LAS News Archive

2015-12-01 - A student in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences who has presented her award-winning research on statistical climate change modeling to Illinois legislators has been named a prestigious Marshall Scholar, for postgraduate study in the United Kingdom.Leah Matchett, a senior from Grand Haven,...

2015-12-01 -     Ted Brown remembers the day he drove a car inside the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology–the large, interdisciplinary laboratory that anchors the northern edge of the University of Illinois campus. It was the late 1980s, and the beautiful building was still...

2015-12-01 - Seven University of Illinois researchers have been named to the Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researchers list for 2015, meaning that they produce some of the most influential work in their fields."About 3,000 researchers earned this distinction ... ranking among the top 1 percent most cited for...

2015-12-01 - World leaders met in Paris for the United Nations’ 21st Conference of the Parties climate talks from Nov. 30 to Dec. 11, reaching an agreement on climate change mitigation efforts at the end of the conference. Illinois atmospheric sciences professor Atul Jain was among the many scientists worldwide...

2015-12-01 -     When David Kranz was growing up in the Chicago suburbs, his parents would pack their six children into the station wagon and head up to Wisconsin. There, he and his identical twin brother tracked down snakes and turtles, and went swimming and fishing. These trips fostered a love...

2015-12-01 -     When you think about all the ways to take medicine, you might imagine pills, bottles, nasal sprays, or—take a breath—needles. Researchers at Illinois, however, are working on what they say is a more effective way to deliver drugs: Tiny, swimming biological machines in your...

2015-12-01 - Five University of Illinois faculty members, including four in the College of LAS, have been awarded National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships for 2016—the second year in a row that the Urbana-Champaign campus has garnered more of these awards than any other single institution.The...

2015-11-01 - Leslie Reagan is a well-respected professor of history who joined Illinois faculty in 1992. But this past Oct. 16, she was Leah Schwartz, an outspoken, disaffected factory worker from the year 1913 who makes button holes all day.She was a lively...

2015-11-01 - A University of Illinois political science professor has been appointed to a White House team that’s applying insights from social and behavioral science to improve access to federal programs.Jake Bowers began his stint with President Obama’s year-old Social and...

2015-11-01 -     Myotonic dystrophy type 1, the most common form of muscular dystrophy, is like a hydra, attacking the body in several ways. That’s why it’s significant news that researchers at Illinois report that they’ve added new capabilities to an experimental drug agent to counter the disease...

2015-11-01 -     A team of investigators based at Illinois has been awarded an $8 million grant over five years to study DNA structure as part of the National Institutes of Health Common Fund’s 4D Nucleome Program. For years genome-mapping technology has understood DNA as a linear code, but that’...

2015-11-01 - Here’s an unsettling thought on a topic we thought was settled: Supervolcanoes, defined as massive eruptions with potentially global consequences, don’t blow up for the reasons we thought they did, according to new research by a geologist at the University of Illinois.Conventional models predict...

2015-11-01 - Most people on campus who knew Lincoln Hall before its renovation appreciate its vast improvement since it reopened in 2012. It turns out that people off campus are impressed, too.Lincoln Hall has been awarded a 2015 Citation of Merit in...

2015-11-01 - A new simulation system based on computer algorithms developed at the University of Illinois promises cosmologists an expanded suite of galaxy models—a necessary first step to developing more accurate, cost-effective, and relevant insights into the formation of the universe.The feasibility of this...

2015-10-01 - We’ve long known that there is ice on Mars, but on Sept. 28, NASA confirmed evidence of running water on the red planet—which makes all the difference in the world, says Illinois astronomy professor Leslie Looney.The discovery was made by NASA’s Mars...

2015-10-01 - There’s good reason to be optimistic about the future of the humanities, but a sustained and innovative commitment at educational institutions such as the University of Illinois is required to maintain them in their role as an essential part of American democracy, the chairman of the National...

2015-10-01 - A chemistry professor at Illinois has been named one of the first recipients of an award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science to help early-career women launch their research.Alison Fout will receive a $50,000 grant for...

2015-10-01 - The forests in Alaska’s Yukon Flats are burning at a higher rate than any time in the last 10,000 years. A new analysis by researchers at Illinois finds that so many forest fires are occurring there that the area has become a net exporter of carbon to the atmosphere.This is worrisome, because...

2015-10-01 - Every four years the presidential nomination process in the United States comes under a great deal of scrutiny, with critics claiming that the drawn-out primary cycle, scheduled to begin in February 2016 and lasting until June, affords too much influence to a small number of voters in early primary...

2015-10-01 - One particularly telling moment at the ceremony highlighting the U of I’s being named one of the “Milestones in Microbiology” sites actually occurred after the proceedings were over, as those who participated in the event were having their picture taken around a plaque from the American Society for...

2015-10-01 -     An interdisciplinary team of researchers at Illinois have received $2 million over three years from the National Institutes of Health to develop new insights in neuroscience and create diagnostic and therapeutic tools in fighting neurological diseases. Jonathan Sweedler,...

2015-10-01 - Amanda de Souza cradles a plastic petri dish in her hands. Tiny plants press against the lid; their roots form a delicate web. It’s hard to imagine that hope for millions of people may lie inside something so small, so seemingly fragile.But don’t let them fool you. These plants are hardy. Cassava...

2015-10-01 -     The British Empire was not the model of peace and stability, the “Pax Britannica,” as it’s often portrayed. The common narrative of the empire’s rise and fall is misleading, says a University of Illinois history professor. Dissent...

2015-10-01 - A four-year, $1 million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will help University of Illinois humanities scholars identify digital publishing options and produce new publications that will best disseminate their research.The collaborative project involves the...

2015-10-01 - In 559 B.C., the leader of the Rong barbarians in China argued that his people should be regarded as equals to those from the northern state of Jin. As the barbarian leader made his argument, he suddenly began to chant “Blue Flies,” a poetic ode about the dangers of slander.This story appears in...