2009-10-01
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Ken Burns, director of such acclaimed documentaries as The Civil War and Baseball, has now focused his spotlight on America’s national park system through The National Parks: America’s Best Idea. The six-part documentary, spanning 12 hours, is a great work; but it still leaves out a lot, says Robert Pahre, an LAS political...
2009-10-01 - Chemists at the University of Illinois have designed a small molecule that blocks an aberrant pathway associated with myotonic dystrophy type 1, the most common form of muscular dystrophy. The new compound, soon to be tested in cells, binds tightly to its target, an abnormally elongated RNA that hijacks part of the normal cellular machinery and brings on symptoms of the disease. The newly...
2009-10-01 - Four LAS alums have each been recognized for his or her body of work—a full career of groundbreaking achievements. But in 2009, a common thread runs throughout these bodies of work—and that is the human body itself. Each of the winners of the 2009 LAS Alumni Achievement Award has delved into the mysteries of the body, from genetics to disease to the human brain.Over 135,000 LAS alumni have the...
2009-10-01 - Eleven University of Illinois students were nearing the end of a seven-mile hike around Ribbon Lake in Yellowstone National Park. Under a steady drizzle, they had trudged through grassland and a spruce/fir forest—the “Mud March” they called it. They had even come uncomfortably close to a bison bull and spotted fresh grizzly bear prints on the trail. After seven miles in wild country, Professor...
2009-10-01 - See yourself in the future. You are royalty. The words sung by University of Illinois Black Chorus summed up the attitude at this fall’s induction ceremony for Chi Alpha Epsilon, a new honor society implemented by the LAS Access and Achievement Program (AAP), which provides services to underrepresented students through the Equal Opportunities Program and the President’s Award Program. The...
2009-10-01 - Between planning, producing, and buying advertising, most public health campaigns run out of cash long before organizers can evaluate whether they made a difference. One University of Illinois professor, however, studied the results of a nationwide child obesity campaign, and the findings were sweeter than candy: Kids are listening. Marian Huhman, a professor of...
2009-10-01 - Anyone alarmed by the disappearance of one of Lincoln Hall’s most endearing features need not worry. Abraham Lincoln may belong to the ages, but his bust still belongs to the University of Illinois.Workers and staff clearing the last items out of a soon-to-be restored Lincoln Hall were struck by the sight of a gaping hole inside the building’s marbled east entrance where the 125-pound bronze bust...
2009-10-01 - Homecoming 2009 was a special one in historic Roger Adams Laboratory, as the weekend marked the completion of the first phase of a multimillion-dollar effort to revitalize laboratories and research support for biochemical research. A ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrated $8 million in upgrades that required two years to complete. The work, sponsored by the campus and the College of Liberal Arts and...
2009-10-01 - “You once told me you wanted to be a doctor,” the physician told her 6-year-old patient, making conversation. But the boy lashed back, screaming and throwing an empty syringe at her. “I’m not going to be anything!” When the attending nurse asked what he was going to be then, the boy replied, “A ghost.” With those words, he turned over in the hospital bed and looked away. This 6-year-old boy was...
2009-10-01 - The large magnet filled an entire corner of the Aberdeen, Scotland, lab. The year was 1979, and this machine was a far cry from the slick magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines used in hospitals today. But primitive as it might look, this was a groundbreaking instrument, responsible for creating the first recognizable image of a whole human body. This device and its innovative “spin warp”...
2009-10-01 - Brock Siegel (PhD, '74, chemistry) still remembers the meeting in February of 1998 where it all began. What started out as a typical budget meeting at Applied Biosystems suddenly took a dramatic turn. At the time, Applied Biosystems was known for developing the world’s best-selling DNA sequencing equipment, which the government was using to map all of the genes within a person. But while...
2009-10-01 - In 1983, Lynn Hartmann (AB, '70, English) was an intern at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics; and like most interns, she was trying to choose a medical specialty—a decision that would set the course for the rest of her life. “I remember seeing a woman with cancer who had been admitted to our hospital on a clinical trial,” Hartmann recalls. “She had already gone through treatment...
2009-10-01 - Govindjee (PhD, '60, biophysics) still remembers the day when he and a fellow student in India were taking a walk and he noticed a spotted, yellowed plant with curling leaves. Instantly, Govindjee was fascinated, and the two students decided they were going to find out what lay behind the plant’s condition. This, Govindjee recalls, was the beginning of a life-long passion for plants and...
2009-10-01 - The teenage boy sat in a chair wearing a most unusual baseball cap. Mounted on the hat was a small video camera, which angled downwards over the bill and pointed directly at his left eye. The camera tracked eye movements as the teen watched an old 1960s movie starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor—Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? But something was different about this boy as he...
2009-10-01 - Doug Cole (PhD, '74, chemistry) had been at Merck Pharmaceuticals for only a few months when a scientist from across the street came to his research team and announced, “We’ve discovered the most potent biologically active natural product that anyone has seen.” But to make it work, Merck needed the help of its fledgling 15-person natural product chemistry group, which included Cole, a 1974 LAS...
2009-10-01 - Carol D. Lee (BS, '66, teaching of secondary school English) says she will never forget the day she sat in on one particular class at a large urban high school. In her book Culture, Literacy, and Learning: Taking Bloom in the Midst of the Whirlwind, Lee describes talking to an articulate African American senior in the class who was clearly upset. “I’ve done everything my teachers asked...
2009-09-01 - Conscientiousness is a good thing in a mate, researchers report, not just because it’s easier to live with someone who washes the dishes without being asked, but also because having a conscientious partner may actually be good for one’s health. Their study, of adults over age 50, also found that women, but not men, get an added health benefit when paired with someone who is conscientious and...
2009-09-01 - In a finding that bodes well for treatment of diseases and conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis or asthma, researchers in LAS have deciphered a molecular code that controls inflammation. The finding sheds light on a protein complex called NF-kappa B, often referred to as the master regulator of the immune system. Under normal conditions, NF-kappa B is kept at bay by an inhibitor protein in the...
2009-09-01 - If you’re looking for the ultimate survivor forget the wimps you see on television. A U of I plant biologist has discovered tropical tree seeds that can survive almost 40 years underground before germinating.James Dalling and colleague Tom Brown of Lawrence Livermore Laboratory studied seeds in the soil on Barro Colorado Island, Panama, and...-
2009-09-01 - Six professors from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at U of I begin their appointments this fall as professors in the Center for Advanced Study (CAS)—one of the highest forms of recognition the campus bestows on faculty members for outstanding scholarship.The new CAS professors are Renée Baillargeon, psychology; Bruce Berndt,...
2009-09-01 - Researchers report that they have found a surprising but reliable marker of colony collapse disorder, a baffling malady that in 2007-2008 killed off more than a third of commercial honey bees in the U.S.Their study, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the first to identify a single, objective molecular marker of the disorder, and to propose a data-driven hypothesis...
2009-08-01 - Click here for larger map.605 E. Springfield Ave. (Computing Applications Building) ADA accessible entrance is on the south side of the building.LAS Office of the Dean LAS Student Academic Affairs Department of Political Science Department of Sociology703 S. Wright St., Third FloorInternational Programs1001 S. Wright St., Room 1 (YMCA Building...
2009-08-01 - LAS alumna Nancy Brinker (AB ’68, sociology), founder of the breast cancer grassroots organization Susan G. Komen for the Cure, received the nation’s highest civilian honor on August 12 when President Barack Obama presents her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The medal is awarded to people who make a meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States,...
2009-07-01 - Emily Pinheiro, a junior majoring in economics at the University of Illinois, has been awarded a Boren Undergraduate Scholarship to study in Ecuador, and John P. Kim, who graduated with a degree in political science and international studies in 2009, has been...
2009-07-01 - The long-awaited restoration of Lincoln Hall finally received the go-ahead as Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed a statewide capital construction bill that included funding for the classroom building’s first renovation in 80 years. The $57.3 million state appropriation along with $8.3 million from the University will pay for a near-complete restoration of Lincoln Hall’s interior while maintaining...
