2017-02-24
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Researchers at the University of Illinois report they can alter blood cell development through the use of biomaterials designed to mimic characteristics of the bone marrow. The findings, reported in the journal Science Advances, are a first step toward developing more effective bone marrow treatments for diseases like leukemia and lymphoma.
Blood cells flow throughout the body...
2017-02-23 - A professor of psychology at Illinois has been recognized as a rising star in her profession.Joey Cheng has been named a 2016 Association for Psychological Science Rising Star, an award reserved for outstanding psychological scientists in the earliest stages of their research careers. Cheng earned her doctoral degree from the University of British...
2017-02-22 - Four researchers from the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences are recipients of 2017 Sloan Research Fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. According to the foundation, the awards “honor early career scholars whose achievements mark them as the next generation of scientific leaders.” Awardees receive $60,000 to be used as they wish to...
2017-02-17 - Staff and academic professionals in the College of LAS are being recognized for dedicated service to students, fellow employees, and the mission of the college and university.Seven staff members and academic professionals will be honored at a ceremony on Tuesday, March 7. They include three recipients of an academic professional award, three recipients of a staff award, and one recipient of the...
2017-02-16 - Two alumni from the College of LAS have been elected into the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), considered to be among the highest professional distinctions that can be obtained by an engineer.Dianne Chong (BA, ’71, biology), who went on to earn master’s degrees in physiology and metallurgical engineering, and a doctoral degree in metallurgy, at the...
2017-02-15 - If you think entrepreneurship is something that begins after a student earns his or her degree, think again. The iVenture Accelerator program has been growing in popularity since it launched in 2015, with its programming intended to allow students from across campus to create startup enterprises for their own ideas.The program has been successful,...
2017-02-10 - Emergency medical care is more advanced than ever, but advanced treatment still hinges on victims being transported to a hospital. However, a doctor and LAS alumnus is leading a program that takes a new approach: He’s basically bringing the emergency room to the patient. Kurt Bloomstrand (BS, ’09, molecular and cellular biology; MD, ’13)...
2017-02-08 - A professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Illinois has received a competitive award for exemplary junior faculty from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Charles Sing will receive five years of support for his work after being selected for a 2017 NSF CAREER Award for his proposal, “Developing the design rules of charge...
2017-02-08 - College wasn’t always a good fit for Chris Nixon. Struggling with classes, he left Illinois, but after some soul-searching close to home and abroad, he came back to U of I and enrolled in a major that changed everything: anthropology. The journey back to Illinois, along with a pivotal course taught by Alma Gottlieb,...
2017-02-03 - Now and then a science story comes along that challenges what you’ve been told since you were a kid. This is one of them. For starters, water doesn’t necessarily freeze below 32 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s been recorded in liquid form in clouds as cold as 22 degrees below zero. This scientific phenomenon is more than a rebuttal to popular belief—it’s the basis for a research...
2017-02-01 - In case you think the days of charting unmapped territory on Earth belong to the history books, let us introduce you to Patricia Gregg, a professor of geology who, along with several others from Illinois, recently returned from a deep sea expedition about 750 miles off the west coast of Mexico. Only about 10 percent of the ocean...
2017-01-30 - A professor of history at the University of Illinois is being recognized by the American Library Association for his effort to describe the unique challenges that arise when race and homosexuality intersect. Kevin Mumford, author of “Not Straight, Not White: Black Gay Men from the March on Washington to the AIDS Crisis,” has...
2017-01-27 - Researchers from the University of Illinois and collaborating institutions predict that Midwest soil may lose as much at 15 percent of its stored carbon — and thus its agricultural fertility — over the next 100 years due to the effects of global climate change. During a three-year field trial at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, researchers exposed pockets of a...
2017-01-25 - A review of 207 studies involving more than 20,000 people found that those who engaged in therapeutic interventions were, on average, significantly less neurotic and a bit more extraverted after the interventions than they were beforehand. The review, reported in the journal Psychological Bulletin, challenges the idea that personality traits are established at birth or in...
2017-01-23 - What’s an effective platform for discussing moral theories, political reconciliation, and President Donald Trump? Colleen Murphy, professor of philosophy, political science, and law, knows one: Twitter, of course. Then again, if not for Trump’s famous Twitter account, the social media...
2017-01-20 - A report in the journal Science Advances details the grim realities facing a majority of the nonhuman primates in the world – the apes, monkeys, tarsiers, lemurs, and lorises inhabiting ever-shrinking forests across the planet. The review is the most comprehensive conducted so far, the researchers say, and the picture it paints is dire. “Alarmingly, about 60 percent of primate species are now...
2017-01-18 - Franklin Roosevelt’s first inaugural gave us “nothing to fear but fear itself.” John F. Kennedy’s gave us “ask not what your country can do for you …” But those are among the few inaugurals long-remembered in history. So how important are these speeches in setting a tone or direction that carries through? Communication...
2017-01-17 - When students return to classes today for the spring semester, they might not recognize their old classrooms. Years in the making, the Chemistry Annex renovations are complete. The ambitious project included a complete renovation and construction of a 9,600-square-foot addition to the building on the southeast corner of the building along Mathews Avenue. All told, the addition...
2017-01-13 - Scientists have confirmed that Miscanthus, long speculated to be the top biofuel producer, yields more than twice as much as switchgrass in the U.S. using an open-source bioenergy crop database gaining traction in plant science, climate change, and ecology research. "To understand yield trends and variation across the country for our major food crops, extensive databases are...
2017-01-09 - Two longtime faculty members have been selected to serve as interim associate deans of the College of LAS, starting January 16.David Tewksbury, professor and head of the Department of Communication, has been appointed to serve as interim associate dean for social and behavioral sciences. Carla Cáceres, professor of...
2017-01-05 - Lydia Kisley, a postdoctoral fellow and researcher at Illinois, has been featured in the Forbes 30 Under 30 List for 2017. The annual list highlights innovators who are under 30 years old and work in a variety of different industries, from media to manufacturing. Kisley was included on the healthcare list. She was selected from a competitive pool of some 15,000 nominees,...
2017-01-04 - Just in time to put those New Year’s resolutions to the test, Thursday is National Whipped Cream Day—a date that’s particularly sweet at Illinois. While the day falls on the birthday of the late Aaron “Bunny” Lapin, who founded Reddi-wip, a big dollop of credit for one of the most popular dessert toppings goes to Charles Getz (BS, ’32; MS, ’34; PhD, ’38;...
2016-12-22 - An associate dean and accomplished professor has been selected to serve as the next Harry E. Preble Dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.Feng Sheng Hu, professor of plant biology and Ralph E. Grim Professor in Geology, will assume duties as dean on January 1, pending approval by the...
2016-12-20 - White House photographers once shot mostly for history; today their photos are as likely to be used for daily image-making and social media, thanks to changes under President Obama. Communication professor Cara Finnegan took an early look in 2010 at Obama’s White...
2016-12-19 - When most living creatures get hurt, they can self-heal and recover from the injury. But, when damage occurs to inanimate objects, they don’t have that same ability and typically either lose functionality or have their useful lifecycle reduced. Researchers at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology are working to change that. For more than 15 years, Jeff Moore...