LAS News Archive

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

2016-12-15 -     Two LAS faculty members, Erik McDuffie and Carol Symes, have been awarded National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships for 2017. McDuffie is a professor of African American studies and of ...

2016-12-13 -     A professor of chemistry at the University of Illinois has been nationally recognized for demonstrating a “prolific spirit of innovation.” Kenneth Suslick, Marvin T. Schmidt Professor of Chemistry and professor of materials science...

2016-12-09 -     A recently discovered galaxy is forming stars at an extraordinary pace. Astronomers have shown that, compared to the Milky Way, which forms roughly one Sun-sized star per year, stars in the galaxy SPT 0346-32 are forming at a rate of about 4,500 times the mass of the Sun every...

2016-12-09 -     How does a history degree lead to a career in clinical health research? The path isn’t as winding as you might think, according to Katie Arrigo-Wozniak, who has been employed at Sage Products LLC, a medical technology company, for seven years and running. She’s...

2016-12-05 -     Murugesu “Siva” Sivapalan, professor in the departments of Geography & GIScience and Civil and Environmental Engineering, has been awarded the 2017 European Geosciences Union’s (EGU) Alfred Wegener Medal, which recognizes scientists...

2016-12-01 -     Researchers at the U of I report in the journal Science that they can increase plant productivity by boosting levels of three proteins involved in photosynthesis. In field trials, the scientists saw increases of 14 percent to 20 percent in the growth of their modified tobacco...

2016-11-30 - Devin Weiss, of Northbrook, Illinois, has been named a Marshall Scholar. A 2013 graduate of Glenbrook North High School, Weiss is a senior at the University of Illinois majoring in sociology. Funded by the British government, the Marshall...

2016-11-28 -     A student in the College of LAS has been chosen for this year’s Lincoln Academy Student Laureate Award, given to university seniors for excellence in curricular and extracurricular activities.  Shivaliben “Shivali” Bhargavkumar Patel, a double-major in...

2016-11-23 -     To say Robert Carr remembers clearly his first college scholarship might be the biggest understatement you’ll hear today. He was a senior at Lockport (Illinois) Township High School, coming from a working class family, when he received a $250 college scholarship from the Lockport...

2016-11-21 -     There’s more than one way to approach questions of social science. To gauge the stress that mathematics causes the typical middle schooler, for example, a researcher could ask about recent math tests or conduct interviews with parents. On the other hand, an engineer could create a...

2016-11-21 -     Two faculty in the College of LAS are among six at the University of Illinois who have been elected 2016 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Bruce L. Rhoads, a professor of...

2016-11-18 -     When Susan Martinis studied at the University of Illinois as a doctoral student in the late 1980s, she had no idea that she would someday become a professor here, let alone the head of the Department of Biochemistry....

2016-11-18 -     Eight University of Illinois researchers, including six from the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, have been named to the Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researchers list for 2016 (previously known as the Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researchers list). The list...

2016-11-17 - Andrew Zipkin isn’t your everyday archaeologist.As a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Anthropology, his work begins with archaeology. But Zipkin’s research requires a few other techniques. By applying methods from...

2016-11-11 -     This year’s U.S. presidential election has been called one of the biggest political upsets in history. Just weeks ago, Hillary Clinton seemed headed for a big win. And though the race tightened in the lead-up to Nov. 8, almost every respected election forecast had her as a strong...

2016-11-07 -     When speaking of college recruitment, the first thing that may come to mind is football or basketball programs scouring the nation for top athletes. But the same holds true for Illinois’ Department of Mathematics, which recently...

2016-11-04 - Six assistant professors have been recognized for their exceptional accomplishments in teaching and research as part of a new program to highlight and encourage the contributions of outstanding junior faculty in the College of LAS.Selected faculty will retain the Lincoln Excellence for Assistant...

2016-11-02 -     I was first drawn to Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park as a natural laboratory for a NASA project to study how microbes form fossilized “markers” in ancient travertine rock deposits. The water temperature, chemistry and flow at Mammoth are similar to that found on...

2016-11-01 - One student spent the summer tracking prairie chickens near Salem, Illinois, returning to the lab to help analyze their DNA. Another co-wrote a study of the marsupial intervertebral disc, research he and his colleagues hope will offer new insights into human health. Another is designing his own...

2016-10-29 -     Martin Camargo, a professor of English and the associate dean for humanities and interdisciplinary programs at the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, has been designated interim dean of LAS while the university conducts an...