2016-10-24
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Laura Niklason first came up with the idea of growing human blood vessels while she was doing her residency at Massachusetts General Hospital in the 1990s.
A patient was undergoing a heart bypass—a surgery in which a physician takes a blood vessel from another part of the patient’s body and then sews it on top of a clogged vessel, forming a bypass around the blockage. The...
2016-10-24 - The room was packed with a standing-room-only crowd. The year was 1963, and the setting was Woods Hole, Massachusetts, renowned for its summer classes in biology. James Spudich (BS, ‘63, chemistry) had just finished his bachelor’s degree at the University of Illinois, and he stood at the front of the room, wiping the blackboard...
2016-10-24 - Sharon Mosher’s mother always kidded her that she was born with a rock in her hand. “I essentially wanted to be a geologist my whole life,” Mosher (BS, ‘73, PhD, ‘78, geology ) said. Mosher’s father would take her as a child on Illinois State Geological Survey field trips, and whenever her family went on their annual...
2016-10-24 - Some of this year’s College of LAS alumni award winners knew from an early age what they wanted to do in life. One of them was mixing chemicals—sometimes explosively—in his home chemistry lab as a child. But not all of them saw that far ahead. A pioneer in the treatment of concussions called her studies at the University of Illinois part of her long and winding road to sports...
2016-10-21 - Rivers are notoriously hard to study over long time periods. An international research team, however, has used new techniques, data, and methodology to reveal the threat posed by changing storm patterns to river deltas around the world. Jim Best, the Jack and Richard Threet Professor of Sedimentary Geology at Illinois, along with researchers from the universities of Southampton...
2016-10-19 - An atmospheric sciences professor at Illinois has been named a 2017 Fellow of the American Meteorological Society for significant contributions to the field.Greg McFarquhar was nominated and selected for his “outstanding contributions to the atmospheric or related oceanic or hydrologic sciences or their applications during a substantial period of...
2016-10-18 - Republicans and Democrats “simply do not like each other to an unprecedented degree.” That was one striking conclusion of Illinois political science professor Thomas Rudolph and co-author Marc Hetherington in their 2015 book “Why Washington Won’t Work.” Animosity like that on display in the current campaign has grown dramatically...
2016-10-17 - When the Middle Ages come to mind, many people think of famine, disease and death. But Carol Symes knows there is much more to the medieval past than its often unpleasant popular portrayals and hopes to translate deeper layers of this era for a wider audience—literally.Symes, a professor of history and ...
2016-10-11 - As careers in chemistry go, few have more name recognition than that of Khushboo Narechania, a forensic scientist for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Read on for a real portrayal of the job, from the “CSI effect” to how her analysis solved a tragedy, and how she still refers to her organic chemistry textbooks. Job title: Forensic...
2016-10-07 - A history professor at the University of Illinois has received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to set the record straight about the previously fictionalized world of a 17th century traveler. Craig Koslofsky, together with researcher Robert Zaugg of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, received a grant of...
2016-10-06 - Three researchers at U of I have received an award from the National Institutes of Health to fund their highly creative study of cell membrane lipids that promises to advance drugs and medicine against a range of issues. James Morrissey, professor of biochemistry and the Roy and Eva Hong Professor of...
2016-10-04 - Following years of groundbreaking and important research, Milan K. Bagchi, a professor of molecular and integrative physiology at Illinois, has been named the Deborah Paul Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology. An investiture is one of the highest honors that faculty member can receive, with the recipient chosen by a...
2016-10-03 - A systematic review of the scientific studies cited by brain-training companies has found no evidence to support their claims that their products improve cognition in daily life. The new study, led by researchers at the U of I, reports that while people tend to improve on the specific tasks they practice, it’s premature to conclude that computerized brain-training programs...
2016-09-29 - The Department of Plant Biology and the School of Integrative Biology will receive an estimated $1.2 million from the U.S. Department of Education over the next three years to assist excellent graduate students who demonstrate financial need and plan to pursue the highest degree available in their course...
2016-09-28 - A new study of older adults finds an association between higher blood levels of phosphatidylcholine, a source of the dietary nutrient choline, and the ability to regulate attention to manage competing tasks. The study at Illinois also identified a brain structure within the prefrontal cortex, a region at the front of the brain, that appears to play a role in this association....
2016-09-27 - A new minor in the LAS Global Studies program will help students prepare for jobs in the business world where knowledge of the interactions between markets and society is increasingly in demand. Applications are being accepted until Oct. 15 for the...
2016-09-26 - Six Urbana campus faculty members, including four in the College of LAS, have been named University Scholars. The program recognizes excellence in teaching, scholarship and service.Begun in 1985, the scholars program recognizes faculty excellence on the three University of Illinois campuses and provides $15,000 to each scholar for each of three years to enhance his or her academic career. The...
2016-09-23 - Researchers at the University of Illinois have been recognized for their proposal of a novel method for identifying partisan gerrymandering: supercomputers. Wendy K. Tam Cho, a professor of political science, and Yan Y. Liu, a senior research programmer in the Department of Geography and...
2016-09-20 - 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...