2016-09-20
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Editor’s note: U of I anthropology professor Kathryn Clancy spoke recently on the subject of sexual harassment and assault in higher education at a conference sponsored several prominent scientific societies. This week, Clancy joins a...
2016-09-15 - Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi has written plenty about the Iranian Revolution and its aftermath, including two scholarly books. But the University of Illinois professor also lived that history as an activist and then political prisoner, and now has his own evocative story to tell.In a new autobiographic novel or “novelistic memoir,” Ghamari (the last name he uses with this book), a professor of...
2016-09-14 - When Karen Liu first arrived at Illinois as a freshman, she wasn’t sure what she wanted to do when she graduated. But when she and her parents mulled over the top job listings for mathematics majors, actuarial science caught their attention.Like most, Liu wasn’t familiar with actuarial science. But she took a chance on it.Now a senior, Liu has never been more certain that the field she selected...
2016-09-13 - Barbara Wilson, interim chancellor of U of I’s Urbana-Champaign campus and Harry E. Preble Dean of the College of LAS, has been named executive vice president and vice president for academic affairs of the three-university U of I System, President Tim Killeen announced Monday.Killeen said Wilson’s appointment, subject to Board of Trustees approval, fills a newly restructured role that establishes...
2016-09-12 - Fresh out of college, Allen Butler wanted to be a mathematics professor. A chance meeting steered him onto a new path, and now he’s leading a prominent research firm that crunches the numbers on everything from helping the U.S. Navy detect submarines to helping individuals plan for retirement. Read how the mathematics and communication skills Butler developed in...
2016-09-09 - A new residence hall at Illinois has been dedicated in honor of the university’s first Native American graduate. Wassaja Hall, which houses more than 500 students at 1202 S. First St. in Champaign, was dedicated on Thursday for the university’s first Native American student. Wassaja (pronounced WAHS-ah-jah), who was known as Carlos Montezuma, studied at Illinois in the early...
2016-09-07 - The 2016 Paralympics start today in Rio de Janeiro, and several athletes and coaches from U of I and the College of LAS will be participating. You can watch live stream events on Paralympic.org and on NBC Sports. Competitor Hannah McFadden will be taking followers...
2016-09-06 - If you already know of Ted Sanders, you probably like good stories. The rising author is the creator of The Keepers, a widely acclaimed children’s book series from HarperCollins that the New York Times Book Review likened to the work of J.K. Rowling and Rick Riordan.But have you heard his comeback story? Here it is in a nutshell: In 1992, he flunked out of the University of...
2016-09-02 - Casey Fletcher always knew he wanted to play baseball at the University of Illinois. Growing up in Oakwood, Ill., Fletcher saw baseball and Illinois as a family tradition — Fletcher’s father, Darrin, was enrolled in the College of LAS and played for the Illini prior to leaving for a 14-year career in the major leagues, and his grandfather, Tom, an alumnus, played for the Illini...
2016-09-01 - Researchers call it the Valley of Death—“the place where drugs go to die,” according to Paul Hergenrother, a University of Illinois chemistry professor. “Getting through the Valley of Death means you have gone from a drug’s discovery to actually treating the first patient,” he explained. “It’s experimentally challenging, time consuming, and expensive—all of those things.”...
2016-08-31 - The College of LAS launched the 2016-17 academic year with 16 new faculty and staff leaders in departments and units across the college. In most cases, new leaders officially assumed their roles at the start of the fall semester. LAS is home to more than 60 departments, centers, schools, and programs. Barbara Wilson, interim chancellor and Harry E. Preble Dean of the College of...
2016-08-30 - Thomas J. Hanratty, a pioneer in fluid dynamics, passed away on Wednesday, August 24, in Urbana, Illinois. Hanratty was a longtime chemical engineering professor who found joy in both research and teaching. He was a leader in establishing multiphase flow as a new academic discipline by relating macroscopic behavior to small-scale interactions. Hanratty was a respected and integral part of the...
2016-08-26 - A new study from the University of Illinois has deepened understanding of the “chemobrain” phenomenon in cancer patients, with researchers reporting long-lasting cognitive impairments in mice when they are administered a chemotherapy regimen used to treat breast cancer in humans. Cancer survival rates have increased substantially during the past few years due to both earlier...
2016-08-25 - A professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Illinois has been recognized by a global media company as one of the top young innovators in science. Ying Diao was named among MIT Technology Review’s annual list of Innovators Under 35 for her work in nanotechnology and materials. Diao joined Illinois in 2015 and is currently Dow Chemical Company Faculty Scholar in the...
2016-08-24 - Terrible headlines of violence and loss have unfortunately become a normal part of American life. But a professor of sociology and African American studies at Illinois is collaborating on a project in Chicago to show that shootings and murders are more than just headlines—they are life-...
2016-08-23 - Health officials recently reported the first U.S. cases of Zika traced to local mosquitoes, in Miami, and the virus is spreading rapidly in Puerto Rico. Given the link between Zika and microcephaly in some babies born to infected mothers, it renewed questions about how Americans might respond to a potential epidemic. Could it bear any resemblance to a German measles epidemic a...
2016-08-22 - Following years of discussion, Illinois has added a course in U.S. minority culture to the core curriculum for undergraduate students in hopes of helping better prepare students to live in an increasingly diverse society.The University Senate approved a committee proposal to make the course part of the university’s General Education requirements beginning in Fall 2018. The senate is a group of...
2016-08-19 - New psychological research at Illinois focuses on a fundamental human habit: When trying to explain something—why we’re giving that special someone roses on Valentine’s Day, for example—we often focus on the traits of the thing itself (“They’re almost as beautiful as you!”) and not its context (“The flower shop had some effective advertising.”) In a new study, researchers found that...
2016-08-17 - In early 2014, months before the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and shortly after the Black Lives Matter movement began, the Police Training Institute at the University of Illinois, with help from professors in LAS, began offering police recruits classes that challenged their views about race and racism, introduced them to critical race theory, and...
2016-08-12 - A chemistry professor at Illinois has been selected to receive the Electrochemical Society Toyota Young Investigator Fellowship to advance his work in advancing green energy technology. Joaquin Rodriguez-Lopez was one of three recipients selected for the prominent fellowship, which will provide him a minimum of $50,000 for his research on optimizing the performance of fuel cell...
2016-08-11 - Look no further than your favorite location-based smartphone app, and you’ll see the vast potential for students in geography and geographic information science. This field of study in LAS just got stronger with the recent launch of a Professional Science Master’s program that melds training in both geographic information science and business. Faculty in the...
2016-08-10 - A seed grant, along with some hard work by U. of I. student volunteers and museum staff, has grown a butterfly garden at the Orpheum Children’s Science Museum in Champaign. The Growing Prairies and Growing Minds butterfly garden and an archaeology exhibit opened recently at the museum, 346 N. Neil St., Champaign. Students in the ...
2016-08-09 - Ever wonder how a show makes it to television? Jason Lee works as a film editor at an independent production company in Hollywood pitching new shows to TV networks. It’s fast-paced, meaningful work (there’s more to reality television than people stuck in a house), and Lee’s decision to create an individual plan of study at LAS has been critical to his success...
2016-08-05 - Millions will be sampling Brazilian culture for the first time, in person or through the media, during the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. Part of the soundtrack will be samba. Born in Rio, it was once the country’s undisputed national music and is still a prominent part of popular culture. History professor Marc Hertzman is the author of Making Samba...
2016-08-02 - Think Brazil and you might think beaches, rain forest, the 2016 Olympics – all far removed from central Illinois. Yet the University of Illinois is perhaps the most comprehensive center of Brazilian studies in the U.S. Illinois’ research and teaching connections with Brazil are “distinctively broad,” said Jerry Dávila, director of the university’s Lemann Institute for...