LAS News Archive

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,...

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...

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...

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”...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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....

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-...

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...

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...

2017-10-02 - The Natural History Building is hosting an open house during Homecoming to celebrate its recently completed renovation. Students and faculty can take a self-guided tour of the building to learn how the University of Illinois created a...

2017-09-29 -   Three professors from the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences have been granted the distinction of a Conrad Humanities Scholar beginning this academic year. John Tofik Karam, professor of Spanish and Portuguese and associate director of...