LAS News Archive

2018-01-03 -     Kevin Leicht, who heads the sociology department at Illinois, has focused his research on issues of economic development, inequality and class. He is a co-author of the 2014 book...

2017-12-21 - Four assistant professors have been recognized for outstanding teaching and research as part of an ongoing program to spotlight and support promising junior faculty in the College of LAS.Eric Calderwood, comparative and world literature; Jenny Davis,...

2017-12-21 -     Aron K. Barbey, professor of psychology, neuroscience, and bioengineering, is director of the Decision Neuroscience Laboratory, leader of the Intelligence, Learning,...

2017-12-19 -     Recent stories in the national media are magnifying fears of a catastrophic eruption of the Yellowstone volcanic area, but scientists remain uncertain about the likelihood of such an event. To better understand the region’s subsurface geology, University of Illinois geologists...

2017-12-15 -     Ever since he was an undergraduate in sociology with the Student Patrol, Jeff Christensen has worked to protect the Illinois campus from crime and other hazards. As a police officer who rose through the ranks to...

2017-12-14 - Two faculty members in the College of LAS, and one faculty member in information science at Illinois with a degree from LAS, have been awarded National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships for 2018. They are among six chosen on campus, making this the third...

2017-12-11 - Joanne Chory (MS, ’80, PhD, ’84, microbiology), who graduated from Illinois to eventually become one of the world’s preeminent plant biologists, has been awarded a 2018 Breakthrough Prize for her pioneering work deciphering how plants...

2017-12-08 - In 1915, Illinois sports were practically unbeatable. The university’s baseball, football, basketball, and track teams all won Big Ten championships. The mood on campus must have been a far cry from 1918, however, when nearly every building on campus—including some Greek houses and university...

2017-12-06 -     Astronomers have discovered surprising examples of massive, star-filled galaxies seen when the cosmos was less than a billion years old which challenge assumptions about how the universe formed. Observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile,...

2017-12-05 - What can you do with a degree in mathematics? Count a career at one of the world's most successful tech companies among the possibilities, as at least six College of LAS mathematics alumni are currently employed in everything from modeling advertising to...

2017-12-04 -     One way to save (a lot of) money is simply by doing things more efficiently, as building managers in the College of LAS have taken to heart five years into a new energy incentive program on campus. Two LAS buildings—the Astronomy...

2017-12-01 -     A sociology professor’s exploration of the economic health of the American middle class – and the potential pitfalls it faces – has hit a nerve, as a book he published on the topic continues to generate interest three years after it...

2017-11-27 -     A drug that spurs cancer cells to self-destruct has been cleared for use in a clinical trial of patients with anaplastic astrocytoma, a rare malignant brain tumor, and glioblastoma multiforme, an aggressive late-stage...

2017-11-22 - Scholarships are a critically important means of support for many students within the College of LAS. Read on to see how they've changed the lives of six LAS students. This group represents just a sampling of the 781 students in our college receiving life-changing support across our college and its...

2017-11-21 -     A genomic study of Puerto Rico's Africanized honey bees – which are more docile than other so-called “killer bees” – reveals that they retain most of the genetic traits of their African honey bee ancestors, but that a few regions of their DNA have become more like those of...

2017-11-20 - Thomas Dowling, a senior at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign pursuing a double major in political science and history, has been named a Rhodes Scholar. Dowling, of Chicago, is one of 32 students from...

2017-11-20 - Two faculty members at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have been elected 2017 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.Animal biology professor Carla Cáceres and ...

2017-11-17 - Five faculty members at the University of Illinois, including four from the College of LAS, have been named to the 2017 Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researchers list (previously known as the Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researchers list).The list recognizes “leading researchers in the sciences...

2017-11-17 -     It’s widely known that cats, dogs and other furry friends see the world differently than we do. But what about animals that are a little bit below the surface — like fish? Until now, there hasn’t actually been much research into the topic, but thanks to Becky Fuller, professor of...

2017-11-15 - A student in the College of LAS has been chosen again for this year’s Lincoln Academy Student Laureate Award, which recognizes university seniors for their excellence in curricular and extracurricular activities.Thomas Dowling, a double-major in political science...

2017-11-10 -     Cara A. Finnegan , professor and associate head of the Department of Communication, has been awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship and named a University Scholar for her work, which includes...

2017-11-09 -     Matt Eisenbrandt has spent his career litigating against perpetrators of abuse and atrocities in foreign countries who thought they had found safe haven in the United States and Canada. Recently, his experience and education in history and Latin American studies...

2017-11-08 - The renovation of the Natural History Building has been heralded for the new learning opportunities it offers students, faculty, and staff. Now it’s been recognized for something else: the intricate brick, plaster, masonry, tile, and other surface work that make the building look so good.The...

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...

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...