but nothing worked, and he had become essentially bedridden. Charleen proceeded to stun the man when she...
2017-10-24 - When was Lucy discovered? Who found Lucy? Lucy was unearthed by Donald Johanson and Tom Gray on November 24, 1974, at the Hadar site in Ethiopia. That day, they had ventured out in a Land Rover to map a different area. Donald Johanson was hiking back to his Land Rover after a morning of hard work at his archaeological dig in Hadar, Ethiopia, in 1974, when he happened to glance...
2017-10-24 - Nancy Greenwalt, executive director of Promise Healthcare, found a packed waiting room when she showed up at the Champaign health center one Wednesday afternoon. It was their weekly prenatal clinic, but it was also the first day that they had brought in local organic gardeners to offer produce outside the clinic—as much as people could carry for whatever they could afford. “...
2017-10-19 - Employers weigh internships more heavily in hiring than where you went to school, your grades or your major – that’s the essence of a quote pinned outside the sociology department’s academic advising office at Illinois. It may not be universally true; it’s the conclusion of just one study four years ago. But for Nicole Holtzclaw-...
2017-10-18 - The Four Color Theorem might seem simple: Any map can be colored using four colors without bordering countries sharing the same color. However, Jeremy Tyson, professor of mathematics and director of the Illinois Geometry Lab, said it’s not as straightforward as it seems. “The Four Color Theorem was a long-standing problem in...
2017-10-16 - College students considering careers in fields like archaeology or geology that require extensive work at remote field sites might want to find out how potential supervisors and advisers conduct themselves in the field. Do they establish clear ground rules for the behavior of everyone on the team? Are the rules consistently enforced? According to a new report, such factors...
2017-10-13 - Arrianna Planey, a doctoral student in the Department of Geography and Geographic Information Science, has been selected as a Health Policy Research Scholar. This leadership development program, established by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, connects...
2017-10-11 - Some plants behave like the mythical monster Hydra: Cut off their heads and they grow back, bigger and better than before. A new study finds that these “overcompensators,” as they are called, also augment their defensive chemistry – think plant venom – when they are clipped. Clipping removes the primary stem and simulates what browsing mammals do when they eat plants in the...
2017-10-11 - The growth of wearable technology such as Fitbits and smartwatches has been a gee-whiz moment for many of us. Melissa Littlefield, however, a professor of English and kinesiology and community health at Illinois, understands how the spread of laboratory technology into everyday consumer goods deserves a deeper look. What...
2017-10-10 - It was almost exactly seven years ago that faculty in the Natural History Building got the word: After standing for slightly more than 100 years, key parts of the building needed to be evacuated immediately. Though nothing had actually fallen, an inspection using ground-penetrating radar revealed that the reinforced concrete floors of one of the building’s oldest...
2017-10-05 - Catherine J. Murphy, a professor of chemistry at Illinois since 2009, has been named the Larry R. Faulkner Endowed Chair in Chemistry. An endowed chair is one of the highest honors that a faculty member can receive. This chair is named for Larry R. Faulkner, a former chemistry professor at Illinois who served as head of the...
2017-10-03 - An Illinois professor is part of a multi-institutional research project that has received a 5-year, $16 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to work with sorghum in an effort to optimize photosynthesis and water use efficiency. Andrew Leakey, professor in the Department of Plant Biology and an affiliate of...