LAS News Archive

2017-03-01 -     Where does a medical breakthrough begin? At the University of Illinois, where many mysteries of human health are solved, more often than not the answer is this: In the laboratories of the College of LAS. “LAS is where the basic medical research impacting human health is being...

2017-03-01 - Several units are planning a symposium to honor more than three decades of research, teaching, and service by Thomas Bassett, professor of geography and geographic information science, who is retiring from the University of Illinois. On Friday, March 10, the...

2017-03-01 -     Can anyone predict the future? If someone in 1867 had asked John Milton Gregory—this institution’s visionary, founding regent—what would happen over the next 150 years, would he have even guessed that Illinois Industrial University would switch names to the University of Illinois...

2017-02-28 -     Central Illinois in 1867 was not an obvious place to plant a university that would change the world. Illinois had no public colleges and a short history of universal public schooling. Legislators wanted only practical instruction from their new institution. And the campus was in...

2017-02-27 - Great results come from great collaboration. CourseShare, a shared project of the Big 10 Academic Alliance, has provided students at Illinois and elsewhere with increased access to specialized language courses since...

2017-02-24 -     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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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: ...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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-...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...